Explore Iceland's Mystical Hinterlands

From abandoned fish factories to volcanic beaches, the hinterlands of the West Fjords are Iceland at its most desolate.

- Josephine Price

Day 1

East to Heydalur

As my 4WD tears around another bend on the road from Ísafjörður Airport, the next fjord unfurls before me. Moss-cloaked, flat-topped peaks slide down into the vast expanse of water, their slopes framing the view.

After an 85-mile drive south east, hugging the coast of Ísafjörður’s fjord to Heydalur guesthouse, suddenly we’re off the tarmac and onto the gravel track to Heydalur, which announces itself with a scattering of barns, outhouses and hot pots (geothermic pools).

We stop the car, and within seconds I’m submerged in a boulder-ringed pool — my exposed skin prickling in the cold air, while the rest of me warms in the geothermic heat.

My pool is said to have been blessed in the 12th century by the bishop Guðmundur the Good, and as I look down the valley all the way to the sea, I feel the benediction was justified. Afterwards, Heydalur guesthouse owner Stella joins us for a meal of fresh, fragrant trout and local beers. “I was retired before we moved here 14 years ago,” she explains. “This is a second life for me.” The fresh air here is enough to give anyone a new lease of life.