Iceland north

Black, Hot Autumn

(Tuesday 10th September, 2019)

Beautiful view of reflections on very calm water during our hike.

Our accommodation had breakfast included today, so at about 7:45 we went down to stuff our faces at the buffet. There were a lot of people at the guest house, even though it had seemed to be a bit out of the way – but then again, there seem to be people everywhere you go here. We had woken up to grey, misty weather, apparently being in a cloud (we were at high altitude).

We drove off around 8:30, and as soon as we got a few km away from the guest house, the cloud cleared and visibility improved dramatically (although still no sun).

Our first stop was by the shore of Myvatn and another, smaller lake, by the view point called Skútustaðagígar. It was a very picturesque place with small pseudo volcanic shapes next to the lake, sheep, birds (ducks, geese and swans in particular), and the mountains in the background. We went for a small hike of 3 km around the smaller lake, and although we did get severely pestered by small gnats, it was a very serene walk.

Another wonderful view from our little hike.

Next stop was at the side of the road leading towards Dimmuborgir, where there were some pretty volcanic formations in the small lake, and where the trees had turned to their autumn colours.

Dimmuborgir was next, and it was very interesting with the large volcanic formations and the yellow/orange/red/green/purple foliage in stark contrast to the black; and with the Hverfjall volcano towering in the background. I guess the autumn colours on the tree leaves made it even more spectacular than it would have been otherwise.

We walked around Dimmuborgir for an hour or two, taking the blue, more strenuous route that led us well in between the formations and away from the regular path. I’m still not quite sure why the band came up with this name, though.

Dimmuborgir in autumn dress.

After this we briefly went up to a thermal bath and had a glance, although the entrance was priced at 5300 ISK per person, which we thought was a bit steep – so no swimming for us. The water was very blue, smelled a bit like sulfur and was between 37-39 degrees warm.

Almost right across the road was another thermal lake with boiling water sputtering out from underground. Enough that there was a geothermal power plant placed there. The colour of the water was a bright blue and with the steam carrying across the surface, it looked very nice.

Further up Road 1 we’d find the boiling pots of Hverir where we also made a stop. The colours on the ground here ranged from white to red to green to yellow to purple, and the steam coming out from underground smelled strongly sulfuric. It was fun to see how the mud boiled in the “pots”, and to realise just how hot the ground must be almost right beneath your feet. We walked around here for a bit before driving on – in the now rain.

View of the boiling pots of Hverir.

Some of the landscape on this next stretch was very barren and black, almost desolate like a moon landscape. A bit dull in the long run, although interesting to see.

Some 25 km off the Ring road we went to see Dettifoss and Selfoss. Had to walk about 1.2 km from the parking lot. Dettifoss was very impressive, very strong as the water came roaring down. It is supposedly the second strongest waterfall in Europe. Selfoss was a little less visited, and although it looked pretty nice, it was not as impressive as Dettifoss.

There are a lot of tourists everywhere, it seems, and especially many around Dettifoss. The parking lot basically seemed a small sea of white rental cars.

Dettifoss’ size in context.

Our second to last stop was at a café in Egilsstaðir where we had a coffee and a rest so that we could book our accommodation for the night (12 km outside the town in Eiðar). We also went to have our dinner here, eating at an American style dinner of all places.

We then drove to our (cheap) hotel/hostel, which kind of looks like it’s placed in an old school. We arrived here at about 19:15 and are now resting, preparing for a long stretch of driving tomorrow.