Seyðisfjörður, one of the highlights of the East
Today we were going to discover several highlights of the East. We first drove to the most picturesque town of Iceland, Seyðisfjörður. It was known for its arty look and feel as well as for its beautiful coloured wooden houses (a real feast for the eyes!) . The main attraction was the light blue church and Rainbow Street.
The town was located half an hour’s drive from Egilsstaðir. The drive itself was scenic and gave the opportunity to visit some sights along the way. Our first stop was a parking lot with coloured cubes. 2 even had a television on them (not sure if it was cable tv or netflix 😎😎😎).
Next we stopped at the monument at Nedri-Stafur and the Giant’s Kettles for a little walk. The site reminded us of Bourke’s Luck Potholes in South Africa.
Our last stop before arriving in Seyðisfjörður was Gufufoss (another one of our so called mini waterfalls).
The touristic character of Seyðisfjörður made us think that it would be very busy. So we were quite worried that all restaurants would be fully booked. But when we arrived, surprise, surprise… there were very few visitors, lucky us ! The tour of the town did not take up a lot of time since it was only a handkerchief big. We browsed through the little shops and at 1 pm we visited the church.
We then opted for the Nordic restaurant (very cozy interior) and it did not disappoint. We ordered the lamb soup and the salmon, both were delicious!!!
Stuðlagil Canyon, Rjúkandi waterfall and Hengifoss
After lunch we deiced to drive to the Stuðlagil Canyon. We opted for the look-out (eastern side) because the walk along the western side was a bit too long to squeeze it into our programme and we were not convinced that it would have been worth it since the water had no longer the bright blue colour that was so magical earlier in the season. However, it was still an effort to get to the look-out point because of the many stairs that we had to descend first and climb up again at the end.
On our way to the canyon we made a stopover at the Rjúkandi waterfall. We could have planned it in for the next day when we would drive passed it again on our way to Mývatn, but then we had to change our route since the day would already be very long…
For our last activity that day we set course to Hengifoss, a black waterfall with red layers of clay, one of the most spectacular falls in Iceland. It was a walk of an hour (yes, uphill 😂😂😂).
We also passed Litlanesfoss, a waterfall with beautiful basalt columns. Both falls did not move a lot of water for the moment. Maybe it was the result of the heat wave that recently passed here? In any case, it was a pity, but still worth the effort!
