Day 8
Mom had us up early and we were out the door by 8am. We were headed to Rauðisandur. On the way there we had to go on some really curvy roads as we weaved our way down the mountain to the bottom. The blue line is the road that we were driving on.
Mom did not know much about Rauðisandur and what it was. But she later found out that it is a beach with a sand bar that you can walk all the way around the water. I then googled it and found out more. The sands at the Rauðisandur change in color from being yellow to red to black. Rauðisandur beach stretches for 10 km (6.21 miles) from Látrabjarg bird-cliff in the west towards Skorarhlíðar mountainside in the east. The water is ice cold and very shallow, that is why you can walk around the river (ocean) through sands and shallows. The farmers living in the area walk across to find whale bones. Very interesting I thought.
When we got to where we were going there was not much, but rocks, grass, and water and mud. There were sheep walking in the water and eating grass off of rocks. Jack, Bria, and Landon, ran down to the water’s edge. They had to walk in a little mud to get there, but they did not mind in the least. They also were walking on the rocks to see how far they could get out and then to see if there were any fish. They did not see anything, but it was fun to look around. We then drove farther down the road and came to a little church. Mom told me to go and see if the church was locked. It was, so we walked on, and saw a farm farther down the road. When we were done looking around, we headed back to the car and drove to Látrabjarg Cliff.
On the way to Látrabjarg we passed through a small town of maybe 15 houses. On the outskirts of this town was a nice sized hotel/restaurant. We stopped and went into use bathrooms and then we investigated the deserted restaurant, mom got a coffee and we shared two Sprites.
When we finally got to the parking lot of the park, it was so windy that we could feel it in the car, way up the cliffs along the shore and the higher you go the more windy it is. We got out and walked slowly to the cliff and there was a straight drop down to rocks and water below! It was so windy blowing out to sea that I felt like I could have been blown right off. Mom was really terrified/scared that one of us would fall off, so we had to stay away from the edge. There was a building up there that we stood behind, that way we were not standing in the force of the wind while mom tried to find the next place to go. Bria was really curious what it looked like straight down so she got down on her hands and knees and inched her way to the edge. There was a sign warning the ground could unexpectedly break off the edge of the cliff and you would fall hundreds of feet to the rocks below. Bria did get close enough to see straight down! Mom quickly put an end to doing that. Látrabjarg is known for its unusual variety of bird life, that is why many people come to this extreme location, the furthest point east in Iceland. Unfortunately the last of the puffins had migrated for the season so we did not get to see any. I guess that is part of the downside of traveling off season.
After the cliffs we were cold and hungry! So we started the long trek back to Patreksfjordur. We then had a nice quiet afternoon of school and games. In the evening, at the end of our street, there was an inflatable trampoline! It provided after school entertainment for local kids. We joined the fun and learned to know a couple people and had a ton of fun bouncing. Communication was a bit tough though as they didn’t seem to speak English too well. At sunset each evening the trampoline deflated and we went home. And of course we forgot to take a picture of it so I drew an idea of what it looked like, aerial view.
