Day 6, Aug 30: Siglufjorthur to Akureyri

We woke to blustery, overcast skies with a few drops of rain. We wanted to tour the Herring Era Museum but it didn't open until 10 so we made breakfast and walked around. Hit the museum when it opened. It tells the history of the Herring adventure, some of the people who helped make it, and some of the machinery and boats that powered it. The adventure ran from about 1900 to the bust in 1968. Ships from Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, and others plied the rich seas off the north coast. In bad weather, as many as 500 ships would crowd the harbor. The salting industry employed "Herring girls" to do the salting and they came from all parts of Iceland to work for the season. With all the sailors coming in and all the girls hanging out, Siglufjorthur was known as the dating capital of the country.

I went over to the Icelandic Folk Music Museum and was shown around by the docent, a Greek working here for the season. The museum presents the work of a collector of folk music. There are pictures and bios of  contributors and video of Icelanders singing or chanting some of the music. He demonstrated two early, handmade instruments.

We broke camp and headed south through a series of tunnels. First a seven kilometer long modern tunnel with good lighting and wide lanes. This dumped out onto a green valley before plunging back into a second good tunnel for a few kilometers. Out into another valley and Olafsfjorthur before winding up the mountain a bit and into an older, poorly lighted, one-way tunnel (like the one we went through coming into Siglufjorthur). These tunnels have pull-outs about every quarter mile and the traffic with the pull-out on the right is expected to pull over to let the other direction by. It was not a problem to negotiate.

Followed the Eyjafjorthur coastline through towns that the guidebook had a few attractions but we didn't stop. The weather had cleared but with strong, gusty winds that buffeted the camper.  Came into Akureyri in the afternoon on Friday and looked for the campground. Two were listed but we searched for the in-town one in vain. We had no better luck finding the one listed as south of town. Tried again to find the in-town one, only to learn it had closed several years ago. Searched again for south of town and found it only by asking some locals who led us to the place high on the hillside overlooking the airport and the head of the fiord. Knowing where it was, we back into town for fuel and searching for a restaurant in the center of the town. In spite of having the address and a photo of the front, we couldn't find it. Settled for Indian curry and went back to the campground. Set up and tried to catch up. This place had wifi and I was able to connect for browsing. Campground fees are a bit more expensive up north; here, we're paying about $20/senior/night, plus electric, about $7. The wind was still gusty and strong as we relaxed and into our sleep; the camper rocked in the wind.En savoir plus