Day 2 - Akureyri, Lake Myvatn tour - 16 August 2011

The day started with a small bit of confusion about the bus, but not nearly as bad as Monday’s. The bus fired up, headed across the fjord, and through the pass en route to our first stop at a waterfall called Godafoss. Godafoss, historically, is the place where a chieftain threw the pagan idols into the river when Iceland adopted Christianity in the 11th century. Godafoss is a relatively small falls, with a nice gorge running under the highway. Through the drop isn’t great, it’s still impressive. The river is more of a delta, with several smallish rivers running across the plain in front of the mountains. The river goes over the falls in two major segments, divided by a large rock outcrop. You can walk right up to the edge of the falls, and then walk back along the gorge to the bridge, by which time you’re just about late for the bus.

The next stop was Lake Myvatn (65.56772, -17.03716), pronounced Meeva, the “tn” apparently being silent. Vatn means lake, and my means midge, as in small, annoying fly. And there’s no problem seeing why it’s called Midge Lake, because there were billions of them around my face alone. Myvatn looks great in the brochure, but with overcast, it’s not as colourful as I expected. However, it’s still quite scenic, with volcanic hills everywhere. These aren’t volcanoes, but instead are places where superheated steam built up and caused an explosion, leaving behind a lava hill, generally with a hollowed out top. We walked along a trail that took us to the top of a couple of them, probably fifty or sixty feet high. I think it would be nicer in good sunlight.

From there we went to a place called Dimmuborgir (65.59177, -16.91296). Dimmuborgir is a small area of volcanic badlands, that used to be lava tubes, before the surface eroded away. Trails lead through the site, but the formation recommended as a “must see” by the guide book went unseen, because, again, not enough time. We were given twenty minutes - an hour is the minimum I would want. Dimmuborgir is also the home of the Yule Lads. At the lunch stop, I found an excellent illustrated book about the Yule Lads, the Icelandic version of Santa Claus. The Yule Lads are trolls who used to eat misbehaving children, although now they just leave potatoes in their shoes instead of toys (Icelandic kids put shoes on the window sill, instead of stockings by the fireplace). Santa Claus was basically unknown in Iceland until fairly recently, but of course western culture is hard to avoid, and he is now increasingly common.

Not far from Dimmuborgir, the fault between North America and Europe becomes obvious again. A small (20 foot high) ridge runs straight across a plain. We stopped at a particular point, and the guide led us into a small cave. In the cave, maybe five feet from the surface, was a pond. The temperature of the water was about 140 degrees F, and the water was absolutely clear.

The bus then took us up the hill, past a geothermal generating station, to a volcanic lake. The crater, called Viti (65.71776, -16.7571), is a beautiful multi-coloured crater with a lake in it. The surrounding area, Krafla, is a caldera, a collapsed volcanic crater, about 3.5 mi / 6 km in diameter. Viti was quite a short stop, but there wasn’t much to do once you’d taken your photos.

There are steam vents all around Krafla, and most of them have been capped to provide heat and electricity. We went back out the same way, past the power plant, and across the mountain to a place called Námafjall (any “LL” combination is pronounced “TL” by the way, a bit hard to adapt to). Námafjall is an attractive rhyolite mountain, with various shades of red, tan, even some yellow, mixed with green vegetation, and black and grey rock. The main interest, though, were the steam vents. On the plain, there were mud pools surrounded by some really nasty, sticky clay, that you could not get off your shoes, and on a slight rise, there were some fumaroles. The fumaroles look like disordered cairns that conceal a roaring steam locomotive. The racket is amazing, and the smell is unbe - liev - ab -le. It’s an extremely strong smell of sulphur, but worse, obviously some other nasty chemical combinations mixed in, too. It’s a fascinating place, but best not to stand downwind.

We then stopped at a nearby thermal bath, where those who wanted to could pay about $25 to sit and soak in the rather smelly, but purportedly good for you, water. I passed, and spent an hour wandering around the vicinity, which featured some interesting vegetation, thermal vents, and lava flows.


Some photos here: http://bit.ly/w5i8gu