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Kirkjubæjarklaustur to Stokkseyri:
We had tried to see puffins in Ireland on the cliffs in the north but they had all gone elsewhere when we were there last year. The guides all say the puffins have left Iceland by the 15th August but we were still hopeful. We drove out to a headland called Hálsanefshellir. Here there are huge caves lined again with all sizes of columns of basalt, some fanning out at odd angles or sweeping up over the roof of the caves. Off the black pebble and sand beach, sea stacks rise from the water. And there in the cliff face high above the caves were puffins!
The podgy little birds fly with enormous urgency, flapping their wings at a great rate and never stopping to simply glide. They often land with an ungraceful thump on the ledge. What extraordinarily unlikely little creatures!
We drove next out to the next headland, Kap Dyrhólaey, and here we were only 10 metres from resting birds on a cliff top. So interesting to be so close.
At Skógar we stopped to have lunch next to a huge waterfall (Skógarfoss) with such a volume of water falling so far that to approach the waterfall is to be enveloped with spray. Here in this village too, we booked a trip to a live volcano in a couple of days' time. So we will have to return here after our next adventure tomorrow.
We found our Camping Card site with no trouble at all this time in a small village by the sea. Again it was very basic, though beautifully clean, but this time we were completely on our own! And no-one came to collect any money either. And though it rained most of the night, by morning the ground was drying and the rainclouds were drifting away.
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