Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
an American DC3 that served at the American NATO base at Keflavík and took part
in the evacuation of Heimaey during the eruption of 1973. Outside the museum is a
replica of a Viking longship, presented to Iceland by Norway to mark 1100 years of
settlement. Close by, the
Mummi
, the country's oldest steam-powered fishing boat, is
also worth a cursory glance.
ACCOMMODATION
HNJÓTUR
Hótel Látrabjarg
Route 615, Örlygshöfn
T
456 1500 or
T
825 0025,
W
latrabjarg.com.
The comfortable rooms in
this remote former boarding school have great views across
the fjord to Patreksfjörður and offer ready access down to a
sandy beach. Three-course dinners are available for 6200kr.
To get here, turn right onto Route 615 just after the Hnjótur
museum, and pass the farms
of Efri Tun
ga and Neðri Tunga.
Closed mid-Sept to mid-May.
21,800kr
Breiðavík
Beyond the Hnjótur Folk Museum, Route 612 will bring you, after 10km or so, to a
church
and handful of buildings comprising the settlement at idyllic
Breiðavík
bay
,
with open views westwards over white sand to the aquamarine waters of the Atlantic.
This exquisite
beach
, without a doubt one of Iceland's finest, is irresistible, and when
the sun shines the sands are seen to their best advantage: kilometres of empty, unsullied
white strands, punctuated solely by trickling mountain streams finally reaching the
ocean, flocks of squawking seabirds and the odd piece of white-washed driftwood,
which can provide welcome shelter from the wind if you're intent on catching the rays.
ACCOMMODATION
BREIÐAVÍK
4
Breiðavík
T
456 1575,
W
breidavik.is.
This former fox
farm and boarding school has been extensively renovated
and now offers camping pitches, sleeping-bag
accommodation in double rooms, and regular double
rooms with private facilities. The home-cooked meals are
legendary - dinner costs
around
4500kr. Closed mid-Sept
to mid
-May. Ca
mping
1700kr
; sleeping-bag doubles
8500kr
; doubles
22,900kr
Látrabjarg
Beyond Breiðavík, Route 612 climbs up and over a plateau (there's an extremely rough
12km gravel road off here to Keflavík) and then steeply down to the coast again before
expiring a few kilometres on below the
lighthouse
at
Bjargtangar
, the westernmost
point in Europe. The Ísafjörður-Brjánslækur-Patreksfjörður
bus
spends about
two-and-a-half hours here before heading back - don't miss it unless you can afford to
wait two days for the next one.
The lighthouse also marks the start of
Látrabjarg cliffs
, which rise up to 441m above the
churning sea as they run 14km east from here to the small inlet of
Keflavík
. A footpath
leads along the clifftops, with excellent views of the thousands of
seabirds
that come here
to nest on the countless ledges below. For centuries, locals would abseil down the cliffs to
collect their eggs and trap the birds for food - it's estimated that around 35,000 birds
were caught here every year until the late 1950s - and, occasionally, they still do.
LÁTRABJARG'S BIRDS
Although the
guillemot
is the most common bird at Látrabjarg, it's the thousands of
pu
ns
that most people come here to see. The high ground of the cliff-tops is riddled with their
burrows, often up to 2m in length, since they nest in locations well away from the pounding
surf, ideally surrounded by lush grass and thick soil. They return to the same burrows they
occupied the year before, almost always during the third week of April, where they remain
until August or September. The cliffs are also home to the largest colony of
razorbills
in the
world, as well as to thousands of other screeching breeds of sea bird including
cormorants
,
fulmars
and
kittiwakes
; the din here can be quite overpowering, as can the stench from the
piles of guano on the cliff face.
