After a morning coffee stop at a nice N1 along the Ring Road, we turned off onto Road 60 and headed up over the mountains and towards the Westfjords. Almost immediately, we were driving into a dense fog that would blanket us all morning, as we curled our way around and over some high fjords.
We eventually reached a long stretch of unpaved road, making for some serious white-knuckle moments - the rough road of dirt, gravel and rock was rutted with potholes and washboard, complicated by some 12-15% uphill and downhill grades meeting 20 km/h hairpin switchbacks, with no guardrail and zero shoulder past the loose dirt.....all in heavy fog.
Perhaps the wrong thing to say to Jane at that moment was "I don't think I've ever even SEEN a 15% grade before", despite some similar experiences in Newfoundland, Cape Breton and the Rockies. We could hear oncoming traffic before we could see it, while knowing there was very little room to spare on a narrow mountain track. I actually had to pull over at the rare opportunity, to give my eyes and nerves a break.
Once back on paved road, we meandered some more fjords and causeways, and then stopped for washrooms and coffee at Hotel Flokalundur. Here the paved Road 62 carried on to Patreksfjordur, but we were staying on the 60, which reverted again to gravel on its long path up and over more mountains and down to the Dynjandi waterfall.
This road also brought some tense moments, between an active construction zone, some blind crests with sheer drop-offs, and steep grades. We finally arrived at our destination, the braided Dynjandi waterfall, actually a series of smaller named waterfalls leading up to Dynjandi itself.
After enjoying the waterfall, we had a ham on baguette lunch while viewing the stunning fjord in the opposite direction. Heading back up over the mountain was a daunting task, but went a little easier the second time around. We grabbed some diesel at the Hotel Flokalunder, and continued to wind our way back out of the Westfjords.
Jane took over driving for a bit to allow me to rest up for the nasty unpaved stretch that we knew was coming up, but then she got stuck driving during a very high and steep section that gave her some vertigo issues and dicey moments. At least the fog had lifted by the time I drove back over the gravel strip, allowing us to see the full story of what we had tackled earlier in the day.
We stopped for the night at the Laugar campground, which was technically closed but the owner said ew could camp as long as we didn't expect much in terms of facility maintenance. Apparently a number of other campers were given a similar offer. At least the site had a small and intimate hot spring (hot pot) in the mountains, though it was SO hot we could only dip our feet in.
Dinner was simple and quick, consisting of boil in bag meals, before settling in for a nice night.
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