Day's Hike in the Nature Reserve: We travelled by boat from Ísafjörður in the morning to the abandoned village at Sæból in Aðalvík. We continued on foot to another abandoned settlement at Hesteyri. On the way we passed the old church and parsonage at Staður and, crossing the mountain, enjoyed a spectacular and panoramic view across Ísafjarðardjúp and Jökulfirðir/Glacial fjords to the glacier of Drangajökull. We returned by boat from Hesteyri in the evening.

The boat went at about 20 knots and took about 75 minutes to get to our destination.

I spent some time on the "bridge". The boat had the finest equipment. The GPS and autopilot were a nice touch. Water temperature was about 10 degrees C - it goes to about 3 degrees C in the winter and does not freeze even though it is about 50 miles from the Arctic Circle.

The first part of the hike was through lush greenery - and quite wet.

Erik was prepared with insect netting to protect us from the abundant midges. We would have been very uncomfortable without this luxury item.

We found this old church and parsonage at Staður. A church has been on this location for several hundred years even though very few people have every lived here. Sometimes it is used today for a remote wedding or funeral. A small cemetery was nearby. The building materials were originally brought in by horse in the winter when the ground was frozen and show covered.

Part of the fun of this hike was crossing this glacial river. The water had traveled more than 5 minutes from the snow field closeby.

It  was not deep, but it was cold. The rocks on the bottom were slippery and sharp - all part of what we would come to know later as the "Icelandic experience".

The tongue of the Drangajökull Glacier in the distance.

Now on the beach of rocks in some places ...................

...............and sand in others.

Waiting on the pier for our boat which arrives at 19:00 exactly. We had spent almost 11 hours on the hike and covered 14 km or about 8.4 miles