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Icelands South Coast at Routes 33 and 34 (Road Trip)

Florian Buechting Other Transportation No Comments

In this Pictured Story, I want to take you on a road trip in Iceland which I in fact already took in October 2021. Right after visiting Urridafoss, Iceland’s largest waterfall if you measure it by the volume of water processed, I headed to the Southern Coast of the country. The day was quite unique – it was rather sunny in the morning, but then there were quite significant snowfalls so that even the Ring Road #1 had to be closed temporarily. Enjoy these impressions from my little tour, which overall did not take more than 45 minutes (including several photo stops), but had some really nice views.

 

Icelands South Coast on Routes 33/34 – Overview

From the waterfall, I headed down the Urridafossvegur Southbound and then – after a few hundred meters on the Villingaholtsvegur, further South on the 308, Hamarsvegur. All the streets are well paved or well-to-drive unpaved roads so that you should typically be able to use them with a normal (non 4WD) car. The road trip in fact starts when the 308 crosses route 33, close to the old Gaulverjaskoli school house, which nowadays seems to be an accommodation.

From that place on, I headed South towards the Olfus. Near Eyrarbakki, route 33 merges into route 34. I turned left to follow the coastline. My road trip ends where route 34 merges into route 38 near Ölfus. On the part of the trip covered by the Pictured Story, the city of Stokkseyri offers all kind of services (hotel, food, petrol). Alternatively, you find these things in Ölfus as well. Eyrarbakki also has a petrol station. The car I used was a Dacia Duster 4WD, which I rented with Blue Car Rental.

 

Icelands South Coast on Routes 33/34 – Impressions

The weather on that day was simply amazing – even right before I entered the road 33, the snowy mountains in the background gave a lovely view. I did not plan to go for this posting, but it was just too appealing to do it. At the old school, I entered road 33 Southbound. Most of the area is somehow farmland, the coastal area is also great for birdwatching (if there is no breeding season and you disturb the animals). Icelandic Horses are also a big thing in this area, one of the pictures you see featured the GobbiGobb Horse Center, for example. The old creamery in this area was unfortunately close, so that the next stop was at Knarrarósviti, “Knarraros Lighthouse”, a rather iconic landmark on the trip. If you take a hike there in summer, you likely make friends with the local horse breed.

The road is now really next to the water and there is are major ponds on the land side as well. Some places also allow very well to review the volcanic activity in the area. The largest village on the trip is Stokkseyri, which is stretching along the coast line and offers some services. I liked the mural at the local supermarket (which is rather modern, by the way – if you compare it to Google Street View, you see that they don’t have it). The area also offers several oppprtunities to stop the car and enjoy beach views. Soon after leaving Stokkseyri, I started to follow route 34.

Getting closer to the mountains now, the view got even better now. Eyrarbakki is a neat village quite soon after the road crossing, which does not offer too many touristic facilities apart from horse riding tour companies. You now cross the fjord created by the Ölfusa river. Right on the left hand side lies the picturesque Hafid Blaa restaurant. It was closed during my visit and it is shown to be closed on Google Maps at the time of writing this posting. The Lobster by the Sea statue is an eye-catcher. In general this has been another lovely part of the trip, being surrounded by water from both sides, before I went on towards Keflavik on route 38 and the trip came to an end.

 

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