June 12 – Látrabjarg Bird Cliffs and Rauꝺasandur Golden Sand Beach

We were up quite early this morning for the drive over dirt roads to the Látrabjarg Bird Cliffs.  Along the way we stopped to take pictures of the blue hillsides.  The lupine is blooming like crazy and some hillsides almost covered with blue.

And we took lots of photos of thefPatreksfjodur Fjord and the surrounding mountains.  It is quite gorgeous.

Some of the hillsides were quite yellow from blooming yellow wildflowers.  Not sure what they are but they might be buttercups.

At the tip of the peninsula was the Breidavik Bay with a lovely golden sand beach.  Very pretty.

The bird cliffs were amazing.  The road took us right to the cliffs.  

We hiked up a short ways were we saw three people catching birds for some type of study.  They used a long pole with a noose to snag the birds from the cliffs.

They then put the bird in a bag so they could work with it and weighed the bag.  They made some notes and then banded the bird and released it (after they could get it to let go of the guys hand…one bird had a major grip on the man’s finger with his bill.  The bird they were working on was an auk.

We saw quite a few auks

as well as kittiwakes,

and other birds.

But the highlight was puffins.  There were a few that were quite near the top of the cliff and easy to photograph.  They didn’t seem to mind all the tourists or the cameras snapping away.  

The area also had quite a lot of wildflowers.

We spent most of the morning at the cliffs before heading back down the gravel road to another gravel road that took us to Rauðasandur Golden Sand Beach, the largest golden beach in Iceland.  With the sun at the right angle the beach can look red, but was golden for us.  

We took a walk at one end of the road to get better views of the beach.  There was a small campground there with bathrooms and some camping huts. 

And we saw more birds including swans,

Eider ducks with ducklings,

a golden plover,

a common snipe, 

and a stilt.

We also drove along the beautiful coastline for a while.

We really wanted to be sure we had enough time at the cliffs and the beach so we ended up missing our ferry to Flatey Island and then to Stykkishólmur beyond.  We didn’t mind as the drive took us through some gorgeous countryside...

and wonderful fjords.  

In the countryside the birds gave way to sheep and horses.

However, it was a five hour drive so we were pretty beat by the time we got to our hotel in the middle of nowhere.
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