Icelandic Adventures

Myvatn is the gem of the north east.  It is starkly beautiful and we spent the morning visiting diverse places in the vicinity of the lake.  We visited the hot springs, similar to the blue lagoon and also Grjotagia, a swimming hole in a cave under the lava - one was commercial, one was not.

We drove out to Hverfell, a symmetrical crater rising above the lava fields.  From here we went across to the jagged lava fields of Dimmuborgir and hiked through some of the fascinating shapes.  After this we went back down to the lake at Hofdi where wild flowers, birch and spruce cover a similar landscape in a coastal setting.  At Kalfastrond the shapes rise in dramatic clusters from the water.

We left the Myvatn area and drove up to the northern coast of the island where we went around the shores of a huge fiord and then through a series of small fishing towns along the coast.  This included the most northerly town in Iceland but we travelled on to Saudarkrokur where we stayed the night.  We had travelled the longer coastal route rather than over the mountain on a narrow winding road squeezed in between the mountains and the Arctic Ocean.  This route included 4 major tunnels, one of 11 km and another one lane tunnel of 3.4 km - about 20 km of tunnels in all.

A wonderful day of great variety and absolute scenic beauty.  The most stunning was driving around the fiords with the snow capped mountains above - chocolate box scenery.

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Rob on a lava flow

Rob descending into Griotagi

Swimming hole under the lava at Griotagi

Gail at the Myvatn nature baths

The crater at Hverfell

Rob on a trail at Dimmuborgir. The moisture on the track is frozen

The beautiful scenery at Kalfastrond

Wild horses by Lake Myvatn. Not sur if they were tame wild horses or wild tame horses.

The falls at Godafoss. One of Icelands best known but not as high as many others

Driving around the fiords

Coasal town on the North Coast

Tunnel ahead! This one was easy it was two lanes.