Westfjords-2

September 2016

 
 

On departing Ísafjörður, it had begun to rain, so we drove directly to our evening stay at Fisherman Hotel in Suðureyri. The only food available was in its little bar, where we had fish and potato stew, really a mash or hot salad. Rain continued through the night, but by morning there was some clearing. Driving on around the fjord inlets, we stopped to watch crashing waves near Súðavík, a seal colony near Hvítanes, and a pair of humpback whales in the Ísafjörður inlet (not to be confused with the town). In Hólmavík, we had lunch in a restaurant next to the Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft Museum (though didn’t visit the museum itself, only saw one of the male “witches.” We were on the road at the right time to see the annual sheep roundup: The sheep begin to head home, perhaps because there is no longer enough food available in the wilderness, and are then corralled, sorted by tags, and returned to their owners for the winter. From Hólmavík we drove toward Stykkishólmur, stopping at the Erpsstaðir dairy farm, which makes ice cream, skyr, and cheese.