Today’s drive was one of the longer ones of the trip. It was also one of the most memorable. We had stops planned at Kolugljúfur canyon to see another beautiful waterfall; Eiriksstaðir, a viking longhouse; and the famous Kirkjufell to end the day. But it was a wrong turn which made the day truly unique. In a way, the turn wasn’t wrong. When a GPS says go left, you go left. This is particularly true when driving in another country, on another continent, far from anything vaguely familiar. So, I went left…and ended up in front of a sign that said “Illfær Vegur”.
If you translate “illfær vegur” on google you end up with “evil way”, while “illfær” by itself translates to “impassible”. Neither of these translations filled me with a lot of confidence about this road. The picture on the sign let us know this was a 4×4 road only. We had rented a tiny all-wheel drive capable of surmounting even the largest of parking lot speed bumps with only mild discomfort to the passengers. So far, I didn’t feel we had made the most of this feature of our little Suzuki. We had ridden on a number of dirt roads, but none that had made any sort of claim to align itself with either good or evil. And so we pushed on.
But first, long before arriving at the evil way, we started our morning drive in Sauðárkrókur where we turned north to take one last early morning look at the Arctic Ocean before heading south.
Sauðárkrókur to Kolugljúfurfoss
It was another beautiful sunny morning today. I believe the standard weather pattern in Iceland for early August is sunny and relatively warm in the morning with clouds building to light rain in the afternoon, then clearing in the evening. There were occasional days where this pattern broke, but the majority of days over the past week and a half could be summed up exactly this way.
The traffic from Sauðárkrókur was very light. We passed through the small town of Blönduós before eventually turning off the main road toward Kolugljúfur.
Kolugljúfurfoss
A short distance removed from the ring road and down a dirt road you’ll find the less visited Kolugljúfurfoss. It is not a large waterfall by Iceland standards, but it is very stunning in the way it splits apart into multiple falls before joining together to cascade through a canyon below. The lack of crowds here means you can walk right up to the edge of this fall to take some beautiful shots.
Kolugljúfurfoss to Eiriksstaðir
It was on the way to Eiriksstaðir where the GPS lead us across the Illfær Vegur. At first we stopped in front of the sign and hesitated, almost turning back to find another way around. Instead, we went forward, and it turned out to be a great decision. The Icelandic backcountry was beautiful and peaceful. For the next hour we forded rivers and splashed through mud until we arrived at Eiriksstaðir.
Eiriksstaðir
Eiriksstaðir was the home of Erik the Red, an explorer who first settled Greenland. Erik was the father of Leif Erikson, the first known European to land in North America. A replica of the longhouse now stands on the site where the original was excavated. Inside the longhouse we sat around the fire for a while and listened to stories about life in the Viking age told by an entertaining man in period costume.
Eiriksstaðir to Kirkjufell
After leaving Eiriksstaðir we made our way back to the main road. The rain returned as a light sprinkle, but we were safely back on pavement heading toward Snæfellsnes. As we neared the peninsula we were once again off the paved road, but there were no more rivers to ford. This was the standard unpaved 2WD road that makes up many of the secondary and connecting roads around the country.
Kirkjufell
Claimed to be the most photographed mountain in Iceland. Kirkjufell has become almost a symbol of Iceland.
The Video
This video is just over 4 hours long. It starts out driving through flat green grasslands for the first two hours. Then gets much prettier in the last couple of hours as we neared Snæfellsnes
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