On our short 3.5 hour drive today we ventured through incredibly diverse terrain – moving from lakebeds to lunar rockery to small forests to steep mountains to fjords. After another hearty breakfast with Fálki, we started our drive east through moon/mars-like landscape. The scenery appeared right out of the movie The Martian. Lining the highway was short rock stacks, an old Icelandic tradition used long before the highway for hundreds of years to “guide the way” through these barren lands.

Our first stop was Stuðlagil Canyon. The Canyon walls are largely basalt deposits that form unique tower structures and striations. There used to be a significant river running through the Canyon; however, since it was dammed upstream the river has reduced in size. The milky blue/green color of the water mixed with the unique geological formations make for a beautiful setting.

As we drove further east we caught our first glimpse of forest land in Iceland – a terrain we were not expecting to see due to the high winds we have experienced. The trees are small and the growing season is short. We had our exercise of the day at Litlanesfoss, a two mile hike with an elevation gain of over 1,000 feet to picturesque views of the surrounding farmland and distant glaciers and a tall waterfall. As we were ascending we certainly got an appreciation for all the work the sheep do climbing the surrounding hills!

We ended our drive today by reaching Reyðarfjörður fjord, the longest and widest fjord in east Iceland, and eventually the small fishing town of Eskifjörður. The town sits in a cove that is protected from the winds. In the early 1900s, the town boomed with herring houses, one of which is now a restaurant that we ate at for dinner. The inside of the restaurant was still decorated with all of the old tools and remnants of the herring house and we were even able to catch a glimpse of the hard life of a worker upstairs from the restaurant where the bunkhouses were still in exactly the same state as they were when the herring house was abandoned when there were no longer herring in the fjord in the 1930s. We finally were able to try two classic Icelandic traditions – shark and Happy Marriage Cake – both of which were good (to our surprise as for the shark).

Tonight we are spending the night at cute little cottages on the banks of the fjord. As we walked the grounds, we came across an arctic fox, a rare sight in this part of Iceland. No larger than 30 pounds, the small fox was rescued a few years ago by the owners of the cottages and is friendly with all the guests. Tomorrow we have our busiest day of our trip – a 7 hour drive with many stops along the way.