We got an early start heading to Borgarfjörður Eystri and Hafnarhólmi. We left the Ring Road at Egilsstaðir and got onto Route 94 which, except for a few stretches, is a mostly gravel / dirt road. There was a long drive across a delta area, then we crossed a mountain range on an “exciting” road to arrive at the smaller valley of Borgarfjörður Eystri at around 11 am. Pam was really stressed out by the road and it took a little while to relax, but there was good reason to let go of the road anxiety and start appreciating the puffins! We went right to the puffin island of Hafnarhólmi and spent hours there, with a short lunch break in the campervan at around 1:30 pm.
Hafnarhólmi used to be an island but the people built jetties connecting the near-shore island to the mainland to create a little harbor. The birds totally ignore all the tourists and photographers snapping their pictures. There are no bad predators from the land. And, the people don’t hunt the birds the way they have done in the Westmann Islands. Boardwalks, stairs, and platforms allow people to get within a couple feet of the puffins. The constructed walkways keep the people from trampling the maze of puffin burrows on the cliff tops. Kittiwakes and fulmars nest on the cliff faces. Further out on the island was a tern nesting area without closeup access.
We spent all day photographing all the birds and left a little before 5 pm to head back to the campground to pick a spot. We ate dinner at Alfacafe where we got the all-you-can-eat fish soup special. It came with homemade bread. David’s beverage was Maltextrakt, an iconic Icelandic beverage somewhat like a slightly sweet, non-alcoholic beer (https://bit.ly/3rWi6Wl) .
After dinner, we spent more time taking photos and hiked up Álfaborg, a rocky hill called City of the Elves, immediately adjacent to our campground. There were lots of snipes doing their swooping flights over the campground’s grassy fields. We started setting up the van for sleeping around 9:30 pm.
