Up early, Jane drove the van right up to the washrooms, rather than walk in the rain.....though we were leaving after that anyways. We looped around the end of the peninsula, checking out some fish drying huts, before entering Snaefellsjokull National Park.
After being spoiled for most of the trip, we were finally in for some good old fashioned Icelandic weather - very windy with torrential rain. We made a few stops along the south coast of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula (or Snagglepuss as Jane kept calling it) to check out a few items of note.
After a very expensive coffee stop at a hotel in Arnarstapi ($20 for two small coffees and one cookie), we carried on and made the short-ish but steep hike up the hill to Raudfeldsgja Gorge. Through a narrow crevice in the mountain face, inside lay another hidden waterfall inside a tall greenish cave. Very much worth the effort and the soaking - another Rivendell (or Paths of the Dead) experience!
We stopped for gas and lunch at the junction of 54 and 56, once again at the Hotel Rjukandi where we'd gotten coffee yesterday. Given the weather, we thought it was a good day for a nice hot lunch, while we explored our options.
We had skipped some potential outings in the North - whale watching, Bjorbodin beer spa, ferry to Grimsey Island to cross the Arctic Circle - as they were both expensive and time consuming. As a result, we had two extra days on our hands as we neared the end of the Ring and some decisions to make as to how to spend them.
Given the rain and fog, we decided to make the long drive back along the south coast to the waterfall we had missed due to the film crew. It meant several hours of driving first to Reykjavik and then a ways beyond, but it was a good day for a van day.
We made a quick stop in Borgarnes so Jane could run into the Bonus, and actually get lava salt this time, along with some other items. We then had to negotiate the 6 km tunnel UNDER the fjord at Akranes, before skirting through Reykjavik in the rain to take the 1 South.
All I know is that we climbed up one side of a large mountain and down the other in heavy rain and standing water, heavy wind, heavy fog and heavy traffic, somewhere just west of Hveragerdi - otherwise my vision was limited to the tail-lights in front of me.
We stopped again at the Skogafoss campground for the night, in front of the eponymous waterfall. With the weather still crappy, we walked next door for a delicious hot meal at the Hotel Skogafoss, before returning to the van for a quiet and peaceful night to the patter of rain on the metal roof.
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