Secret Siglo

Siglufjordur, Iceland, 66°N, +11°C, 1/7, 13:43

01 02 01 The Grana fishmeal and oil factory, one of five fascinating exhibition buildings that make up Siglo’s Herring Era Museum.

02 A wide range of memorabilia and artefacts, such as these locally produced cans of herring, were donated to the museum by people who lived and worked in Siglo during the “Herring Adventure”.

03 The elegant Siglo Hotel, which has views of the open fjord.

04 Leyningsfoss, a “secret” waterfall tucked away in a lovely wooded area just outside of town.

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clientele clinking glasses around a crackling fire in the lounge – I can’t help but imagine myself in an Agatha Christie novel. Most of our fellow travellers are Icelanders who’ve come to enjoy the town’s small but well-appointed ski area, which is part of a network of five reciprocal facilities in North Iceland. In marked contrast to hotel demographics elsewhere in the country, my partner and I are among the few foreign guests currently checked in. Siglufjordur, it seems, is where Icelanders go when they want to get away.

The hotel extends into a working harbour which has recently been restyled as Siglo’s “Marina Village”. It’s not hard to imagine the area being quite lively come July: along with two patio restaurants, visitors can enjoy mini golf and giant outdoor chess in the summer. Stepping out in blue afternoon light of early March, however, we encounter a much more contemplative atmosphere. The few people who pass each other coming out of the bakery, the swimming pool, and Torgid, the local pizza place, generally seem to know one another. Walking up the hill past the red-roofed church and into the lovely mountainside cemetery, there’s no sound but the crunch of snow under our boots. And although the sun has yet to set when we reach the impressive illuminated cross at the top of the churchyard, when we turn around we can see the whole town before us, shimmering in the glow of the rising moon.

With… a herring!

The local Herring Era Museum does not have regular hours during the winter months, but a quick email is all it takes to arrange a visit. Spread across five adjoining buildings, the museum immerses visitors in the sights and sounds of Iceland’s “Herring Adventure”, a 100-year period when enormous stocks of the fish were found in the waters north of Siglo, earning it the nickname “The Klondike of the Atlantic”.

The museum’s first exhibit invites you to poke around the dorm for a group of “herring girls”. With tinny music issuing from a phonograph and a leaky tap dripping in the kitchen, it feels like they’ve just stepped

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out of the room, tying their hair up in kerchiefs and heading down to the pier to clean and salt the incoming catch. In the factory next door you wind through a maze of machinery, absorbing the ingenuity of an industry that quickly learned to wrest every ounce of usable oil or meal from each herring processed. And then, finally, there’s the Boathouse – “the best one”, laughs museum director Anita Elefsen when I gasp audibly. It’s a recreation of a typical herring port featuring 11 different boats, including one 38-tonne vessel that you can climb aboard and explore.

A walk in the woods

Gifted with another sunny afternoon, we head to the edge of town to explore a small, idyllic wood that’s crisscrossed with trails for walking or snow-shoeing. Our aim is to find Leyningsfoss, or “Secret Fall”, a picturesque waterfall tucked amidst the evergreens.

It may be secret, but it isn’t hard to find. Within 10 minutes we’ve followed the sound of rushing water to a small dell where we forget ourselves for a moment, watching light refract off the icicles that lace the fall. Picnic tables dot the forest, and though we haven’t brought a lunch, peeling off our coats and sitting in the sunshine is its own kind of nourishment, a moment of completely unexpected beauty and solitude before we make our way back home.

Siglufjordur

Akureyri

Keflavik Reykjavik

Getting there:

Air Iceland Connect offers regular flights from Keflavik and Reykjavik to Akureyri. From there, it’s just over an hour’s drive to Siglufjordur; visitors can rent a car at Akureyri Airport. Alternately, Straeto offers bus service on the 78 from Akureyri to Siglufjordur three times daily, Monday through Friday, and once daily on Sunday. (Note that there is no bus service to/from Siglufjordur on Saturdays.)

DID YOU KNOW...

Air Iceland Connect flies to four countries outside Iceland: Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland and Scotland?

TRAVEL Ocean swimming

Come on in, the water’s fine

The majestic Eyjafjordur fjord, which looks even more gorgeous from a toasty-warm hot tub.

Hjalteyri is one of those places travellers stumble upon unexpectedly and then remember forever.

TEXT & PHOTO: Larissa Kyzer

The unassuming village of Hjalteyri (pop. 43) in North Iceland is less than 20 minutes from Akureyri. You can’t see the village until you’re almost upon it. Cresting a hill at the end of a long road, it appears beneath you: a concrete factory with a towering chimney, a single pier stretching into the bay, and a smattering of red-roofed houses, all circled around the silent, deep blue expanse of Eyjafjordur fjord.

Having long stood empty, the former herring factory is now home to Verksmidjan, an award-winning art gallery that hosts summer exhibitions; and Strytan, a year-round scuba dive centre named after a protected underwater site, a hydrothermal chimney just offshore. Having stopped to snap a few photos, my partner and I are delighted to discover a freestanding, fjord-facing hot tub. Even better, there’s a public dressing room in the factory behind us. (PRO TIP #1: Always carry a swimsuit and towel when travelling around Iceland.) We hadn’t planned on a soak, but there’s no turning down a view like this, so we drop ISK 500 (USD 4.9) in the metal box affixed to the wall, turn a knob to heat the pot up to a balmy 40°C (104°F), and get ready.

Then it’s decision time. Do we get straight into the hot tub, or do we do as the locals recommend and first take a quick restorative dip in the fjord itself?

If the idea of immersing yourself in the North Atlantic in March (or July or August, for that matter) sounds crazy, it is. But being a true believer in the palliative effects of sea swimming, my course of action is clear. And so down I go, scrabbling over the sea wall and across the pebble beach. (PRO TIP #2: Waterproof shoes or, at the very least flip flops, are a must.) Then, after a little personal pep-talking, I take the plunge.

There are no two ways about it – the water’s freezing and for the first few seconds, the feeling isn’t pleasant. At all. But then, I look around, think about where I am in this moment, and feel so energised that I actually laugh out loud. At this time of year, safety demands that sea dips are kept short, so it’s not long before I’m back on the beach enjoying the disconnect of feeling somehow warm – faintly electric – after getting out of such cold water. And then, giggling, I fling myself into the hot tub: a much-deserved reward indeed.

DID YOU KNOW...

You can fly directly between Keflavik International Airport and Akureyri in North Iceland?