May 25, 2021: Day 8 of our 12-day drive around Iceland road-trip. The weather this morning was cold and cloudy. Breakfast was served late today so we left Egilsstaðir at 8;45am. After a quick stop at the local bakery, we set out to visit Borgarfjörður eystri, the home of the Elf Queen. This trip took us over the gravel paths of the lowlands and up over steep winding snowcapped mountain roads to arrive at the ocean at the East end of Iceland. Here we hiked to the top of Álfaborg (Elf Rock) but failed to meet any elves.
Heading back over the snowy mountain we made our way back to Egilsstaðir before heading South towards Höfn. This was a long winding drive along the coast through many mountain tunnels and numerous 1 lane bridges. The scenery was spectacular and saw many waterfalls, birds, and reindeer along the side if the road.
We made a quick rest stop at the Eggin i Gledivik sculpture located at the marina in Djúpivogur (34 large stone eggs dispersed around the harbor) and then drove on, finally making it to Höfn.
We checked in to our hotel with a view of the Vatnajökull glacier in the distance. We will visit the lagoon at the base of the glacier tomorrow while we make our way to the village of Vik. This town is famous for its fresh lobster (we would call it langoustine in the US) so we had to try it. We had dinner at a local café to sample and can report that it is delicious.
Every night we plot out our path for the following day via paper map that I keep updated as navigator on this trip (Sue loves paper maps and won’t leave home without one ) and we have an iPad that Dan keeps updated. We also have GPS in the car …
