Nothing that happened today was expected. Not everything that happened was fantastic. In fact there were some negatives. However the positives completely eradicated any hint of bad feelings.
 
Positive 1: Tim got to pet an Icelandic horse. This was definitely a highlight for Tim; he loves the picture. The horse, seemed to grow tired of it fairly quickly and tried to bite him. The slightly larger horse nearby was jealous and wanted some attention from Tim, but that didn’t happen.

 
Negative 1: The car, diesel engine, doesn’t like to start unless it is on flat ground. Makes no sense to me, but upon trying to drive out of the ditch I half parked in so Tim could see the horses, it took some convincing for it to start. This became somewhat of a theme for the day.  It only happened everytime. On the plus side, letting it warm up an unreasonably long time before turning the ignition seems to work. 
 
Positive 2: A random exploration down a side road, for no reason other than we had four wheel drive and the road definitely needed it, lead us to what we expect to make a definite top experience of the whole trip:  A hike to the top of some mountain overlooking some lakes have us some seriously great feeling about the day. 

 
Negative 2: Upon arriving at Kikjoufells we were totally underwhelmed. For the “most photographed waterfall in Iceland” we don’t get it. It is pretty. There is a great backdrop for pictures. But we saw at least 4 waterfalls today alone which were far more impressive and scenic. However all of them were more challenging to get to. Somehow, I don’t think accessibility should be a factor regarding natural beauty, but what do I know.

 
Positive 3: We found a shortcut to reach the correct route north into the Western Fjords. Should save us over an hour of driving.
 
Negative 3: Previously mentioned shortcut is nearly 100 km of one and a half lane gravel road. Saving grace is that it definitely saved us a considerable amount of time.
 
Positive 4: The view of the Western Fjords is something I will never forget. 
Negative 4: There was plenty of time to see it while driving nearly 400 km – roughly 250 km of it on more gravel roads. One and a half lane would be generous. No guardrails. Massive potholes. Crazy locals. Flocks of suicidal sheep. And mountain edge hairpin turns. Made the Hana Highway look like a Sunday drive to Grandmother’s house.

 
Positive 5: Another random turn onto a rough dirt road at roughly 8:15pm lead to a completely isolated area with waterfalls and a river with the clearest water I have ever seen. We hiked way up looking for the headwaters, close to two miles, only to find more and more flowing water. There was even a serious discussion about abandoning the AirBNB reservation for tonight, packing up food and water, and continuing the hike. We choose against it and at 9:30 got back on the road.

 
Negative 5: Getting back on the road at 9:30. We had been experiencing multiple GPS guidance issues – the system in the car is directionally challenged at times – and the phone service can get spotty making Google a risky choice. At 9:30 we had an estimated arrival at our lodging at 11:46pm. (See prior note about dirt roads.)
 
Positive 6: Stumbled across what is definitely the most impressive waterfall we have seen. Ever. I’m not sure how Dynjandi didn’t show up in pre-trip research, but again I’m guessing that it being in Northern Iceland, buried behind 50km of dirt road in either direction, has something to do with it. Roughly 100m high, with multiple cascading pools, it was amazing.

 
Negative 6: I feel like a little girl talking so much about waterfalls, and that is mostly because our new ETA at our lodging was 12:47am.
 
Positive 7: After some impressive driving, excessive speed in places where it was possible (both to make up time and to compensate for the sphincter puckeringly slow travel up high on the fjord dirt roads) and traveling through a 6km tunnel (yes really) we arrived in Islafjordur about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. So at 12:30am.
 
We arrived hungry, tired, and looking for bed. I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to driving back down to central Iceland tomorrow or not. The drive will be more of the same, but that means a lot of positives as well.