Tuesday 8-11
Today we woke up at Lake Mývatn and got our first glimpse of the area after arriving late (and in the pitch black the night before).
We'd heard that it was a beautiful area, and despite the name (Mývatn means Midge Lake - as in those annoying little flies) it was.
Mývatn is a volcanic lake in north Iceland that was formed by a basalt lava eruption 2300 years ago. The whole area in the north/northeast of Iceland is heavily affected by the volcanic and geothermal conditions.
We were staying inthe Dimmuborgir (means dark castles - referring to the volcanic caves and formations) Guesthouse on the shore of Lake Mývatn and Kris got some great pictures in the morning when it was light enough to see. The fog had burnt off and there were patches of blue sky (which were sadly missing the night before when we wanted to see the Northern Lights).
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| View from our balcony |
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| Lake Mývatn |
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| Some of the rock formations that give Dimmuborgir its name |
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| Lake Mývatn |
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| Lake Mývatn with a giant crater in the background |
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| Mountains in the distance |
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| Lake Mývatn |
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| Lake Mývatn |
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| Dimmuborgir Guesthouses |
Once we'd had a bit of a rest and packed our bags, we were off to our next stop - Dettifoss waterfall.
Time-lapse:
By the time we hit Dettifoss, the car was in desperate need of some loving. Having driven on dirt roads most of the night before, it was starting to look messier than Cameron's bedroom - and that's saying something!
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| "Wash me" seems to be an understatement here. But Kris looks proud of herself |
Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Europe, based upon the volume of water passing over it (193 m^3/s). It is over 44m high, and 100m wide. It is part of the river Jökulsá á Fjöllum which flows from the Vatnajökull glacier. Both sides of the waterfall can be reached, but the western bank was closest and serviced by the best road. To get from the carpark to Dettifoss we needed to walk through a moon-like rock field:
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| Leaving the carpark |
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| Looking over the path to Dettifos |
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| Exploring |
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| It felt like another planet - in fact this area was used as another planet in the movie Promethius |
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| On the way |
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| First sight of the spray from Dettifoss |
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| Dettifoss to give an idea of the scale of the falls, the red dot on the far side is a person...) |
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| The person and the scale of the falls |
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| The canyon that Dettifoss flows into - complete with rainbow in the spray |
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| Some idiots at the lookout - its at least 20m down to the rocks below and then what would probably be an unstoppable roll down another 50m into the canyon. It was so wet, slippery and muddy that the look-out was actually closed so we couldn't even get up there, let alone climb over the barriers. |
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| The lookout and rainbow |
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| Full width shot of Dettifoss Falls |
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| The gorge |
After Dettifoss, it was a short hike upstream to the Selfoss falls. Unfortunately the position of the sun created some nasty glare that made taking photos difficult - how inconsiderate.
Selfoss is 11m high and a few meters upstream of Dettifoss.
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| "Mum, can you turn the sun off please?" |
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| Looking back towards Dettifoss |
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| The top of Selfoss |
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| Waiting for Kris to finish taking pictures |
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| Bottom of Selfoss |
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| Looking down river towards Dettifoss |
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| Selfoss and sunglare |
Since we failed a little with our photos, here's a pic from google of what it looks like without the glare:
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| Google shot of Selfoss (note that even this has some glare..) |
Well with that, we put the sun behind us (literally) and headed back to the car. Our next stop was Krafla.
Krafla is a caldera (a cauldron shaped depressed caused when magma bursts out and the ground sinks into the empty space). It has been the site of a geothermal power station since 1977, which produces 60 MWe. Magma was found only 2.1km below the surface in some places.
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| Krafla Geothermal power station - that's clean (but sulphur-smelling) steam, not smoke |
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| Driving through the pipe gateway to the magical land beyond - I expected some shimmering between the pipes. |
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| Krafla's Víti (hell) crater |
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| Looking out over Krafla lavafields |
Next stop was Hverir, a geothermal area with bubbling mud pools and fumaroles (openings in the crust which emit steam and gases). At 1km deep, the temperature is over 200 degrees C. The fumeroles are caused by cold ground water seeping down to the areas where magma leaks out. The water is super heated and transformed to steam, where it rises back to the surface. The steam also contains fumerole gas, including sulphur hydroxide, which gives the egg smell.
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| Boiling mud pool |
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| Looking out over Hverir |
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| Chemical deposits |
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| Fumeroles discoloured by sulphur |
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| Lots of steam |
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| Fumerole |
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| Kids in front of the big fumerole |
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| The big fumerole |
Our next stop was the Grjótagjá cave. This is a small lava cave with a thermal spring inside. It was popular for bathing before the 1970s, but between 1975 and 1984 volcanic activity and eruptions, caused the water temperature to rise to more than 50 degrees. The water temperature has since fallen to the low 40s. Despite being a cool area, we wanted to visit the cave as it was a shooting location for Game of Thrones series 3, episode 5 "Kissed by Fire", where Jon Snow and Ygritte escape to the cave for bathing and some ummm alone time.
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| Grjótagjá in the show - the waterfall was digitally added |
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| The sign |
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| The entrance to the cave was more romantic in the movie |
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| The view in the other direction was pretty cool though |
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| It almost looked a little like Australia - but this was all volcanic rock |
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| Homesick? |
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| On top of the cave |
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| Looking into the cave |
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| Inside the cave |
Unfortunately, when I suggested reenacting the scene from Game of Thrones I got slapped. So we started to make our way back to Reykjavik.
It was going to be a long drive around the north part of the country, and on the way we saw another waterfall that looked quite impressive.
Timelapse from Grjótagja:
It turned out to be quite a famous waterfall, Goðafoss (Waterfall of the gods). It is 30m wide and falls 12m and is part of the river Skjálfandafljót.
Legend tells that when Lawspeaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði made Christianity the official religion of Iceland (in 999 or 1000AD) he threw his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall.
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| Goðafoss |
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| Skjálfandafljót river |
We ended up arriving home at around 11pm after a very long drive but having seen some amazing sights.
Total Travel:
Dimmuborgir Guesthouse - Dettifoss - Krafla - Hverir - Grjótagjá- Goðafoss - Gullsmári . (609km, 7.5hrs)
Total distance traveled so far: 1948km
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