Þingeyri, Dýrafjörður, Westfjords, Iceland.
“I’m going to go for an evening walk, do you want to come with me?” I asked my friend Julia while looking out the window. This time of the year the sun didn’t set, so you didn’t had to worry about ending your hike in the dark. “Yeah, sure!” She answered. Some moments later, we were walking along the fjord and with Sandafell towering over us on our left, we were leaving the village of Þingeyri. A small distance outside of the village, we started following a small path up the hill. After a while, the path stopped and a few yellow poles marked the way over the rocks, leading further uphill. But, then they stopped. “Euuh...” I said. “What should we do now?” In front of us, was just a very stony slope, which went very much uphill. “Shall we go up al little further, until we reach the next ridge?” Julia agreed and we started going further up, finding our way as we went.
But there was no designated path there either. “Are you sure this is the correct way up? They told me that the way up to Sandafell was so easy to find that I couldn’t possible mis it.” Julia said. “Well it’s supposed to be just a path uphill right outside of the village.” I answered unsure. “Why don’t we go up one more ridge? We might have a better overview there.” I added. We actually started crawling at this point, using our hands and feet, to prevent the hill from throwing us of. After the next ridge, no path either. What did we expect anyway. But now we reached the point of no return, so we kept crawling and crawling until we got sight of the actual peak of Sandafell.
In the end, we basically winged it up the mountain, until we reached the snow, still lying on top. The view was absolutely amazing. We could watch all over Dýrafjörður and the mountains around and behind Brekkudalur. All the way up to the peak of Kaldbakur, playing hide and seek between the clouds. We touched the snow, admired the compass statue and took a very original ‘hiking boots and mountains’ picture, before we started walking down the other end of the mountain. Because of course, there lied a very obvious broad path, all the way to the foot of the mountain, where a very big sign pointed direction Sandafell. I mean, you could even drive up there. Apparently we left the village on the wrong side, but we got a very nice round hike in return.
END NOTE You cannot go to Þingeyri without going up Sandafell. It’s almost mandatory. It’s a very easy (if you follow the path..) hike uphill, only 350 meters. Or you could even drive almost to the top. If you however, want to wing your way up on any other point, then please be careful. Not only for your own safety (you know, loose rocks and steep slopes), but also for nature’s sake. The vegetation is very fragile, so be careful with your big, clumsy hiking boots.