Day Nine - Driving to West Iceland
Where we drive from Hvammstangi, attempting to buy some Icelandic farm-fresh icecream (and failing - it was closed 🙁), before driving around the windy Snaefellesnes peninsula and then spending the night at the Snorrastadir campsite.
Hvammstangi: Hvammstangi is a small village by Miðfjörður and happens to be a good place to do some gift shopping. Located here is the KIDKA Wool Factory, one of the biggest wool knitting factories in Iceland. Unfortunately, as it was a Sunday, the Kidka location was closed. It seems the only other spot is in Reykjavik, though you can find their sweaters in other stores. Would have been nice to check out their showroom! Ah well.
Instead, we found a gift shop, called Galleri Bardusa, which sells locally-made handicrafts and jewelry. It was closed when we arrived, but I was able to contact someone by phone who was able to come by to let us in. I ended up buying a sheep figurine, as well as horse-shaped earrings for my sister-in-law.
Erpsstadir Creamery: This was another spot touted by netizens on Reddit and looks to be a family-run dairy farm. I had been emailing / texting the phone number on their facebook, to advise them that we were planning on dropping by. Unfortunately, being a Sunday and due to it still being low-season, the creamery only opens on demand. Only on our arrival did we hear back from the owners saying they were in Reyjkavik that weekend.
The drive there on Highway 59 was beautiful, with snowy scenes all around us.
The creamery is located on a big, open farm with barns that held cows. We walked around the building trying to locate someone, and came close to many of the gentle cows, who were probably used to seeing humans and didn't seem startled. A lady drove in, likely noticing our arrival, and asked if the owners were there. We told her that it seemed they were still in Reykjavik. There was also a very gentle dog lying by the parking space when we arrived.
Aman and I were quite disappointed at not being able to enjoy an icecream or buy other dairy products, such as cheese, to take home with us, but alas. We love an icecream to finish our trips so it was sorely missed!
We kept on. At this point, the number of kms we'd racked up was likely weighing on Aman - it always comes with some amount of back soreness from sitting for so long in positions that can get uncomfortable, not to mention the stress of driving in winter conditions. As the passenger, I wasn't feeling any of that stress - I believe the Gen Zs refer to it to as 'passenger princess?'.
Snaefellesnes Peninsula Read more here about how we spent a very windy 2 hours driving through the Peninsula.
Snorrastadir Our last stop for the night was the Snorrastadir campsite, a welcome stop on a windy, blustery night. The facilities didn't seem as modern as the places we'd been to previously, but the kitchen was big and well-stocked and there were warm showers. We were joined later by several groups, including a family from north-east US, and a young couple from Egypt. We used the facilities to cook our meal, and then turned in for a well-earned rest.
