Warrington Family: Arctic Coast Way

Today we decided not to take the '1' direct highway to our destination, instead following the (likely) more interesting Arctic Coast Way.

We essentially drove about 40% of the ACW which tissue about 900km of you start at the eastern most point.

We spent a couple of hours in Siglufjordur which is our northern most point (ever probably). It is a nice wee fishing village; one of many because Iceland has a long history of economics from fishing (controlled by others for a long time).

Think of NZ gold rush days and change the commodity to herring and the photos and story lines are similar. Gold mining still happens, and so does fishing here, but the scale has shrunk and machine use increased.

They definitely need tourism to keep people employed.

Siglufjordur does tourism well; explaining it's history to us. Geography is obvious.

This is a rebuilt fishing dock scene, inside an old unused fishing business shed.

Old processing plant

Filled with old machines and descriptions.

Artwork in memory of the 'herring girls' who worked hard, barrelling salted fish whenever the boats came in. This seems to have meant 'most of the time!' so it's unlikely there was a union movement here.

Nonetheless the photos we saw showed ladies always with smiles. They seemed too revel in being part of the busiest town, earning good money and being where the boys were 😁.

Their accommodation was like an overcrowded bunkhouse. Think shared beds - the person currently sleeping was off shift, the others was on shift.

Icelandic language is a challenge to pronounce even if someone helps.