Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

The Road To Hellnar

by admin - 23:51 on 28 June 2014

This morning we packed our bags, waved goodbye to Vogur Lodge and set off on the road to Hellnar, many kilometres away at the end (almost) of the Snæfellsnes peninsula. Iceland's Michael Fish had lied again, for the sunny day he guaranteed today began grey and soon darkened as cloud cover thickened. At least it stayed dry (mostly).

Our route took us around Hvammsfjörður then south on a gravel road because Matchgirl had read it's haunted. It may be, but some serious low cloud meant that even if the place was heaving with ghosts we wouldn't have seen them. What we did see was an increase in traffic – maybe Icelanders getting away for the weekend.

Disappointed by the lack of ghosts – and scenery that, while impressive, didn't compare with much that we saw yesterday – we motored west then north to finish up in Stykkishólmur, a fishing village and tourist spot on the peninsula's north coast notable for an amazing futuristic church designed in the Seventies, built in the Eighties and consecrated in the Nineties. The village was also notable for being the coldest place we'd yet encountered, so after soup and pasta at the bakery we headed south and further west until we found our new resting place – the Hotel Hellnar.

First impressions were good – we'd been upgraded from a mountain view room to an ocean view. The welcome was friendly, the room comfortable and the ambience cosy – what more can you ask? The management didn't even complain about the filthy state of the RAV4, which contrasted poorly with a car park full of shiny machinery that has clearly travelled not very far on tarmac roads.

Hellnar has everything for dedicated yompers such as Matchgirl: after dinner we tramped along the coastal cliff top path; tomorrow, weather permitting, we intend to clamber around the volcano not far from the front door – Snæfellsjökull, made famous by Jules Verne in Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

So much to do, and only two days left in which to do it.

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