We awake to rain drumming on the van. I suppose that (apart from day 2) weve been very lucky with the weather so far. Today we have not got far to go and have made good progress so we can take it easy.
So far there has been no sign of anyone taking payment at the campsitea little worrying as Iceland seems to be full of hidden cameras, snapping your number plate and waiting to slap you with a hefty fine if you dont work our which website to visit or app to download in order to pay! Until now this has only applied to various carparks or national park areas that we have driven in to. Most campsites have been fairly unsophisticatedie someone drives in between collects payment and issues ticket for windscreen. Perhaps they will turn up this morning?
We have had our breakfast and are just about thinking of leaving when the camp warden turns up. He takes payment and says he will sort out the lack of loo paper! Amazingly he does and now we are ready for the off.
from the campsite, but now its raining so we take the van. Faskrudfjordur was established as a small town in the late 19th century by a group of French men who fished it until 1914. As a nod to its past, the road signs are labelled in Icelandic and French. Apart from an interesting little garden theres little else to report.
Its now raining in earnest. Any thoughts of a walk are quickly abandoned and we make our way to Reydarfjordur, a mere 20km away of which 6km involve driving through a very long mountain tunnel.
There is a war museum in the town but it doesnt open till 1pm so we stop off at a supermarket to pick up milk and bread and use their facilities. We arrive at 11.01, which is handy as they dont open till 11 either! There is also a pharmacy next door where we purchase a small bottle of cough medicine for Ian£12, ouch!
With all this time on our hands we considered doing a fry up in the back but were really not that hungry as breakfast was late. We decide on a sandwich instead and a mug of steaming
We make our way to the end of town and park up in the museum car park. I decide its not my thing and leave Ian to enjoy it in peace. I snuggle up in the back of the van to catch up on some of my Spanish lessonswrapped in a blanket and the heater blowing semi efficiently.
The museum documents Icelands occupation between 1940 and 1945 by first the British, and later the Americans. The Island was a vital staging post across the Atlantic and base for aircraft. The first 150 military personnel arrived in June 1940, followed by bigger British and US garrisons; most of whom being withdrawn by 1943 since it was felt that Germany was now unable to invade. The museum illustrated the effect on the population- at one stage the populations near to the camps were outnumbered by at least
Since there was only limited enemy activity directed at Iceland; several small air raids by one or two bombers, there were few war like artefacts - only three German aircraft crashed on the
The museum is housed in several Nissan huts which were originally the military hospital facility. The majority of the other camps were dismantled by the Icelanders after the war for use as agricultural buildings.
The vehicles on display are all US trucks - after the war the locals just used them as logistical transport until they could replace them - one of them was still in use in the 1990s.
OK so its now another half hour drive to Egilsstadir - a major town of the Eastern region. Here there are much larger supermarkets (theres a few things weve failed to acquire at the smaller places) and we note that fuel prices are quite a bit cheaper so we will fill up before we leave the area. We pretty much have in and out of this town over the next day or so.
our campsite at Seydisfjordur, which I will call Sadist Fjord. My reasoning being that it looks a very simple drive of 27 km - around half an hour. Actually no wayand when I turn on the terrain option I can see whywe are climbing steeply over a steep mountain road.
