We woke up very excited on Day 3 of our little vacation. We were finally going to ride one of those beautiful Icelandic horses in the most majestic setting. But first a quick detour to see an orange lighthouse near Hellissandur. It’s about a 20 minute detour from the main road, half of which is on gravel road. But if you want to experience the peacefulness and desolation of a wild lava filled coastline, grey-blue choppy waves of the vast ocean and a bright orange lighthouse adding the perfect color contrast, this is the place to be.
There are may working farms in this area the offers horseback riding. We chose the 1 hour ride with Lýsuhóll right on 54. As luck would have it we were the only ones in the group. Picture this: you are riding on a majestic horse surrounded by fields filled with purple wildflowers (lupine), lava fields with ocean in the background and framed by a massive glacier. Does it get any better than this? Mother nature outdid herself here. This reminded me of Lofoten Islands in Norway but if I really had to choose, Icelandic wins.
Happy and riding high from this wonderful experience we started out towards Akureyri. It was a long drive but the constant changing landscape and lack of traffic makes driving a pleasure. We chose to spend the night in a little town 10 minutes from Akureyri with a spectacular view of the Eyjafjörður.
Next morning we drove into town to check out the local botanical garden called Lystigarðurinn. I did not expect to be bowled over by this pretty little gem but it surprised me in a very good way. Definitely spend some time here and best of all it’s free! Here are some native beauties from this garden.
Keep reading for our close encounter with one of the most majestic sea creatures. Next post coming up soon but here is a sneak peak.
Just kidding. 🙂
Random little blog 