lake myvatn

Following “Sven” to Akureyri

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Following “Sven” to Akureyri

After a fish-laden breakfast, we circled town once more and headed over the foggy mountain into the barren land along Ring Road to Lake Myvatn. I do mean barren. Scary. No sheep, no grass–just a lot of gravel and dirt. It was a huge mountain with dirt & gravel roads. We ended up following the only other car we saw…a little Golden Yellow car (we named him “Sven”) on the foggy Yellow Roads.

Heading West to Akureyri
Heading West to Akureyri

Finally after an hour or so, we exited the fog. Just like that. It opened to amazing views of sun, yellow fields/land, distant mountains and low clouds way ahead of us. Sven pulled over and we kept going…out into that sunny, moon-like landscape of yellow soil for miles around. It was just odd. We found the road north to Dettifoss. My god what a road. Rough. Bryan eased over the tractor ruts and gravel. We turned around, thinking we–and the car–would never make the 17 mile journey to Dettifoss without rattling every nut/bolt loose in the car or our heads. About 30 seconds after we turned around, Sven comes barreling down the road–headed to Dettifoss at about 50 miles an hour with a little white car with 2 Asian girls in it close behind.

The rough road the Dettifoss
The rough road the Dettifoss

We looked at each other, Bryan whipped the car around–and again we headed to Dettifoss–now hauling at a mind-numbing 50 miles an hour following Sven’s parade. What a hard 28 km! Bryan called the day “living off our nerves”.

Dettifoss was huge. Strange basalt formations along the canyon walls. This is the largest waterfall in Europe. Although only 44m high, the amount of water volume that goes over per second is immense. Plumes of spray can be seen a mile away. The 20 minute walk down to the fall was over a rocky trail that wasn’t marked often or well. Thank god for the Sven boys and the Asian girls. We smiled and waved at each other–as we experienced the canyon. Despite the power, this waterfall didn’t impress we like Gullfoss or the beautiful one we walked behind. We took our time…dreading the hammering of those 28 km of road.

Dettifoss, largest waterfall in Europe
Dettifoss, largest waterfall in Europe
Dettifoss
Dettifoss, after the fall
Near Dettifoss
Near Dettifoss

Later we made it into the Lake Myvatn area. Midge Lake is in an active volcano area–and is statistically the driest spot in Iceland since it’s in the rain shadow of the Vanajokull icecap. The lake sits on the Mid-Atlantic ridge and thus, all the volcanic activity. There are about 50 islands and islets in the Lake which are pseudo craters formed by gas explosions when molten lava flows into water. There are boiling mudpits around here and the whole scene smells of sulphur.

Lake Myvatn
Lake Myvatn

We saw smoke from the Krafla crater “Viti” (which means “hell”). We walked around the area. You are highly encouraged to stay on the paths so you are not scalded by the boiling, bubbling, spurting mud pits. The smell was overwhelming…and the ground was hot to the touch.

Lake Myvatn area
Lake Myvatn area

We spent about an hour in the Dimmuborgir forest…a field of strange 2,000-year-old contorted volcanic pillars, haunting arches, caves and tunnels. There was no place to stop for lunch or we would have stayed in this area longer….hunger drove us on.

Bryan at Godafoss
Bryan at Godafoss

We paid our respects to Godafoss, the waterfall of the Gods. Once again, you can walk to the very edges of a massive waterfall in perfect solitude.

Fog and Light in Iceland
Fog and Light in Iceland

We arrived into Akureyri and checked into Hotel Nordurland by Keahotels Akureyri (room #103–smelled homey, like my grandmother’s house) and found pasta at Baulinn, followed by coffees at Graa Kahnan. Our hotel faced the “bijou” as Bryan said. It was going to be a clear night and we had a window facing north. I was again hopeful for the Northern Lights–trying to witness them five different times during the night.