{"id":788,"date":"2021-08-15T08:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T08:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catmantravels.com\/?p=788"},"modified":"2025-09-05T06:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T06:47:12","slug":"iceland-day-12-exploring-the-westman-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catmantravels.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/15\/iceland-day-12-exploring-the-westman-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Iceland Day 12 – Exploring the Westman Islands & We Almost Got Stranded >:("},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We got off to a late start today since it was raining the entire morning, but it gave us an excellent opportunity to sleep in and rest. We made some delicious breakfast in the community room at our campsite and just took things really slow. It was also a good opportunity for us to stop by the local Bonus in town and restock our groceries and snacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The skies finally started to clear around 2:30 pm, so we decided to go hike one of the two volcanic peaks on the island. Eldfell <\/a>is a volcano in the Westman Islands which famously erupted in the middle of the town of Heimaey in 1973. I would highly recommend reading about the eruption and checking out the pictures in this Atlantic article: https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/photo\/2017\/01\/the-eldfell-eruption-of-1973\/514394\/<\/a> … It’s really quite interesting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were the only ones doing the hike on this day \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The hike to the top was grueling since you walked on unstable volcanic pebbles and ash, but it only took about 30 minutes. The views at the top were amazing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When we got back to the campervan after finishing our hike, we discovered that the battery had died and we couldn’t start it. We waited around for over an hour waiting for another car to come around, but no one came \ud83d\ude41 I also called our campervan rental company, and they said they would get back to us with a solution, but they never did as well. After all the waiting, I finally remembered that since the campervan had a manual transmission, I could try to bump-start it. Luckily we were parked at the top of an incline so Fayfay could push the van down the hill while I attempted to bump-start. Amazingly, it worked, and we could continue with our day. We decided to just drive around the Island and take in the sights since we didn’t want to park somewhere and risk getting stranded again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Icelandic sheep!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A beautiful harbor in the Westman Islands<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Afterward, we returned to the same campsite we stayed at last night, made some dinner, and hit the sack. Good night world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n