#grundarfjörður
Day 7
The weather changes so quickly in Iceland, and you have to stay on top of the forecast as often as possible. The night before I was to head up to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, I checked the weather forecast from my hostel in Reykjavik, and it did not look good. A gale force blizzard was forecast to impact my route from Reykjavik to the town of Olafsvik, which was 2.5 hours away. My plan was to wake up early and head out of Reykjavik before the snow started in the city so I could avoid in-town traffic, but unfortunately, when I stepped outside, there was already at least 5″ of snow all over the road and on my rental car. Since I didn’t have a snow brush, I had to use my arms to brush all the snow off the car. As I made my way out of Reykjavik, I was concerned with how slushy the roads were. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic to contend with, but the worst of the weather was still to come.
As I approached the town of Borgarnes, the snow began to steadily pick up. I decided to load up on gas here just to make sure I had a full tank of gas just in case. As I continued north, the snow continued falling at a steady clip, and the wind started to pick up as well. Blizzard-conditions were setting in, and I was so freaking scared. Being that I seldom see snow since I’m from Georgia, I have never driven in anything like that before. The road was only two lanes wide and snow covered the shoulders of the highway, so I had to drive extremely slowly in the middle of both lanes of traffic. Only when I saw a car coming in my direction did I return back to my lane, which half of it was icy and slushy as could be. I would have stopped on the side of the road, but there were many ditches and boulders on the side of the highway, and I didn’t want to crash my car or wreck it. There were also very few places to stop on the road safely, especially in white-out conditions. Once I got to the town of Grundarfjörður, the snow plows had tried to come through to clear the roads but were only somewhat successful. The snow pack was at least a foot and a half high in some parts, and it was like driving through a tunnel of packed snow, with maybe a foot on either side of the vehicle.
After a nail-biting rest of my drive, I eventually made it safely to Olafsvik, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I checked into my AirBnB and took a moment to relax while the snow began tapering off. I did a little exploring around Olafsvik and eventually decided to make my way to Kirkfjufell and Kirkjufellsfoss, the mountain and adjacent waterfall that, together, make up one of the most iconic photos of Iceland you’ll find. After fighting for a parking spot, I hiked in a couple of minutes in the snow to get to the Kirkjufellsfoss. It’s a small but still gorgeous little waterfall. The freshly fallen snow made for a really beautiful experience, and with Kirkjufell behind it, the view was truly breathtaking. The hike there and back to the car was really icy, and several people straight up ate it and fell into the snow. I was lucky enough to keep my footing. After strolling around for a little bit, I made my way back to the AirBnB to rest and relax for the rest of the day. After a rather stressful day, I definitely deserved it :)
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