The Best for Last
Yesterday, our last full day on the Ring Road, was perhaps the best of all. We found a quaint little Guest House for breakfast and it was a nice break from the hot drinks with fruit and yogurt we usually eat in our camp kitchen. George’s Icelandic waffles even came with a scoop of ice cream so how is that for starting your day?
Just outside of Vic is a bird sanctuary that, according to Rick Steves, occasionally has nesting puffins. The best place for viewing is the Vestmann Islands but our time did not permit us to visit there. We made a stop and, to our surprise, we spotted a tour guide with a telescope and we knew we were in luck! The puffins were right there! They are friendly little creatures and curious, too. They would fly quite close to us as they played and flew around together. I have seen puffins from a distance, aboard boats both in South America and in Alaska but these were closer and bigger! Made our day!!!
Just a short drive in the same area brought us to a scenic lighthouse. You know I have a keen weakness for lighthouses so we snapped just a few too many photos! From there we continued toward the end of our journey but made several stops to gawk at the glaciers along the way. It was a winter wonderland in the middle of July.
We found a campground near Keflavik in a neighboring community called Sandgeroi. It was quite small and nicer than any other camping spot thus far. From there we traveled to to tip of the Keflavik Peninsula to eat at a much-recommended restaurant near an old lighthouse called Rostin! This place alone will be enough to make us return. It was located on the tip of the peninsula with an unbelievable panoramic view and, once again, the prawns and the lambchops were unbelievable.
It was time to return the van on the morning of the 6th day. We arose early, cleaned the van, packed up gear, food, and personal belongings and took our final ride back to the Camp Easy rental site. The good folks there thanked us for caring for the van, provided a shuttle to airport where we boarded the FlyBus to Reykjavik. Thus, the first leg of our trip comes to an end!
