On the 6th day of our roadtrip we visited a few places in the area of Reyðarfjörður, before driving to Mjóifjörður and ending the day in Egilsstaðir where we spent the next four nights.
We woke up completely re-energized after a fantastic night’s sleep in Tærgesen. After a nice breakfast at the guesthouse we stopped by the local bakery, Sesam Brauðhús, to buy some pastries to have on the road. We bought a bag of kleinur, which turned out to be the most amazing kleinur we had ever bought. They were really like homemade.
Sómastaðir
Our first stop of the day was Sómastaðir, a cute little house, opposite the massive Alcoa Aluminium Plant in Reyðarfjörður fjord (quite a contrast). The stone house Sómastaðir was built in 1875 of uncut stone from the area, with mortar made of glacial clay. A very unusual building technique in Iceland. It was built by a man named Hans Jakob Beck (1838-1920), who was a farmer, fishing-vessel owner and the administrator of the district. The story says that he may have been inspired by houses he saw on his travels in Scotland. Since 1988, Sómastaðir has belonged to the National Museum of Iceland’s Historic Buildings Collection.
Helgustaðanáma
When we arrived at Helgustaðanáma Quarry, there was a guy there. He started talking to us and telling us about The Icelandic spar crystal. At first we thought he was just really interested in geology, but then he introduced himself as an agent from The Environmental Agency, so that explained it. He told us all kinds of interesting things. He told us about theories that the vikings had used the Icelandic spar crystal to navigate the oceans. Records show that the vikings used a stone they called sólsteinn (sunstone), and the descriptions of this stone are identical to the Icelandic spar. When light shines through the sunstone / Icelandic spar, the light is divided into two beams which makes it possible to locate the sun, even through cloudy skies.
The region of Helgustaðanáma Quarry was influenced by the Reyðarfjörður volcanic centre, which was active 11-12 million years ago. The particular volcanic activity in this area is what produced the Icelandic spar crystal.
Helgustaðanáma Quarry is said to be one of the most important mineral locations on Earth. The discovery of the Icelandic spar crystal played an important role in numerous advances in optics, chemistry, crystallography and petrology and the Icelandic spar crystal was crucial in various technological and scientific developments in 1780 – 1930. Around 300 tons of spar crystals were extracted and exported from Helgustaðanáma Quarry in 1855 – 1872.
Since 1975, Helgustaðanáma has been a protected natural feature, overseen by The Environmental Agency. People are welcome to visit the Quarry and view the spar crystals, but it’s strongly prohibited to remove them. Sadly, many people ignore these rules, and the guy from the Environmental Agency told us that just the day before he had stopped tourists there, about to leave the Quarry with bags full of protected spar crystals. Because of this kind of behaviour, the amount of spar crystals has been significantly reduced, which is sad, because they are not a sustainable source. I would encourage everyone to look, but not take, so future generations can also enjoy this beautiful natural phenomenon.
Mjóeyri
Small peninsula just outside the village of Eskifjörður. It has a beautiful shoreline and impressive views of the fjord and the mountains. There is a cluster of cute huts and a guesthouse there, and I can imagine it must be a really nice place to stay. The beautiful mountain in the picture is called Hólmatindur (985 m.) and is considered to be the one of the main characteristics of the area.
Eskifjörður
On the way back from Helgustaðanáma Quarry, we drove through Eskifjörður. Eskifjörður is a town of approximately 1000 inhabitants, with an economy based on fishing and fish processing. There are many beautiful old houses in Eskifjörður, which are connected to its fishing history. The Maritime Musem of East Iceland is in one of these houses. The house is called Gamla-Búð and was built in 1816. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time in Eskifjörður. We check out the 50m2 mural by the artist Balthasar, which is located on the wall of the freezing plant. The mural is a puzzle of 15 pictures, depicting Eskifjörður’s past and present, it’s fishing heritage and the nature surrounding the town. Then we stopped by Bleiksá waterfall, and had a quick look at the town church, which was built in 2000.
Reyðarfjörður
After Eskifjörður, we returned to Reyðarfjörður, where we had spent the night. Reyðarfjörður is a town of approximately 1300 inhabitants, formerly known as Búðareyri. The town started forming during the herring years, around 1900. Currently, the largest workplace in the town is The Alcoa Aluminium Plant. The TV series Fortitude was filmed in Reyðarfjörður, and Tærgesen (where we spent the night) was an important location in the show. I haven’t seen the series yet, but maybe I should! We took a short walk by the river Brúará, which flows through the town, featuring some beautiful waterfalls and canyons.
Before leaving Reyðarfjörður, we visited The Icelandic Wartime Museum. The Museum gives an image of what life was like in Iceland during WW2, the occupation of Iceland, and the influence it had on the Icelandic people. At one point there were 1200 soldiers in Reyðarfjörður, while the inhabitants were only 300! The British forces arrived there in 1940, followed by Norwegian and American soldiers.
In the Museum we learned about what’s probably the most tragic war story of the area. In 1942, British soldiers were practicing winter manoeuvres in the mountains by Eskifjörður, when they were hit by a storm. They neither knew the harsh Icelandic nature, nor were they ready for the cold Icelandic weather. Nine soldiers were killed, but in an incredible rescue mission, a local family from the farm Vesturhús, managed to save the lives of 48 men.
After a visit to the past at The Icelandic Wartime Museum in Reyðarfjörður we snapped back to the present, and drove to Mjóifjörður.
Mjóifjörður
Mjóifjörður is a 18 km long and 2 km wide fjord, hence the name which literally translates to “Narrow Fjord”. It’s surrounded by high mountains and steep cliffs, which makes it a very scenic and beautiful route to drive. As you can imagine, looking at our pictures from June, the road to Mjóifjörður is impassable during winter.
Only a few people live in Mjóifjörður nowadays, but in its heyday at the turn of the 20th century, 412 people lived there and worked in whaling.
There is a very small village in Mjóifjörður, with only a handful of houses, called Brekkuþorp. Brekkuþorp is an old fishing village, and the first icehouse in Iceland was built there in 1895. The village has a café called Sólbrekka that is said to have the best waffles in the East Fjords, and we were excited to try them, but unfortunately it was closed when we got there. We suspected it might be. Luckily we had the delicious kleinur from Reyðarfjörður with us, so we didn’t have to go hungry.
In Mjófjörður we saw a herd of reindeer for the eighth (and last) time during our roadtrip. We also spotted a whale swimming in the fjord!
Klifbrekkufossar in Mjóifjörður
Klifbrekkufossar is the name of an impressive series of nine waterfalls, one above the other, at the end of Mjóifjörður. We had to wade across a small river to get to the waterfalls. But they actually look more impressive from a distance, when you can see them all at the same time.
Prestagil in Mjóifjörður
Prestagil (“Priests Ravine”) is an imposing ravine in at the end of Mjóifjörður. It’s names derives from an old folk tale. The story goes that a giantess used to live in the ravine. She would lure priests into the ravine and eat them. Creepy story, but the ravine is very beautiful and there’s a pretty waterfall there too.
We spent a long time in Mjóifjörður, and could easily have spent a lot more time there. There were so many beautiful places to see, but also the traffic was quite slow. Despite being the only car there, the road was quite bad and there were constantly sheep or birds walking on the road (which made for some pretty funny videos). Clearly the animals there were not used to traffic.
From Mjóifjörður we drove straight to Egilstaðir and checked into Hótel Valaskjálf, where we would be staying for the next four nights. After changing places every night for a few days, it was nice to be staying in the same place for a few nights. Besides, there is so much to explore in the area, we could easily have stayed for weeks.
We had a really nice dinner at Skálinn Diner, which we really liked. I think we ended up going there every day, either for breakfast or dinner.
