Beyond the city to the Westfjords

Friday morning, July 3, we picked up our rental vehicle I had arranged through Auto Europe and loaded our many bags into the SUV and hit the highway to drive North toward the Westfjords. I drove and Summer navigated with a paper map...yes, you read that correctly, a map not a GPS. We were determined to explore like real adventurers! We were advised to shop at the Bonus grocery stores because they were less expensive so we stopped at the first one we saw outside of Reykjavik and stocked up on snacks and lunch because no roadtrip is complete without snacks.

                          

 

As we drove the roads got a little more winding and steeper. We saw sheep and horses along the side of the roads and endless amounts of purple flowers. Several hours in to our drive, we reached the top of a hill with a breathtaking view of a valley and lake. With no other cars in site, we parked and jumped out to take in the picturesque view. It was in that moment that it struck all of us that we were really in Iceland! We were no longer in just another large city, but we were embarking on a journey through the Land of Fire & Ice! 

                                       

         

         

      

Our excitement quickly turned to nerves as we hit the gravel road of our first fjord. Let's get this clear, I am a flat land beach girl not a girl who is used to driving up and over curving roads without guard rails! My grip on the steering wheel was at a white knuckled 10 & 2. I wouldn't dare look over the cliff I was driving on in fear of losing my Bonus bought lunch out the window. 

                              

   

We breathed a sigh of relief as we slowed through a beautiful valley with a field of horses, purple flowers, a home, an absolutely beautiful church. We knew we had to veer off to take pictures of the scenery. As we were peeking our cameras through the fence, 2 little boys ran toward us. They asked us what we're doing and they asked if we would like to see the church...not just see it but go inside of it. We all looked at each other a little leery of following 2 Icelandic boys, Marcus & Oliver, into an empty field and little church, but we shrugged and said "when in Iceland" and followed the boys up the dirt road toward the church. They were so excited to see friendly people they chattered the whole time. We learned their parents were not home at the moment and they were ages 8 & 11 and go to school about an hour away from where they live. They moved to the area just a few years ago for their Dad to pastor the church which apparently fills up every Sunday. The boys were proud to show us around the farm area and even picked up the dead sheep that eerily greated us at the gate. Oliver, the oldest, opened the large doors of the church and we wandered inside the tiny building. Marcus ran up the loft stairs to show us the bell tower and Morgan and I followed him up to peek out. They showed us the pulpit and the organ and let us take pictures and they even asked us to sign the guestbook. We took a group selfie after they closed up the church, thanked them and drove off as we breathed a sigh of relief that we survived a potential CSI episode.

                                       

                                       

                     

We braved the remainder of the fjords and finally arrived at our first Air B&B accommodation. Summer and I found us a small house in the Westfjords where we had 2 bedrooms, a sleeper sofa, bathroom, and small kitchen. It was nice to spread out a little bit after being in the hostel. 

        

We drove up to the only restaurant in town for dinner then thought we would venture to the first waterfall nearby. We encountered another death defying dirt road and as Morgan sailed over the hills we all decided we may have had enough near death experiences for the day so we stopped and spent time at 1 smaller waterfall and took a group picture to prove we survived the day and headed back. Iceland has roughly 21 hours of sunlight during the summer months so we didn't expect to see any sunsets on this trip, but God surprised us with the Icelandic version of a sunset so we stopped along the lake to take pictures of the color changing sky.

         

                                    

            

Photo Credits: Christina Hawkins, Morgan Leatherwood, Summer Saunders, Shelby Goione