There are lots of sheep in Iceland! I said Iceland, not Ireland, but you would think that right? My warning to you, is to watch out for sheep when driving in Iceland.
Sheep are Everywhere
They are all grazing alongside the major highway and often with no barriers to the highway, also known as the ring road. Needless to say, I had a close encounter with some sheep! It’s all ok. They move surprisingly fast and I had a lot of notice they were coming. They moved so fast neither myself nor Brian were able to get a photo (boo!). Anyway, for the remainder of the day, I had to keep on the alert as the sheep were never far from the road.
The Views in Iceland are Gorgeous
Other than sheep, we saw a lot of beautiful natural wonders: glaciers that stunned us into silence with their magnificence and beauty, waterfalls and streams cascading down rock cliffs and mountains, fjords and more. Our campsite last night was alongside one of the fjords with a mountain view to match. Iceland is gorgeous.
When The Weather Is Nice, so is Iceland
After a day and a half of rain and clouds, yesterday was a beautiful day with tons of sun and not too much wind. We were really happy and appreciated the sun and the great day.
We started the day at our campsite at Skaftafell, where we realized that we’d missed the true waterfalls at our end of day hike the previous evening. Amateur fail, for sure. Too late to go back, we needed to press on to the glaciers.
We enjoyed the weather with some hikes alongside 2 different glacier lakes, Fjallsárlón glacier lagoon, and the much bigger and busier Jökulsárlón. Both stunned us into silence; and it was really enjoyable and relaxing walking alongside them and enjoying the beautiful sunny day.
Eating Out in Iceland
We then stopped in Hofn for lunch and gas. We had to try some Icelandic brews and the local favorite, langoustine, which is really shrimp. Shrimp tempura at Kaffi Hornið was delicious! This was not our only restaurant meal in Iceland; we ate out a lot in Reykjavik.
Then it was back on the road to East Iceland and the beautiful fjords. Just driving this route, we kept seeing such stunning views and there is not always room to stop but we did our best!
On our drive through the fjords, Brian found a website devoted to Icelandic hot pots and found the best one – a hot tub on the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean and mountains, with no one else around! We pulled off the highway onto a dirt road (thanks 4WD) and parked the car and barely had to walk to the hot tub. The sun was shining and the hot tub water was clean and hot. That was a highlight for sure!
We camped in an empty (and closed) campsite alongside a fjord in the town of Suðurfjarðarvegur. It was beautiful. The sunrise this morning before we left town – also beautiful. That seems to be the theme of Iceland. Natural beauty everywhere. I don’t have time to post more pics because I need to get out and see more!
