Day 21 -Breidavik to Stykkishólmur

I woke up at 6am with my tent shaking like a leaf. I had taken extra care to tie it down last night, but this was really testing the limits of what the fabric could handle.

I couldn’t fall back asleep. I was worried about the drive back along the cliffs. I had hoped the wind and rain would die down in the morning, but it had just gotten worse.

I lay in my sleeping bag reading. I had to pee but didn’t dare step out of the tent. My weight was probably all that was keeping it from flying out into the ocean.

I made a video from inside the tent. The gif here gives you an idea of what it looked like, but its hard to explain what it felt like lying inside the tent in a rain storm for 3 hours.

Finally at around 9am, I realized the weather wasn’t going to get better. I had to move out of here ASAP. I didn’t care about the Latrabjarg bird cliffs, the western most point in Iceland or the hike I planned to do. I just wanted to get back onto the main road.

I packed up my stuff in about 30 seconds – a quick dismantle of the tent and threw everything into the back seat. The car had a tough time getting off the grassy field, which had become very muddy with the rain. I almost got stuck, but I somehow made it out after a lot of revving and stalling.

Driving back through the cliffs wasn’t half as bad as I had imagined it to be. Anticipation is often worse than reality.

I drove from Breidavik all the way to Brjánslækur (~100 kms) without stopping. Once I made it onto Rte60, the weather had cleared up. Still cloudy, but the incessant rain had stopped.

I decided to drive to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. I wasn’t in the right state of mind to do anything else in the West Fjords. I wanted out.

I drove to Stykkishólmur (the largest town in Snæfellsnes Peninsula) barely making any stops. I didn’t eat anything either. Looking back, I’m not sure why but my only focus was getting out of the West Fjords. Something about last night, the drive through the cliffs, the isolated town and the strong winds had unnerved me. And I don’t unnerve easily.

360kms of driving later, I was in Stykkishólmur. I hit the local N1 Grill and gobbled down a burger and fries, which cost me ~2500 ISK. Pricey, but I needed some comfort food. I drove to the swimming pool and soaked in a tub for a good while after.

The campsite at Stykkishólmur was right outside the club house of the local golf course. It was a gorgeous place, with great facilities and friendly hosts. I finally felt at ease after a tough day.

I met a guy from Levis, QC at the club house. Remi had arrived in Iceland a couple days earlier, and was travelling around by bus. I asked him if he wanted to join me in exploring the peninsula tomorrow, which he readily agreed. We decided on 9:30am tomorrow morning. I was glad to have some company.

The clubhouse closes at 11pm. At around midnight, a bunch of people showed up and started teeing off. I guess the constant daylight is a great way to escape paying the green fees. And a round of midnight golf does sound pretty awesome.

After a little while, I saw a cop car pulling up. People were gonna get busted now. Nope, the cop pulled out his clubs from the car, and went on to join his buddies.

By the time I was ready to hit the sack, there were more cars in the parking lot than there had been earlier in the evening. And people were still pouring in.

There was no wind that night. I slept like a baby.