CLASS

TRAVEL
22
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2015
The West
How to get there: Take route 1 north, and turn onto route 60 to Búðardalur, from
where you can continue on route 60 to Sælingsdalur, or 586 to Haukadalsskarð. To get
to Dagverðarnes, retrace your steps onto route 1 and then turn onto route 508.
12 Hours
In
Sagaland
Exploring the West that got left behind
Words Ciarán Daly
Photos Art Bicnick
The Westfjords. Snæfellsnes. A petrol station. All places.
What do they have in common? Well, they’re synonymous
with western Iceland—and, of course, the west is the best.
What about other parts of the west,
though? Where are they? Are there
any? How do we get there?
To find out, we went west. To the region
of Dalir. “Valleys,” that means.
While not entirely off the beaten
track, the environs of Dalasýsla—“Dalir
County”—are hardly the first place tourists
would think to travel to. Nestled between
the Westfjords and the Snæfellsnes
peninsula, the Dalir region is the
untouched taint of the western Icelandic
pelvis—or maybe its armpit. With a
predominantly agricultural economy
and a not-so-dramatic landscape, it’s
been left somewhat behind in the cloud
of tourist dust sweeping everywhere
else.
Not necessarily a bad thing, that.
Famous mostly for being the setting
of many sagas, Dalir is one of the oldest
areas of Iceland, with a lot of history.
Whether you’re on a ring road trip
or you’re just one of those weird Saga
nerds, here’s some of the excellent!
exciting! things! you can see and do in
Strandir—complete with some notorious
local legends. Pull off the Ring Road
near Bifröst. Keep driving. You’ll get
there sooner than you think.
1. Erpsstaðir
Alright, you’ve been driving up the sheer
rock face of the majesty of nature for like,
what? An hour? There was a bunch of inaccessible
waterfalls? Cool! You must be
exhausted! It’s probably time to recharge
those batteries. Pop into Erpsstaðir—ICE
CREAM VALLEY—for some kick-ass ice
cream.
Obviously, this was our first stop.
Erpsstaðir was an odd experience for
us. When we arrived, the weather was
pretty terrible. There was a cute dog hopping
around on three legs, even though it
had four legs (we counted). We almost got
some sweet photos of some pumpin’ cows
(you can enter the cowshed for a small
fee), but they were busy.
The whole place also smelled pretty
badly of cow shit. Mixed with the ice
cream. In a strange, not-altogetherunpleasant
way. Then, a pig decided to
attack us, jumping its pig fence in some
sort of wild pig rage. We had to call the pig
master. It was a real pig mess.
Having said that, Erpsstaðir sells some
of the most kickass ice cream in all of
Nicecreamland, and the coffee is good.
It’s well worth a visit, to be sure.
On quiet nights, those in the valley say
they can hear the wind whisper the tiny ghost
screams of all the innocent ice cream people
thrown in the meat grinder to produce your
delicíóús ís. You fucking monster.
2. Eiríksstaðir
There isn’t much around here, huh?
Farms… farms… more farms. A couple
of waterfalls, I guess, but even that ice
cream place was a farm. Why are there
so many farms? No wonder they had so
many Sagas happen round here. You
need a bit of drama in a place like this.
(Danish TV producers employ a similar
logic.) Don’t worry, you get to see another
farm soon.
Eiríksstaðir is in Haukadalur, a pretty
cool and spooky valley populated by
some more farmers. It’s so spooky that
it is currently the shooting location for
the horror film ‘Mara’ (more about that
on page 14). There’s also a pretty nice
guesthouse right at the end of the road.
More on that later.
Anyway, Eiríksstaðir. Eiríksstaðir is
said to be the home of Leifur Eiríksson’s
dad, and therefore the birthplace of
LEIF THE LUCKY HIMSELF! I hear he’s
a pretty big deal. He used to have an
airport named after him, just like JFK.
For the low, low price of 500 ISK, you
can look inside his old-as-balls hobbit
house, which is located just metres
from the foundations of the actual original
old-as-balls hobbit house. If you
need the bathroom, there is one here.
(IT HAS NO LOCK. I FOUND THIS OUT
THE HARD WAY WHEN I OPENED THE
DOOR. I AM SO SORRY, MORTIFIED
NORWEGIAN WOMAN.)
On a nearby farm, there used to be
an annual party. One year, however, this
party resulted in no less than nineteen
illegitimate children. The local authorities
were very unimpressed. Shit must
have got really wild. No more parties in
the valley.
Opposite Dad’s house is a large
salmon fishing lake. There might be a
fisherman in there. If you fish, go fish! If
not, carry on.
Local legend has it that every winter, a
mythical lake troll named Davíð camps in the
salmon lake, stealing the fish treats of badlybehaved
local children in the nights leading
up to Christmas. Apart from hating Christians,
Davíð is a pretty nice guy. He just doesn’t like
to fish for himself in winter. It’s cold. As the old
saying goes: “Teach a troll to fish, and he’ll still
steal all of the Christian children’s snacks.”
3. Haukadalsskarð
Once you get lost at the end of the valley
like we did, you’ll see a sign pointing
to a dirt track that says “Haukadalskarð.”
FOLLOW THIS SIGN!
The road is seriously rough (rougher
than that of the rest of Haukadalur),
and I would not recommend you do this
in a Mini Cooper, as we did. Thankfully,
Art, our photographer, is a way better
driver than you.
The track will take you over a very
rickety bridge and some very pointy
rocks. At what is sort of the end of the
road (who knows?) you will see a super
old horse playground or something. It’s
eerie. You would not be surprised to
see a creaking swingset there, if horses
used swingsets. Take some photos.
Then, a pig decided to
attack us, jumping its pig
fence in some sort of wild
pig rage. We had to call
the pig master. It was a
real pig mess.
To your right is Haukadalskarð, a
COOL waterfall. Park the car. Tie your
laces. Walk down to it (if you’re daring
enough, you can get right up close).
On the way, there should be plentiful
blackberries and blueberries. Whatever
those berry things are called. Pick
them! They are DELICIOUS! Now, meditate/swim/Instagram
to your heart’s
content. It might be cold. Who knows? I
don’t swim!
If you’re looking for somewhere
to stay, head back to the roadsign for
Haukadalskarð and take the other
route. At the end of the road there is
the aforementioned Cool Guesthouse.
Go say hi!
The Haukadalskarð horse playground
is said to be the site of a brutal battle between
horses and men in the early Settlement
era, known in horse circles as the
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