Come 9.30 in the morning we sail up the fjord to Seydisfiodur which is where we leave the boat. It is on the Eastern side of Iceland as opposed to Reykjavik which is at the Western end. We come up the fjord and there is the port.
We get ready to leave the boat
As we leave the secure area a woman shout as us " you are not allowed to go where you want " I stop she tells me she is Iceland Customs. I look suitably deferential. " How long are you staying in Iceland?" she asks. Answer given and she waves us on having done her duty in protecting Iceland
Then reality bites. We have to go up over a pass to get out of the fjord area. We go into thick cloud or fog. Visibility is so bad it is down to first gear. The temp drops to about 3deg C. Copious quantities of white stuff line both sides of the road." Must be Iceland " me thinks. Then down the other side , temperature rises , spirits rise and we are in to it. 270 km today to a town called Hofn.
Along the way there is a 6.5 km tunnel. The temp rises from about 6 degrees to 15 degrees inside the tunnel. I am almost tempted to put into a cutout bay and wait 10 mins to thaw out.
Yes, it was cold. The temp stayed about 6 to 8 degrees all day plus there was a biting North wind to ride into. It was so cold that there are no jokes,puns or funny bits in this blog post as that section of my brain shuts down at about 6 deg C to conserve energy ( It is a high energy section of my brain and it draws a disproportionate amount of power!) . It was two quite c c c c c cold people that rode into Hofn. But the scenery was great.
Now Hofn is the Langoustine capital of Iceland. So a treat meal of Langoustine tails washed down with a nice Icelandic beer finished off the first day in Iceland. Tomorrow - glaciers !
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