When you wake up, there's nothing like a hot bath to start the day... and get behind schedule 😅 But in reality, apart from being in Seyðisfjörður on the evening of the 27th, everything is quite flexible. A 1-2 day stop in Reykjavík is planned, for the rest we'll improvise.
👉 Second stop at the hot springs we'd already visited in 2016, Pollurinn. Renovated in 2018, they now have two additional pools. An Icelandic woman and her daughter tell us a little about the region and suggest the ice bath just below... we politely decline: hypothermia isn't on the agenda today.
👉 Next, we head to an impressive maritime relic: the wreck of the BA64, a former steel whaling ship built in 1912 in Norway, which sailed under the Icelandic flag for whaling and cod hunting. In 1981, at the end of its life and deemed too old to be repaired, it was deliberately beached in the Skápadalur fjord, at the end of Patreksfjörður. Since then, it has been there, slowly rusting in the wind and sea spray. Despite its age, some of its structures can still be explored, and its ghostly silhouette speaks volumes about its past. While Gabrielle sketches it, I set off to explore, every nook and cranny attracting me. Only the flooded holds still resist my curiosity.
👉 Last stop: Látrabjarg, the highest cliffs in Iceland (up to 440m), famous for their seabird colonies. In 2008, a tire prevented me from going there. In 2016, we were lucky enough to see thousands of puffins (shearwaters). But this year, too late: after August 15, the shearwaters leave the region, faithful to their precise schedule.
The day ends at the Breiðavík campsite, housed in a former youth reformatory built in 1912. I had already discovered this story while passing through here in 2008. There, my tire repair kit helps a struggling French family, and we end up sharing a beer before going to sleep. Gabrielle, for her part, had already found refuge on a couch for the night.
Note: a slice of blueberry pie knocked out one of my molars this afternoon. So far, no pain: either the nerve was severed cleanly (thanks, blueberry), or it hasn't figured out what's happening to it yet... and it might wake me up sooner or later. In the meantime, my dentist is advising me to see how it progresses. This time, it's probably not a 20-cent repair.
#Iceland #Westfjords #HotSpring #BA64 #Shipwreck #Latrabjarg #Adventure #Inkavik
📝 Erratum
I remembered that Breiðavík had been a youth reformatory. In reality, it was a summer educational center for boys between 1954 and 1979, and before that, a farm and rectory. Today, it houses a hotel and a small church, among other things, in a stunning natural setting.
