If this case the highway is sometimes two lanes, most of the time a little more than one, and changes back and forth from pavement to gravel. 

Today we drove a very long way – roughly 500km from Isafjordur in the Westfjords to Akureyri on the northern coast.  This was not the best evidence of my trip planning skills. It was a lot of seat time, over six hours. Maximum speed was moments at 120km/h which is well below normal US highway speeds.

Along the way we did stop and hike into a series of waterfalls and have a minor mishap when part of a rock wall pulled free and almost crushed me. Tim was back a few steps or he would’ve been involved too. Miraculously an incident and guaranteed hospital stay was avoided, but it definitely gave us pause. 

So we backed it down a little after that. We put the 4WD to good use and drive up access roads to radio antenna sites. The views were amazing and best part was there was no security and no one around. Icelanders are so trusting. 

There was a frozen waterfall at the top of one of the fjords which was particularly impressive and took too much time. Okay, in reality most of the time was spent betting on which of the irresponsible French tourists were going to cause the ice structure to collapse and knock them all into the icy river. Nobody won as they were all still dry when we left.  Mostly because we decided throwing large rocks to encourage additional fractures in the ice wasn’t good sportsmanship. 

When we were almost to Akureyri, with Tim driving, there was a crazy canyon off the side of the highway. In typical fashion we pulled off the road at a questionable rate of speed. Within minutes Tim was pointing to the ridiculously small exposed piece of rock he wanted to be on for a picture. Recognizing the overall risk in the situation I was terrified.  There was no way I would go out there.  My hands were shaking just watching him.  When all was said and done, he was fine and the location really wasn’t that dangerous.  I almost felt badly worrying that he’d fall while he had the keys to our truck in his pocket.  They’re the only set we have!  

Dinner was Dominos. Yes really.  A peculiar thing about Iceland, at least outside of Reykjavik, is that pretty much everything closes early. Very early. And when you have a ridiculously long drive and don’t get in until late because you’re hiking, dodging rocks, trespassing, or worrying about car keys at the bottom of a ravine, you tend not to make it places early. So, at 9pm, we got pizza. Lucky us. At least the box looks different. 

Fortunately, the accommodations for tonight didn’t disappoint. We rented a tiny house overlooking the inside of the fjord and the city of Akureyri. For the record, the city seems very cool and definitely someplace we wish we could’ve spent time. Maybe next trip. 

Tomorrow we have a very short drive planned and intend to spend most of the day at Lake Myvatn before going to Husavik, the whale capital of Iceland. Should be more relaxing.