When J and I discussed our holiday, I floated the idea of joining a tour and J was more than agreeable to the plan. He knew there was going to be a lot of hiking on this trip, and I have a feeling that he didn't want to trust just our sense of direction. I think he was still traumatised from the time I made him climb a million stairs and when we came across a herd of too curious farm animals during our hikes in the Lake District.
So on Monday morning, we flew out of Reykjavik's domestic airport to Egilsstador to begin our tour with the Icelandic Mountain Guides. Believe it or not, the domestic airports don't have security checks, which made flying so much easier! We met up with our tour guide, Herdis, and a father-son team that was also on our tour.
Herdis wasn't one for messing around, and we drove straight from the airport to our first big hike at Dyrfjoll mountains. But first, we stopped by a self-serve snack shack in case we needed any sustenance. There's a vending machine that's run on solar/ wind power once you open the doors, but unfortunately, it wasn't working and kept spitting my coins back out. Boo.
We drove up to where we were beginning our hike, and I thought that the view was pretty damn good from there, but Herdis promised that the view would be even better from the top.
We took her at her word and started our ascent. The ground was covered in a thick layer of moss that made it feel like we were walking on fluffy pillows, which was a nice surprise for these old bones of mine. It wasn't long before we were pretty warm and stripping off our many layers. And it turns out Herdis was right - the view was amazing!
We got bored of waiting for the others and decided to head back to the car on our own while the others enjoyed the view. I was also freezing from just standing around for so long! And I don't care what anyone says, going down is harder than climbing up!
Anyway, by the time we were all back at the car, we drove to a nearby coastal town, Bakkageroi, for lunch and a jaunt around town. We stopped in at Alfa Cafe, and we all had smoked salmon on brown bread. It was delicious, but the portion was quite small so I was glad I had also ordered a French Chocolate cake, which was a warm, chocolatey concoction similar to a brownie.
After lunch, we had a wander about town where we took in the various sights such as the turf house.
I also checked out this really cool wood carving, which was right by the water. I kept looking for something similar to this during the rest of my trip (in miniature, of course), but no such luck.
I couldn't help but walk down to the water to check the temperature, and it was freezing cold!
There really wasn't much to see so we drove to the nearby harbour to check if any of the puffins were still around.
Unfortunately, they had all flown the coop for the summer, and we caught a few faraway glimpses of the lazy stragglers that hadn't got a move on yet.
We continued to drive on to our next hike with Herdis pointing out interesting facts about area. In order to have a safe journey, you're meant to kneel and pray to God before you continue your journey, but I opted to take some photos instead.
We had a quick walk around a riverbed, where I amused myself by eating berries and picking wildflowers while the others explored the rocks. It was so odd to me that so much of the land that I saw was covered in vegetation - I was expecting it to be a lot more barren and desolate so I was more than pleasantly surprised to see wildflowers like heather and bluebells growing everywhere. J was nice enough to hold my little bouquet for me for a little while.
Our accommodations for the night were at Hotel Hallormstadur, which is in the middle of one of the few forests, and our room had an incredible view of the lake. Trees don't grow very tall in Iceland due to the weather and the wind, and there's a joke that if you're lost in a forest in Iceland, all you need to do is stand up.
We were pretty tired from our first day of exploring, so J and I stuffed ourselves at our buffet dinner and took a quick walk down to the lake before calling it a night.
So on Monday morning, we flew out of Reykjavik's domestic airport to Egilsstador to begin our tour with the Icelandic Mountain Guides. Believe it or not, the domestic airports don't have security checks, which made flying so much easier! We met up with our tour guide, Herdis, and a father-son team that was also on our tour.
Herdis wasn't one for messing around, and we drove straight from the airport to our first big hike at Dyrfjoll mountains. But first, we stopped by a self-serve snack shack in case we needed any sustenance. There's a vending machine that's run on solar/ wind power once you open the doors, but unfortunately, it wasn't working and kept spitting my coins back out. Boo.
We drove up to where we were beginning our hike, and I thought that the view was pretty damn good from there, but Herdis promised that the view would be even better from the top.
We took her at her word and started our ascent. The ground was covered in a thick layer of moss that made it feel like we were walking on fluffy pillows, which was a nice surprise for these old bones of mine. It wasn't long before we were pretty warm and stripping off our many layers. And it turns out Herdis was right - the view was amazing!
We got bored of waiting for the others and decided to head back to the car on our own while the others enjoyed the view. I was also freezing from just standing around for so long! And I don't care what anyone says, going down is harder than climbing up!
Anyway, by the time we were all back at the car, we drove to a nearby coastal town, Bakkageroi, for lunch and a jaunt around town. We stopped in at Alfa Cafe, and we all had smoked salmon on brown bread. It was delicious, but the portion was quite small so I was glad I had also ordered a French Chocolate cake, which was a warm, chocolatey concoction similar to a brownie.
After lunch, we had a wander about town where we took in the various sights such as the turf house.
I also checked out this really cool wood carving, which was right by the water. I kept looking for something similar to this during the rest of my trip (in miniature, of course), but no such luck.
I couldn't help but walk down to the water to check the temperature, and it was freezing cold!
There really wasn't much to see so we drove to the nearby harbour to check if any of the puffins were still around.
Unfortunately, they had all flown the coop for the summer, and we caught a few faraway glimpses of the lazy stragglers that hadn't got a move on yet.
Our accommodations for the night were at Hotel Hallormstadur, which is in the middle of one of the few forests, and our room had an incredible view of the lake. Trees don't grow very tall in Iceland due to the weather and the wind, and there's a joke that if you're lost in a forest in Iceland, all you need to do is stand up.
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