Ready for our 8am arrival, we are up and through our normal morning activities ready for our first day in this amazing country of which 10% is covered in glaciers/ice; there are 400,000 inhabitants, 75% of whom are of Icelandic heritage; Icelanders are big on sagas, keeping the old Norse dialect alive in that way; this is where the North American and Eurasian plates come together which is the reason that 20% of the island is covered in volcanoes (volcano formation follows the plates). Other interesting tidbits include: Geyser is originally an Icelandic word and the Iceland flag colors stand for volcano fire (Red), ice (White), surrounding waters (Blue).

Armed with our Icelandic knowledge (which will help us how?) we intrepidly head out into the morning chill to go hike up to the Bleiksarfoss waterfall.  We’d read a bunch of reviews of the trail – but we couldn’t figure out if the reviews were really for Bleiksarfoss or for this other waterfall, Bruarfoss, which is 90 miles away….thank you AI….NOT! – meaning we just did our own thing and navigated up toward the waterfall on our own – and with Google.  Which also meant we had to bushwhack our way up a metal staircase completely overgrown with weeds and flowering bushes. Sort of fun actually!

We eventually did find the trails at the end of a residential street – taking a path on the left which looked like it led directly to the stream (even though some of the aforementioned trail reviews said don’t take the path on the left – and we didn’t really believe them).  So anyway, took the path to the left, and it ended up at some of the lower falls, which were gorgeous and scenic. 

More bushwhacking ensued on our way back out to the main trail, which by now is populated with maybe 5 or 6 others walking/climbing up the rocky little goat path next to the waterfall. We climbed about one-third the way up, took some great pictures, https://youtu.be/1ZwEJpgjowc then decided our life and limbs were worth more than the overhand climb up to the top of the falls and turned back to safety. 

Back down at sea level, we walked over to the church at the bottom of the falls, climbing up on the Avalanche defense walls that have been built around the church where we could enjoy more stellar long views up to Bleiksarfoss.  Ingenious really – two large rock walls in a V-shape to force any snow avalanche or landslides out and around the church, the community service building and the “new old people’s home” in the valley below the hillsides. 

Our circle route takes us over to the cemetery, where allegedly there is another trail to get up to the waterfall, but we can’t find it.  We think that information, AI driven of course, was also for the other waterfall miles away.  Eh, no biggie, we’ve been there done that, so we explore the cemetery instead, with the seafarer’s monument and some beautiful granite headstones – one in particular in memory of the father and son who died in a boating accident, and the wife/mother who died 20 months later at the age of 43.  We’re going with broken heart on this one.  So sad.

Half an hour later, we walk back down toward the harbor to meet our guide – Anna – a nature and environmental scientist focused on preservation and sustainability – for the quick ride around the bay to the Holmanes nature preserve.  Thus begins our educational and entertaining 3 hour hike through the gorgeous peninsula with Anna extolling the virtues of every rock, soil sample, flora and, well just about everything. She is exuberant and funny and smart – an excellent guide for nature walk.

We learn all about Anna as we walk – married with grown sons and now grandchildren, she went back to school at 33 to get her degree in environmental science and is now a guide, a scientist, consultant and general expert on environmental issues here in Iceland.  As we pass some large rocky outcrops, Anna regales us with stories from her youth when she believed (she actually sort of still does!) that Elves live in the rocks and she used to come here and talk to them.

Walking along the little path, we rise and fall with the landscape, getting beautiful views of the Reyðarfjörður bay on both sides of the Holmanes peninsula – cut into the rocks by glaciers oh so many years ago.  We learn all about different flowers here, how the moss, which grows in abundance here, doesn’t take water from the soil, but from the fog and rain and many other little flora tidbits too numerous to repeat.

Rounding the corner behind the rocks, we are treated with a fabulous view of a branch of the Reyðarfjörður bay, one of the deepest fjords in country and over 30 km long.  Here we take a break while Anna pulls out her totally awesome little portable water heater and makes us the best cup of coffee – made even better by the company and the view.  Too much fun.

After our break, we continue our hike with more incredible scenery, views and amazing plant life – the white flowers Klettafrù flowers, also known as the Rock mistress or rose root and very rare, especially seeing it down here, at this low altitude, this early.  They normally grow on top of high rocks up on Mt Holmatindur.

Finishing out our trek, we pass the light colored sand beach, where Anna explains that the rock formations here are created from alkaline lava that solidified on the surface eons ago, giving it its dark color.  The beach, however, is made up of acidic volcanic rock pebbles – broken up by erosion and washed by the water – giving it a lighter color.  Amazing the knowledge she has stored in that brain of hers – rivals the amazing scenery, flowers – including an early Marsh orchid – and cool hoodoos we pass as we climb up and out of the peninsula to the parking area where our ride back to the harbor front awaits.   

What a fantastic day in the sunshine here in Eskifjordur.  Even though it is early, we’ve nothing else planned here, so Anna and our driver take us directly back to the ship where we happily spend the rest of the afternoon – and then the evening with our Faorese beer  – on the balcony as we glide past the little town of Eskifjordur, the iconic red cottages on a spur of land jutting out into the Fjord (rental cottages Anna had told us) and into the Fjord itself as we head out into the evening.