Day 08: Borgarfjörður Eystri (Bakkagerði)

A rainy Sunday in a village of just 90 souls.

We have breakfast in the communal kitchen – it’s simply more pleasant there, as it’s warmer and dry – and while away the time until lunch.

At the Alfacafe, fish soup with bread is on the menu. You can get as many refills as you like as long as you’re hungry, and coffee and water are included in the price. The whole meal costs 42 euros.

The photos and biographies of local villagers on display here are fascinating. Their serious faces reflect a hard life. Yet, many of them have lived to be between 80 and 90 years old.

We explore the area by car, admiring the landscape and snapping photos of a few birds, until visibility drops so low that we decide to head back.

Do we want to hit the hot pool (at the local hotel’s spa) again? Yes – it’s cold and grey, with no improvement in sight. As campsite guests, we’re kindly given free bath towels – something that wouldn't have a chance to dry back at our van today. It’s a curious – and very soothing – experience to sit in hot water outdoors while it drizzles. It’s addictive... and expensive.

Afterwards, we grab a beer at the local brewery to "replenish our fluids" and get tipsy right away :-)

Around midnight, the wind picks up into a storm with gusts of around 100 km/h (according to the weather app). We have to move the van and park it nose-first into the wind. It remains noisy and bumpy, though, and the whole ordeal leaves us wide awake. David, a Brit who is also staying here, tells us the next morning that he moved his vehicle too, in order to create a windbreak for his tent. It was a restless night for everyone. By the way, we checked: sunset is around 11:45 PM, and sunrise is shortly after 2:00 AM. So, there is no such thing as night or darkness.