Our first stop today was Skrudur, a small botanic garden that's a little green oasis tucked up against the steep cliffs. It's a school garden originally created by a local parish priest to teach kids how to grow plants. It was originally planted in 1909, and after some intervening years of neglect, it has been maintained by local gardeners. We walked through the main gate to enjoy colorful flower beds, and lovely trees (including a large larch), labeled plants, fountains and birds.There is a gate at 1 end of the garden made of a whale jaw. This garden was such a lovely surprise.
Our next stop was at Dynjandi, not just one bolt waterfall, but several. There's a rocky, uneven path to hike past each one. With no railings or handholds along the ascending path, I went about a third of the way up. Ray went to the top. It's a beautiful bridal veil falls.
We then opted to take the journey out to the Lartrabjarg Cliffs. It’s the westernmost point in Europe and home in summer to thousands of birds, including puffins. The road itself, is an experience. All of the road is rutted, bumpy and rocky, and the parts that ascend the mountains are washboard and slope off steeply down the mountain with no guardrails. Workers were grading parts of it and the surface was loose, not packed. Ray's description of this: harrowing. It took about one and a 1/2 hours to go 23 miles, but it certainly was worth the trip. The road ends at the cliffs that stick out into the sea where the winds were blowing hard. My fingers were numb from taking pictures without gloves. But the birds hovered against the cliffs in the thousands. The closer you got to the cliffs, you could smell them as well as hear the squawking that the wind wouldn't drown out. We did see puffins among the throng of birds! This was an awesome experience. In spite of the nasty drive, it was so worth it.
To get to our accommodations for the night, we had to retrace our route down the 23 mile long rutted road, and 17 miles further on paved road. The guesthouse was right on the fjord.
Pictures are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q8viVgVyZwJVVwBUA
No comments:
Post a Comment