Day 4

• Day 4 map link
• 330km driven
• Breakfast & fuel in Hvolsvöllur N1
• Amazing drive on 268 towards Thjofafoss 8:20-9:10am
• Thjofafoss 9:10-9:30am
• Sigöldu 10:30am
• Haifoss noon-12:30pm
• Fuel at Orkan in Reykjanesbær before returning camper.
• Return camper
• Fly home… 🙁

Day four was our shortest day due to flying home in the afternoon.  We planned ahead and woke up early so we could enjoy as much of the day as possible.  We were up at 6:45am and on the road by 7am.  We headed to Hvolsvöllur for some fuel and breakfast (iceland gas station hot dog wrapped in bacon with onions for breakfast FTW!!!!).  I accidentally chose the 10.000kr option on the pump thinking it was the 5.000 option but it worked out to be just about a perfectly full tank.  From here we headed off to Thjofafoss.  The roads on the way there, primarily 268, was breathtaking and we were alone for the entire drive.  Thjofafoss was pretty spectacular with both a large bluff/mountain to the left and a snow covered volcano to the right in the background (which looked to have skier’s tracks on it?).  The light was brutal early in the morning…  Another note on the roads in the AM.  They were gorgeous and a lot of fun to drive on some “back” roads with little traffic.  It’s worth mentioning though that we ended up with a lot of dust in the camper.  Nikki was happy that we did this on the last day and didn’t need to camp in the dusty van after.  Keep this in mind if you were to come through here earlier in your trip.

From Thjofafoss we headed off in search of Lekafossar at Sigalda which is an amazing canyon with a few falls that I’d found online.  Looking at several different maps online it was hard to tell if this was an f-road or not as some maps show one thing while the rest show conflicting information.  What’s happened is some of the roads have recently been paved.  You can drive to the power station at Sigöldustöð but once you cross the bridge you’re left with F-208 on the right side of the canyon and a “staff only” dirt road on the left side of the canyon.  I believe you have to either drive on the staff only road or hike in past the parking lot at the lower Sigöldu falls.  It was brutally windy here sparying my camera with BOTH dust and water spray making everything a complete mess.  If we’d had the time the hike in to Lekafossar would be on the list but with our short time and the wind/dust/spray issues as well as the “staff only” sign we decided to not go into Lekafossar.

After Sigöldu we headed down to Haifoss.  We were trying to get to Gjáin but it was also an f-road only approach.  The T-intersection with Gjáin down an F-road also has Haifoss off to the right up a dirt but non F-road.  So we headed off to Haifoss.  This is a rugged dirt road.  It wasn’t difficult to drive but don’t expect to make good time.  It took at least a half an hour to drive each way on this road.  Gjáin would have been a half hour hike -vs- the drive to Haifoss so both are similar distances from the main road.  Haifoss was VERY impressive with massive dual waterfalls and epic rainbows.  This is Nikki’s favorite waterfall so I’m glad we made the trek (she HATED the drive but once she saw the falls admitted to it being worth it).  At this point we were a bit short on time so we had to bypass Hjalparfoss on the way back to town and the airport.

We headed off to the airport at this point without any stops beyond one last fuel stop in Reykjanesbær before returning the camper.  It was nice to see Reykjavik on the drive back through without the fog from day 1.  We had the option to split off to the southern route back to the airport in Hveragerði.  Google showed it as being 10 minutes slower.  I would suggest that route if you’re coming back as the route into Reykjavik is pretty much highway the whole way there, then a bunch of rotaries and traffic in the city.  It was nice to see the city for us as it’d been foggy on Saturday morning but I’d certainly go the other way if I’d seen the city day 1.

We got fuel one last time, 8,000kr filled the tank and made it back to rent.is at 3:30pm to drop off the van.  No damage (and we had the full insurance anyway) so drop off was simple.  We walked back over the the airport (much easier having done it AND being able to see now w/o the fog!), checked in and did the usual airport things.

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