Turf farms and Basalt

We sleep better that night even and head out the next day to see seals

and stuff.  The first stop is a waterfall, of course.  Supposedly a troll dug this one, which makes it special.  We then head down a fjord to see a basalt column that looks like a 3 legged monster and seal breeding grounds, but this road feels like an F road.  F roads in Iceland are through the 

Highlands mainly and not meant for anything but 4 wheel drive cars.  We are jotting down the most beat up dirt road ever and I tell John that the best thing in the world better be waiting out here….but it’s not. I don’t even know if we have a picture of the three legged

monster, that didn’t really look like that at all.  It’s raining, there are no seals and everyone has to go to the bathroom.  We do find a bathroom and a small café out here in the middle of nowhere, but this is our first inkling that we might want to adjust the drive to suit our needs and bypass things that might not be worth the trouble.  Once we bounce back out of there, we pass “uncountable” mounds that are due to volcanic activity.  This

sounds absurd when you read it on the itinerary, but when you’re looking at hundreds of these mounds from what looks like literally nowhere, “uncountable” is the best way to describe

them.  The next stop is a turf church and the admission is pretty steep, I can tell that John doesn’t want to do it, but the docent mentions that if we pay extra, it will admit us to Glambauer too.  John has done 0 research into this trip, but I

have and I say yes.  This is a cute little church and Oscar loves walking around to see the flowers growing out of the roof.  I also get to talk to the docent about mental health in the area because we’re not near any town of any real population.  We’re between Reykjavik and Akureyri

      which are the two biggest towns in Iceland, but not near either of them and there are many miles that we pass absolutely nothing and no one.  We head to Glambauer next and it’s a turf roofed farm from yore and Oscar sees a reenactor down the dark hall and believes that it is haunted.  But wants to find the reenactor.  When he sees her again talking to a tourist group, he’s not happy with how it turned out.  This is a great stop and one of the parts of Icelandic history that I wanted to see more of, so I’m happy with it.  From

here, we continue through Fjords and end up in a town with beautiful basalt columns that you can walk out on and down beside.  I know that there are column like this that you see all the Instagram pictures from in the south of Iceland, but there is something about being the only people out at this little stop that makes it more special.  There is a drinking fountain that constantly runs as a memorial to someone from the town

and we fill up on the coldest, sweetest water.  When we first arrived, the sulphur smell was a little off putting, but it’s either not present anymore or we’ve gotten used to it.  At our next place we are hoping to be able to book a horse back riding tour or something, but we find out when we check in that Oscar is too young.  But another guest house with hot pots, so we go out to enjoy them in the cool evening air.  We are getting to be

  pros at moving around with wet swimsuits now, but this place is very loud with no insulation at all, so happy we’re not here for two nights.