Wednesday was supposed to be all about the puffins. The Westfjords are out of the way, even for Iceland, and the Latrabjarg cliffs are out of the way for the Westfjords. One visits the cliffs for the puffins, who apparently congregate there in great numbers in late July / early August. It is supposed to be an incredible experience, and is listed as one of the top things to do in Iceland if you can put up with getting there. Make no mistake, getting there is no small task. We had to drive hours over difficult roads, basically giving up a whole day to the endeavor. Visiting Latrabjarg was my idea, and I had to convince Colleen to add it to our itinerary. She had misgivings about the long drive, but eventually agreed, which was very generous of her. She was even more generous in not letting me have it when we didn't see a single puffin.
We got up early, put on some warm clothes (it was very cold and windy) and headed for the cliffs. One nice thing about living out of a van is that you never have to pack up before you go, just get in the driver's seat and drive, so we got an early start. The drive to the cliffs was another beautiful but difficult one (bumpy dirt roads, mountain passes etc.). The parking lot for the cliff walk is adjacent to the most forlorn and shabby lighthouse I have ever seen. You could not imagine a lonelier place, this was truly the end of the road. I grabbed my camera and we set off on our walk in anticipation of a once in a lifetime wildlife experience. It took about 20 minutes to admit to ourselves that there weren't going to be any puffins. Oh it was a stunningly beautiful place, there were other birds roosting on the cliffs (mostly gulls), and the sheer height of the cliffs was terrifyingly thrilling, but no puffins. Madeleine and Colleen were generous about the disappointment, but I felt awful about dragging them all the way out there for nothing. The Westfjords were absolutely stunning and I'm glad we had a chance to see them for ourselves, so it wasn't a total loss. Still, it would have been nice to see those puffins...
No use dwelling on something you cant change, so we brushed it off and adjusted our plan. The next stop on our Itinerary was going to be a day in the Snaefelsnes peninsula. there is a national park there with more geological wonders to explore. However, the next peninsula over, Reykjanes, had an active volcano.. The Litli-Hrutur volcano began erupting on the 10th of July. We had already made our itinerary by then, so it wasn't really on our list. However, being in a country with an active volcano and not going to see it seems the height of folly, so we decided to cut out Snaefelsnes and replace it with Litli-Hrutur. The plan was to drive to a campsite outside of Reykjavik and spend the night there. If the conditions were good (the authorities sometimes shut the area down based on which way the wind blows the dangerous gases from the volcano) we would hike to the Volcano, if not we would get back to our itinerary. We chose the town of Bogarnes for our campsite.
Bogarnes is a nice little town. It had a grocery store, the campground was nice enough, and there was a neat museum we visited where we learned about Iceland's fascinating early settlement history (did you know Iceland is the world's youngest country - humans have only lives there for 500 years). However, the best part of the town was its pool. All of the towns in Iceland have heated public pools with hot baths, saunas and other amenities. Bogarnes' pool was awesome, it even had water slides. We had a soak in the hot tub, a swim in the pool, and Madeleine had a go at the waterslides. Colleen and Madeleine even had a dunk in the ice bath (I chickened out). What an incredible place. Everyone was super friendly and welcoming and the facilities were great. Madeleine was unimpressed with European sensibilities with respect to open shower areas ("dad, I've never seen so many naked ladies in my life"), but aside from that, it was a great experience.
The day had one more treat for us. Back at the campsite that night, Madeleine made a friend. She spotted a girl doing cartwheels, gave her a wave and next thing I knew they were chatting like best friends. I think they were just happy to get away from their parents. The girl was German, but her English was great. It was really nice to watch them play together. They exchanged information and have been chatting online for days now. Pretty cool.
So the day started off with disappointment and ended in, if not triumph, then at least a good measure of success. Beautiful drive, new experiences and a new friend. Still, it would have been nice to see those puffins...
