Artisanal shop, Stokksnes beach, Jökulsárlón Iceberg Lagoon, and Svartifoss

We woke up in our campsite between mountains, to a glorious morning! Finally! We never doddled in the mornings, only staying long enough to make food and drinks, but seeing the sunshine kicked us into ultra high gear. We didn’t stick around.

We had a long drive, a lot to see, and a habit of stopping a lot! This is when being prepared with bananas and protein bars comes in handy; when you can’t loose even 30 min. We went back up the mountain and got to see the mountain tops and lakes in completely different light for the 3rd time, as well as being able to enjoy that beautiful park filled with arctic lupins in the sunshine! I was especially excited because there was an intriguing building at the top of the hill nearby. It looked so “blah” in the overcast lighting the day before but this time around it warranted some photos!

A friend of mine, who has been to Iceland, told me about this great artisan shop in Djúpivogur, and because it was on our way we added it to our stop as well. The quickest route would take you through Egilsstaðir on rode 95 – 939 – 1. We opted for the scenic drive which added an extra hour to our travels but was it ever worth it! Fantastic roads winding through the Eastern Fjords, seeing each village as we continue on our journey. It was thoroughly enjoyable. I only wish we had more time to turn off the main road near Reyðarfjörður, taking 955, to include an additional Fjord. If you can, I’d recommend that. It does take another extra hour, at least. But based on what we saw through the Fjords, it would have been amazing.

Especially since it’s gravel road. Nothing quite says “adventure” like a raw road, far less traveled on.

The route we took involved a tunnel. It was a little humorous actually, we entered the tunnel on a beautiful sunny day, then emerged out the other side and it was all cloudy again. My husband moaned out in disappointment.

It didn’t last long though, as we continued along the Fjords it dissipated and ended up being the most beautiful day on our trip! I even took my layers down to just one pair of pants and one sweater!

We arrived at the shop around 11 and stayed far too long. But it was nice having that experience as well. We have mostly been focused on sight seeing, and exploring, but adding some interactions with locals should be on everyone’s list, at least once. Jon, the artist and shop keeper, was super friendly and liked to talk about the local culture. We learnt quite a bit of the traditions and stones he uses in his work. If you’re around Djúpivogur it’s worth a stop in, especially if you’ve yet to meet any locals, but if you won’t be, make sure to research a local shop that you will be close too.

Our next destination was Stokksnes, and tragically on the way there we lost our drone. In one of our classic rode side stops, my husband flew it up to get some footage of the mountains, ocean and cliffs, but lost control of it. It went berserk and “disappeared” for lack of a better word. I was finished taking photos and just taking in all the scenery when my husband comes barreling towards me, jumps in the van, sans drone. Not a good thing. He yelled out “it took off!” We drove back to where we just came from because the “find drone” app showed it was heading in that direction. We never did catch up to it, nor did we see it flying. But it sure looked like it was out in the ocean based on the map.

It was a surreal moment. Not saying a word, my husband calmly folded down the antennas of the remote.

We carried on to Stokksnes, but when we arrived there, we were shocked they were charging an admission fee to walk out the the beach. It converted to $20 cad, so while we wanted to take a walk out there, Iceland is full of stunning landscapes that are free. Especially when it was a small area. By no means could you spend more than an hour there. Even for our photo taking habits.

For some reason my husband decided to check the “locate my drone” app again, and now the drone was showing up on land, at the take off position where he sent it up last! We went back to hopefully retrieve it. We were certain that it must have turned back around when the battery was about to die to land safely at the home location. This was not the case though. It was found in pieces at the top of a hill. Battery full.

Huh? So it didn’t ACTUALLY fly out to the ocean then, and instead, just catapulted itself into the mountain. At least we were able to find it so that we didn’t leave any garbage behind.

Now, finally heading on to the remainder of our plans at 7pm. We saw this beautiful look out point, and decided to stop and take some photos and make some food. While all that back and forth was unfortunate, being able to eat at this location with the amazing golden light turned all of our frustrations around. Definitely my personal favourite eating spot we had through our entire trip.

Coming back up to the Stokksnes area, there is another interesting peninsula located a little before it called Hvalnes Nature Reserve Beach. We stopped there this time around for somewhat of a quick peak. It ended up taking longer because of the peddles! Those pesky peddles! They are so hard to walk on. Black peddles cover this beach and they are everywhere so be prepared for an awkward trek.

On our way to the lagoon we saw more endless fields of arctic lupins and herds and herds of sheep. The lighting was PERFECT and I was hoping for a location that would allow them to be back lit. They were all over but often not positioned properly to have that magical rim lighting, around their adorable little fuzzy bodies. Finally, we came across this one farm. And it was exactly as awesome as I had imagined. We ended up staying here for a little while because there were so many babies frolicking in the field. My heart just melted at the sight of them playing.

We arrived at Jökulsárlón Iceberg Lagoon around 12am and surprisingly there were still a decent amount of people. We noticed immediately the drop in temperature. Being surrounded by snow, ice and water, it makes sense that it was significantly colder here. I had to pile on the layers again, including my trusty balaclava and gloves. We just missed the setting golden light for this location because it was behind the mountains, but the lighting was still wonderful. It had a fantastic soft glow to everything and lovely pastel colours reflecting off the ice. I tried some long exposure shots, but something I didn’t consider…. those glaciers move! Some, ever so slightly, but yep… They all move. The long exposure shots were quite tricky to pin down. I tried an assortment of different shutter speeds. Obviously any into the minutes were far too blurry, but the long seconds seemed to fair out not too bad. The water was also moving a lot which didn’t help matters. As the time ticked on, more and more people left, and before we knew it, we were again alone in this wonderful landscape.

Around 1am we headed across the street to the beach portion, were there is far more ice chunks both floating in the sea and scattered along the coast. Oh my was this fun!! I got SO many shots of the water rushing around the crystal clear ice. Seeing this stretch of beach covered in ice was really neat too. There were still quite a bit of people exploring this side and it was quite obvious why.

By the time we were finished having a blast in this location it was about 2am! Needless to say, we didn’t have time for Svartifoss. Not a problem though, as the F-roads we were counting on traveling around Landmannalaugar were still closed. We suddenly had a whole day open! Which we were sure we would need anyway with how much longer we’ve been staying at our planned destinations and those surprise road side stops. While it was a mixed day filled with some unfortunate circumstances and amazing sights, all in all we went to sleep happy and giddy with anticipation of what we will see the next day.