The traffic was sparse all day. It seems odd that a country filled with tourists, whose highway system is organized around one giant ring, would have less traffic in one place than another. Don’t all the tourists eventually drive all the way around the island?
Turns out they don’t. The northeast part of the island is much less popular, and most folks turn around in their rented cars and head back rather than doing a loop. I was now in the southeast, and beyond all the big attractions. The only traffic was from locals, and tourists who were using the ferry boat, or actually doing the loop.
The calm road let my eyes wander, and I saw many an informative sign.
Building a road is often something that happens in long intervals.
I finished the last of my Warlock Holmes, and switched over to a book about Norse mythology. It was a bit clinical. Too many names and undifferentiated battles, not enough context. It was more fun to switch back to the Skyrim playlist and imagine a gigantic Odin stomping around the fields, drop-kicking sheep and blasting holes in the mountains.
A view all the way up the valley to the start of the river, where the glacier originally came down and carved it.
In the late afternoon I passed into a town advertising Petra’s stone collection, a popular tourist spot. I’d already toured a similar collection though, so I gave it a pass.
I’m not enitrely sure how to interpret the drawing on this sign.
One of the locals told me about a campground on the east side of town. They said the bathrooms there weren’t working, so I could just stay there for free if I liked. I rolled over there and it was a great patch of flat ground with a stand of trees to cut the wind.
The bathrooms were closed at this tiny campground, so the manager of the local store said I could stay for free. Very Iceland.
