There wasn't all that much to see on the road today, so we stayed in Akureyri to do some shopping and get our
photos onto CDs and had a nice lunch before getting on our way. When we got to Lake Myvatn and our accomodations at
Hlíğ wasn't all that great. We had to choose between a room with no working heater and one with a front door that
cannot be shut. We were cold and miserable so we took the room with the broken front door.
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Surekha from Nonni Travel and my wife. Nonni Travel arranged our travel accomodations and car rental for us while we were busy back home with wedding arrangements. |
| Outside a souvenir shop in Akureyri. |
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By the Skjalfandafljot river. In the distance is Goğafoss. |
| At Goğafoss - the fall of the Gods. In the year 1000, Thorgeir was the Lawgiver of Iceland and was expected to decide if Iceland would become a Christian country or keep its allegiance to the Gods of its fathers. The Pope's ban on trade with "infidels" had swept virtually all of Northern Europe into Christianity. Thorgeir decided on the side of Christianity. He brought his idols of pagan Gods from his house and tossed them into this waterfall. |
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Messing around by the trail near Goğafoss. |
| In Mıvatn, our first stop was at the pseudo craters at Skútustağir. They were formed by steam explosions when glowing lava poured into a lake. |
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One of the bigger craters. |
| That's us with one of the craters. We're getting quite good at taking our own photos. As we were leaving Skútustağir, a car pulled up beside us and through its windows, we saw a pair of familiar faces smiling at us. It was those guys from Akureyri. We didn't really talk. |
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Dimmuborgir - "The Dark Castles". About 2300 years ago, lava from a nearby eruption flowed into this area and formed a temporary lava lake. This lake was drained when the lava exited towards Lake Mıvatn. These strange pillars are believed to have been formed when steam bubbled up through the molten lava and cooled it. Similar formations are not known to exist on dry land anywhere outside the Lake Mıvatn region. It all sounds very impressive, but as you can see, it just looks like some dried lumps of... actually I don't really want to think what it looks like. |
| I know this looks a lot like a gigantic pile of gravel waiting for some trucks to come and clear up, but it is actually Hverfjall, a classic tephra cone volcano. The crater, which is visible from the other side, has a depth of 140 metres and a circumference of 1000 metres. |
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| Back to Day 6 <<< | >>> Day 8: The drive to Egillstadir |