旅行は私の人生なのだ

2010.8.14

The journey today is not finished.

After I come back to the parking place in the intersection of ring road and road F985, it's just 1:30 and no one want to finish the day like this.

Because I have change the itinerary for going to Grimsey, I don't stay at Hofn tonight but drive northward to Egilsstaðir along the east fjord.

The weather become cloudy. As Icelandic said, the weather in Iceland changes very quickly.

The ways from Hofn to Egilsstaðir are two. When driving to Breiðdalsvik, you could choose to continue the ring road going northward, or turn into road 96, drive along the fjord, and then connect to road 92 to Egilsstaðir.

The first town I arrived is Djúpivogur where someone said that you could see a mountain with pyramid-shape, but I don't see any special mountain in the cloudy afternoon. This town is not big and not special. Except for its peaceful harbour, only a few tourists camp here.

For me, Djúpivogur may be a memorial place.

That is not because of the cloudy day, not seeing the pyramid-shape mountain, nor the peaceful harbour.

That is because my car get slippery when I turn right to the road to Djúpivogur.  

Oh, my god. I'm a little scared.

Why did my car get slippery? The reason is the small sand on the corner.

The good news is that I drive not very fast, there is no car ahead or behind me, and there is no tree, big stone, mountain wall, or anything close to my car. Otherwise, another accident may have happened.

The feeling is like that you walk from bathroom with wet feet and you almost fall down to the ground but you stand finely at last.

But I'm still scared of this event. Because this kind of thing won't happen in Taiwan.

Holy Shit! Why there is sand on the road? 

If I drive faster, I think my car will get overturned and I will stay in the hospital.

Anyway, thanks to the God that I'm still fine.

It's really important to drive slowly, especially turning at the intersections.

And I think it's also good to make sure that there is no car ahead or behind you.

If you keep these two rules, it will be fine even you drive in the west fjord area where has the most terrible roads in Iceland.

After a small break in Djúpivogur, I keep on driving and listen to my MP3 player.

It's very boring to drive in the cloudy day, and I don't see anything interesting for photographing.

When I feel tired of long driving, I will rest for a while in the rest area (as shown below), but the scene is quite Depressive.

Breiðdalsvik is similar to Djúpivogur, but tourists become fewer.

I don't have anything feeling about this town.

Boring, very boring. The bad weather is also a factor.

At this moment, I think that I don't want to see such scenes along fjord and I just want to arrive at Egilsstaðir as fast as I can. 

Therefore, I decide to go along the ring road directly to Egilsstaðir.

The way from Breiðdalsvik to Egilsstaðir is under recondition and the condition is not good.

After passing this section, the road leads to the mountain with a steep ascent that is not easy if you want to ride the bicycle. If the weather is not so cloudy that the scene will be spectacular like the film "The Ring".

I drive very slowly when I enter the cloud. I almost could not see the road ahead very clearly, and there is only a few of Yellow poles at the edge of the road.

The only one you could trace is the white line in the middle.

About 6:00, I finally arrived at Egilsstaðir.

Egilsstaðir is a big town in the east area and also an important transportation center between Akjureyri and Hofn.

I fill the gas and then buy something in the supermarket.

Although I'm a little tired and I could finish my day in Egilsstaðir, I decide to go to Seðisfjörður for I want to save more time in Myvatn tomorrow, and Seðisfjörður is introduced as a beautiful town where you must visit once.

The way from Egilsstaðir to Seðisfjörður is for about thirty minutes, but you have to drive across a mountain. I really don't like to drive on the mountain with cloud. Driving on the mountain road will always make me associate it with the Japanese animation "Initial D (頭文字D, See: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A0%AD%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97D)", but I'm not a excellent driver at all.

The scenes here are nice if the cloud could disappears.

Seðisfjörður is indeed a peaceful and beautiful town as someone described. I drive slowly along the streets looking around the town and find a great view beside the lake.

And I' lucky that I arrived when the town holds a festival. You could see everyone dressed in pink. That may be the pink hat, pink gloves, pink coat, pink pants and etc. They gather in the garden beside the church, and a part of the people dance with music.

I park my car near the church, walk round here, and watch the festival for a while.

I think it may be good to stay here for a night, but I have to find a accommodation to prevent my cold getting worse. Unfortunately, the two youth hostels here are all full-booked.

As for the campsite, the guardian just appears in the morning. Although I could camp here and pay tomorrow, I don't wait for the guardian until ten o'clock in the weekend.

Thus, it means that I have to drive back to Egilsstaðir. 

By the way, the campsite in Seðisfjörður is not obvious to be found, but the building with kitchen and toilet is as shown below. The location is close to the church.

I spend another thirty minutes to Egilsstaðir. The campsite is close to the gas station and supermarket. There is a restaurant here, and the campsite office is at the right side.

The guardian stays until the midnight. That's convenient for tourists who leave in the early morning like me.

As I pay for the camping, he asks me why do I come so far to Iceland. He knows about Taiwan, and Taiwan is quite far away from Iceland.

I don't know how to answer him at that time, but I think Iceland is a very beautiful country that everyone should travel here once in their life time.

The time is late so I just cook the dinner and keep the diary before sleeping. 

About the dinner, I have something to tell you.

If you to buy meat or fish and you don't know about the Icelandic Tag, you should ask someone first.

Except for the whale, not all the fishes are tasty.

Yeah. It's bad that I bought a fish that is not tasty.

I think I should buy Salmon which is the only fish I knew.

Anyway, there is always something surprising with the food in Iceland.

Attachment：Travelling Route Map

A：Höfn

B：Djúpivogur

C：Breiðdalsvik

D：Egilsstaðir

E：Seðisfjörður