The Ring Road- East

This page covers days 11 to 13 of our road trip including, Seydisfjordur, Studlagil Canyon and Höfn.

Day 11 The road to Seydisfjordur

It was late afternoon by the time we left the wonders of Dettifos and headed for Seydisfjordur. We stopped at Bónus in Egilsstaðir to stock up on breakfasty and picniccy stuff on our way. The last part of our journey as we approached Seydisfjordur was in a cloud, visibility was terrible and we could not see much of the countryside or the road.

Seydisfjordur

Pulling into Seydisfjordur was a relief as we were a bit knackered. It’s a small ferry port town with a population of around 700 peeps.

Our accommodation for the one night was Hafaldan Hi Hostel which used to be the old hospital and many original features were still evident. Afer checking in we headed into the town to explore.

We strolled past the ferry terminal and gravitated towards Bláa kirkjan, the local church which was built in 1920. The iconic image of the pale blue church is at one end of Rainbow Street. We ended up at Kaffi Lára – El Grilló Bar at the other end of Rainbow Street for dinner before returning to our hospital room. It was a little weird sleeping in an old hospital bedroom but we were very comfortable.

Day 12 Studlagil Canyon and on to Höfn

Tvísöngur Sound Sculpture

Before we left Seydisfjordur we [well, I] wanted to find out more about the Sound Domes on the edge of the town. The domes were designed by German artist Lukas Kühne. It was a miserable morning but it was only a twenty minute walk [uphill] to get there, there’s a sign for it on the Hafnagarta Road.

The five domes are meant to resonate at different frenquencies but my loud humming through the western major scale produced indifferent results. Luckily the only person in the near vicinity was Mrs Lyons who thought I sounded a bit nutnut!

Studlagil Canyon

We wanted to see Studlagil Canyon on the way to Höfn despite it not actually being on the way at all! This entailed heading back west on R1 past Egilsstaðir and then taking R923 south towards the canyon. The journey to get there took about one hour and forty minutes. Strangely my Lonely Planet Guide does not mention the canyon at all so we gleaned all we could off the old interweb.

The R923 runs down the west side of the canyon and there are viewing platforms at Grund. But my research suggested that if you want to get right into the canyon you need to get to the other side. So we drove over the narrow bridge to the east side to the car park. The smaller bridge in the photo above is the oldest steel bridge in eastern Iceland was constructed in 1908 and was in use until 2008.

At the car park there’s a food stall and toilets – yay! The walk towards the canyon passing by Studlafoss on the way takes about half an hour. The basalt columns at Studlagil were incredible and were only discovered in 2009 when the river level was lowered for the new hydro-electric power station that was being built in the area.

We had our picnic on a bench and a hot choklit drinky by the food van before we headed towards Höfn on the east coast which was a good three hours and forty minutes drive from Studlagil. We saw several lovely waterfalls and lush valleys on the way before the fog descended as we approached our destination.

The fog made driving really difficult. We were driving on R95, a gravel road that was narrow and bendy at times as well as very slippery but the fog thankfully lifted as we approached the coast. We had a brief stop at Folaldafoss before we rejoined R1 and we continued our journey.

We kept an eye out for the Red Chair which is about 12 miles east of Höfn next to Route 1. It’s a ludicrously large red chair bolted to a rock for no real good reason apart from the fact it raises a smile and is a great photo opportunity.

We opted to miss out on Brunnhorn, [Batman Mountain] as the clouds were so low it would have likely obscured any views. A visit to the fake Viking village in the vicinity also did not appeal to us. So on to Höfn we went and we arrived at our hostel at about 7pm.

Höfn

Höfn [which means harbour] has a population of around 2000 and is quite spread out. The best thing about Höfn [which means harbour] are the views. On a clear day there are breathtaking views of the Vatnajökull ice cap.

We were completely knackered so after taking in the views and watching the flocks of birds across the fjord we both had a lovely langoustiney meal at Kaffi Hornið, langoustines being a Höfn speciality.

Day 13 Höfn

Ósland

After breakfast we only had about an hour to have a wander around Höfn so we did not have the time to go the local pool and museum was closed. We returned to look at the views in an area just beyond the harbour known as Ósland where there were interesting works of art on display including the Seamen’s Monument dedicated to fishermen who have lost their lives at sea and the Universe Sculpture.

Leashia had noticed something intriguing on Google Maps called Höfn Shoe Showroom, so we went to have a look! [see below]. Lots of mouldy shoes – nice! We then popped into Nettó to buy food for our planned picnic lunch before heading east towards Vik.

We stopped once to look at the tail end of an aeroplane that was on display by the side of the road – although at the time we had no idea why it was there we have since learnt it features the oath of an aircraft mechanic commiting to perform all tasks with due dilligence !