A roadtrip to the Westfjords

It is already two weeks ago that I returned from Iceland. Time has gone so fast, and it’s an absolute pity that I couldn’t stay longer. Luckily I have plenty of photographs to look back at, and memories to think back to. One cluster of memories comes from the Westfjords of Iceland. It was in the middle of June that I went out for a road trip with four of my housemates. I was so hesitant at the time to go. Leaving the comfort and the utter happiness of Húsavík behind and missing the whales for five full days. I always say that I’m up for any adventure, but before going to the Westfjords I really had my doubts. I was finally at a place where I felt happy and not longing for anything in the future or miles away, why would I leave that behind?

Now I know I made the right decision. Things got even better than expected and I loved every second of my little adventure towards the Westfjords of Iceland. It started of with renting a car. We didn’t want to spend all our savings on a big 4x4 car, nor on some additional insurances, so we sticked to a relatively small car without any additional insurance. I must say, don’t make the latter mistake just as we did. It was nerve wrecking to be in that car on gravel roads, trying to avoid any flying stones while still driving at a normal speed. I know insurance is often not needed, but if you are going through the entire Westfjords I would advice you to take it anyway, so you don’t need to worry about it during your roadtrip. Car wise we were lucky with a car just big enough. Luggage stuffed in the back we had just enough space to comfortably sit for multiple hours. I was aiming for enjoying all the sceneries, but unfortunately I dozed off a couple of times.

The good news is that we did so many nice things that I well enjoyed my time being out of the car. At our first accommodation, a farm Airbnb, I fell in love with the dog. It reminded my of home. Having fresh eggs from our chickens, a dog walking around and plenty of other animals on the farm. However, the farm was of course not what brought us out to this place. No, we came for Raudasandur (the red sand beach), Látrabjarg (the bird cliff) and natural hot springs. This first day was an absolute blast. I made hundreds of photographs of puffins – those cute little birds were not afraid at all for humans -, and I let out my inner child by running into the North Atlantic Sea from a deserted, 20 kilometre wide beach. As I brought out my GoPro, we tried making some underwater photos of the entire group, but as you can imagine this only resulted in a lot of laughing and some hilarious pictures. With only 18 degrees Celsius outside you might not have expected the sea and sun to be so refreshing and warm, but I wasn’t really cold at all.

Raudasandur

Raudasandur

At our second location in the Westfjords we hiked an entire day at multiple locations. I must say, the Icelanders must have forgotten to put up proper signs, as we got lost a couple of times. However, lost is never really lost in a landscape this wide and beautiful, it is simply an adventure off the beaten track. We scavenged for empty sea urchins, ate lunch on top of hill while looking down a fjord and took a rest underneath a waterfall. All ending up at home with a lovely dinner and some wine. On our way back home we made a stop at Hólmavík, to go whale watching. Whales do not only visit Húsavík of course, but feed around the entire island of Iceland during the summer. It was lovely to see how another company works with whales and to be in another bay for once. We managed to see one breaching humpback, after a long but nice search for one of these beauties. An amazing way to wave goodbye to our little adventure.

Atlantic Puffin

Atlantic Puffin

Atlantic Puffin

We headed home soon after the whale watching trip, reminiscing about 5 beautiful and adventurous days, which let out my inner child but also the adventurer and photographer inside me. I had a blast. A couple hours later, as our car peeked around the mountain I could already see. The bay, the mountains and my village Húsavík. We were home again.