Day 74 Herring fishing and a late night in a geothermal pool

Siglufjordur - in the herring boom times

Siglufjordur was one of the places I read about before we came to Iceland and was always going to get a visit - as is the lagoon full of icebergs from the Bond film ( one for next week :-) )

It is a really fascinating place - no road at all until 1940 and then the mountain road was only accessible during the summer. In 1967 they built a tunnel through the coast cliff side to gain all year road access but until then everyone came and went by sea even though the town was the Herring capital of Iceland.

Captain Katie

Herring boat in the museum

The herring disappeared in the late 60's after many 'goldrush' years where tens of thousands came to find work. Up to then the town had 20+ salting factories, Norwegian boats filling the fjord and pier after pier where they either gutted and packed the herring in barrels or processed the fish into fishmeal.

There was no active objection to a visit but no real enthusiasm for a trip to the Herring Era museum but when we got there how that changed ! After the herring left, the town depopulated and went through depression; in the late 80's a group of locals got together to preserve a few key buildings and put the museum together.

Jack bunked up

Jack - the Herring girl 

They let you crawl all over a herring boat - down into the engine room, sleeping area, kitchen etc  -  its exactly as they left it with the cupboards still with 1960 food packets in; the ladders aren't attached and it is a health and safety death trap but the kids couldn't get enough of it...nor me.

The Salting factories all had rooms for the 'Herring Girls' on the top floors of the buildings, 8 to a room, and again they were exactly as left, even with graffitti by their bunks

So we emerged some 2 hours later, posed as 'Herring Girls' in action and went for our first meal out in Iceland....an interesting buffet, a 16" pizza and burger.

In 2010 they opened a 6km plus another 4km tunnel to connect the town of Siglufjordur to the east fjord. Herrings may have gone but the town is booming again.

The deal was that I planned the morning and Katie planned the afternoon. We left and headed further west on another stunning drive.

Katie had looked at the map and the 2004 Rough Guide and had found a hot geothermal pool located at the end of a 19 km gravel road - the book said the road had been nearly washed away but checking in the local town then confirmed that the creaking van should get down it OK.

There was a lovely small campsite there when we got down the road with just a couple of tents on it.

Just by the site was 2 natural hot pools - one was a 'one minuter' as the temperature was absurdly hot, the larger one was perfect for lolling about and having a beer. The route to it was hazardous, arctic turns dive bombing us as we twirled our towels above our heads.

We even took a quick dip in the sea before jumping back in the hot pool again.......

Drangey

3 miles offshore is the island of Drangey - through binoculars the cliffs are white with guano and it is home to lots and lots of birds......if we had longer we would have taken a trip out there, save it for next time.

Backdrop to the campsite with Jack and Charlie on the trampoline

We were down at the hot pool again at 11 pm when we had the pools to ourselves. A Top day all round



Day 74 Siglufjordur (I) to Reykjadiskur (I)           125 Km       Total    10749 Km