Driver of the Day

Today journey from Akureyri to Grundarfjörður is a long one with distance around 400 KM, hence I volunteer to help Hybrid to be the driver for the day. As usual, the surrounding view on the road still magnificent as usual even it was not a sunny day. We came across a monument spot but we are not sure what it is for, until i check in google that it was a monument build for Stephan G. Stephansson, an Icelandic poet. After a drive for around 1-2 hours, we have a break at small town of Blönduós for some bio break, and short visit circling Blönduóskirkja church, with a very modern type of architecture.

A long road that covered by snow capped mountain all around.

Our car getting dirtier throughout the journey.

Every mountain is unique by its own standard.

PPP wandering around for a short break.

Monument of Stephan G.Stephansson.

Feel the beauty of nature.

Stunning range of snow capped mountain.

Energy superpower country.

Wonderland by a river.

Another random beautiful valley.

Blönduóskirkja church in Blönduós.

The view on the town of Blönduós.

Very modern architecture style.

We need to re-stock our groceries but seem we need to wait until 1 PM via Blönduós, so we decided to move on to next stop at Hvammstangi instead as it is only around 12 PM at that time. We stop by a car park nearby the groceries shop waiting for it to open while having our lunch in the car. We also went to walk around the harbourfront and realize there is Icelandic Seal Centre called Selasetur Islands, which was a prime tourist spot in this village. However, due to time constraint we did not pay a visit inside, if we are at correct season and time, probably it is good to learn on where we can find this cute creature and explore that ourself! It will be fun!

By the time of 1 PM, still the groceries is not open hence we walk over to check it our carefully, only to realize that it is not open on Sunday!

Without a choice, we just have to continue to road trip and hope that it is still open when we reach Grundarfjörður.

Seaside of Hvammstangi village.

A duck swim on a strong wave.

Small fjord of Miðfjörður.

Yellow man by the sea. Photo credited to Hybrid.

Harbourfront via Hvammstangi.

Selasetur Islands, an Icelandic Seal Center museum.

The weather become much more worst during this phase especially when we are driving along Hrútafjörður, as the wind is so strong that I can felt the car shaking, and make it very hard to control the steering. It was truly pressure for me as a driver to be honest but there is not much shelter around hence I just can keep focus 100% on the drive to make sure we reach Grundarfjörður safely in a piece. Situation get better when we done circling Hrútafjörður and continue with a gravel road, which leading us to a surrounding like a nowhere land. We even have a count that during a rough 30 minutes of drive on this road, we might probably just encounter just only 2-3 cars passing by us!

Finally, the weather get slight better, when we reach to a view point to view Brokey and many small islands of vary size scattered around the area. The moment is feel like rewarding scenery after a long endurance ride under a storm.

The wind blow is extremely strong, we can't even stand still to take a proper photo.

An enchanted river on the road.

Brokey islands and its surrounding.

Lucky to have a better weather after a tiring drive.

There are still houses on these tiny islands.

Taking panorama of Brokey. Photo credited to Hybrid.

Our car after passing by a storm.

Hybrid and Sue Hui posing with our best pal.

The other side of the car totally clean! Imagine the wind blow!

Panorama view of Brokey and its surrounding.

We are lucky enough that the groceries store at Grundarfjörður is open on Sunday hence the re-stock is successful! Due to the storm, we are having some hard time even just to moving our luggage from car to our accommodation, JF Comfy Stay. The stay was very satisfying and make us feel like a lovely home. The storm outside is getting very strong after our dinner, hence today is a great day for us to just relax and rest our-self.

Gary suggesting we playing a game called Ping Pong Piang, and the loser have to drink some portion of local beers that we bought. The game is simple, 1st person pointed to another and saying Ping, then the one pointed will point to next candidate saying Pong, and the last one will point to last random folks and saying Piang, the one that being 'Piang' have to remain calm, while both person next to him must quickly raise both of their hand! Any mistake will be rewarded with some icy cold beer!

Simple game but yet so much fun, we finish our beer in less than 45 minutes with lots of laughter, and everyone went to sleep soon after that quite early today. This was the best rest day for me throughout the trip.