Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
first settled by monks fleeing the ninth-century Viking expansion, and excavations
during the early twentieth century uncovered three ancient
crosses
. The island was
lived on until the 1950s, with a wooden
church
built in 1807 - said to be Iceland's
smallest - still standing, and chained down against fierce winter winds. Papey's only
present tenants are a few sheep, ferried over each year in summer.
What used to make the four-hour excursion to Papey worthwhile was the certainty
of seeing
seals
on the bracing voyage over and incredible numbers of cliff-nesting
puffins, razorbills and guillemots on arrival. Unfortunately, the
seabird population
here has plummeted over the past decade, in common with other colonies around
Iceland; check with the boat operator about the current situation before committing
yourself.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
DJÚPIVOGUR
By bus
Sterna buses (
W
sterna.is) stop at Djúpivogur harbour
on their summer-only run between Egilsstaðir and Höfn.
Destinations
Berunes (1 daily; 30min); Breiðdalsvík (1 daily;
1hr); Egilsstaðir (1 daily; 2hr 20min); Fáskrúðsfjörður
(1 daily; 1hr 50min); Reyðarfjörður (1 daily; 2hr 10min); Höfn
(1 daily; 1hr 30min); Stöðvarfjörður (1 daily; 1hr 20min).
Services
Djúpivogur's services are all unmissable, within a
two-minute walk of the harbour, and comprise a post
o
ce, bank with ATM, fuel pump, pool (Mon-Fri
7am-8.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; 400kr) and small
Samkaup
7
supermarket
(Mon-Fri
10am-6pm,
Sat
10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm).
ACCOMMODATION, EATING AND DRINKING
Campsite
T
478 8887.
Run by the
Framtið
hotel, and
located up on the hill behind the harbour, with sink, shelter
shed, toilet and showers, and plenty of space to pitch your
tent.
Being se
t in a hollow gives some protection from the
wind.
1050kr
Ì
Framtið
Vogaland 4
T
478 8887,
W
hotelframtid
.com.
The hotel's main building is a charming restored
wooden structure from 1906; it's flanked by self-contained
cabins sleeping two, with double rooms in another
building behind. The restaurant specializes in seafood and
is also proud of its pizza; their cream of lobster soup is good
value at 2560kr, as is their soup and seafood lunch
(3850k
r).
Rest
aurant
daily 11a
m-2pm and 6-9pm.
Cabins
9100kr
; doubles
22,000kr
Langabúð
(no phone).
Right on the harbourside, the folk
museum café makes a snug hideaway on cold days, though
it gets packed out by tour groups; cake and coffee will set
you back 1150kr, and they do bagels with a range of fillings
from 650kr.
Daily 10am-6pm.
Við Voginn
T
478 8860.
Drab harbourfront diner with a
few shelves of groceries, serving burgers, sandwiches,
pýlsur
and chips in various guises from about 1000kr.
Mon-Fri 8am-9pm, Sat & Sun 10am-9pm.
The southeast
South of Djúpivogur, the fjords recede into the background and you enter the
altogether different world of
southeastern Iceland
, a coastal band between the East
Fjords and Vík which is dominated by Europe's largest ice cap,
Vatnajökull
.
Covering eight thousand square kilometres, almost 150km wide and up to 1km
thick, Vatnajökull's vast size gradually sinks in as it floats inland for hour after hour
as you drive past, its numerous glacier tongues flowing in slow motion from the
heights to sea level, grinding out a black gravelly coastline as they go.
Vatnajökull
National Park
(
W
vatnajokulsthjodgardur.is) covers 12,000 square kilometres of this
unspoiled wilderness - an extraordinary eleven percent of Iceland's total landmass
- accessible by hiking, four-wheel-driving or even by snowmobile. Flying is perhaps
the only way to absorb Vatnajökull's full immensity: glaring ice sheets shadowed in
lilac; pale blue tarns; and grey, needle-sharp
nunataks
- mountain peaks - poking
through the ice.
Given Vatnajökull's proximity, Iceland's “mini ice-age” between 1200 and 1900 hit
the southeast especially hard - not to mention the devastating
jökulhlaups
(see p.301)
that flood out from beneath Vatnajökull's icy skirt from time to time - and it remains a
thinly settled area, even though all glaciers here are actually
retreating
as the climate
