Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
We now continue with part two… of our Icelandic Adventures…
Day 3 – Southern & Eastern Iceland
We woke up early & drove along the southern coast… and damn it, Iceland is just gorgeous!!! The black volcanic crags, the golden fields of pristine farmhouses at the bases of glacial waterfalls every mile or so, clear sapphire skies on a sunny day, the mistress ocean crashing into black beaches & new rock formations, it’s just ridiculous! Another key thing… if you wake up early, you don’t see another soul for a good hour or two on the road… and that’s pretty awesome!!! Again, Izzy has a LOT more pictures of the driving from the next two days than I do… but I have some pictures of our first few stops…
Our first stop was Seljandsfoss, which is a waterfall where you can actually walk behind the falls… however, it was early morning & still freezing cold… so the mist from the waterfall basically turned the path into an oddly shaped skating rink… so we just took a few pictures for you…
Next stop was Skogafoss which is among the largest waterfalls on the island…
Our next stop was the small peninsula of Dyrholaey near the city of Vik. You’d recognize it as an arch way extending into the ocean a little bit… but yeah, it’s pretty gorgeous… and I thought that the surrounding area was pretty amazing as well… and some of the rocks looked like scaly dragons!!! Behold…
The next portion of the ride was along the Skaftafell Nature Reserve which is a giant glacier covering about a quarter of the nation… and this is where the volcano went off a few years ago that shut down air travel to Europe for a few weeks… but because the volcano is UNDER the glacier, there was massive flooding that essentially wiped out this area. For example, here is a portion of a prominent bridge that was here before…
Our next stop was to a glacial lagoon called Jokulsarlon where there’s basically shelved pieces of glacier floating around in a lake… check it out…
Also… this was all before lunch… so we stopped in the city of Hofn on the southeast corner of the island making good time, but the northern part of Iceland is less populated… so we stocked up on food, gas, etc. and got ready for the journey ahead!
Next was going north along the Eastern coast of Iceland, and it was of course incredible… so we continued following the signs to our next stop for the night, the city of Egilstaadir… and then the road went from paved to gravel… and became a bit of a windy mountain road… and then the incline became steeper & steeper… and I was in a hybrid diesel van with the woman I love… uh oh… we had apparently followed the signs to a “red road” which, had it been winter would’ve basically meant we were stranded in the middle of f**king nowhere until somebody finds us. However, the weather was great, the road was clean, so it just meant that I might not get my cleaning deposit back from gravel hitting the bottom of the van (but that wasn’t the case at all). The drive was breathtaking… for the view, sudden rise in altitude, and I was pretty gripped to the steering wheel nervous about where we were going… but yeah, it was pretty awesome & we made it out okay. Be weary of signage on the East Coast of Iceland.
We made it to Egilstaadir with a few hours of daylight left… so we decided to take a quick trip to the port city ofSeydisfjordur where they have ferries going to the European continent. The drive there was over and through a mountain pass… and basically all of the driving between cities in the North of Iceland is like driving through the backdrop of “Game of Thrones” which makes sense, because it’s filmed there. When we got to town, there wasn’t a whole lot to it except for a pretty amazing zigzag road going down a few thousand feet into the town to the sea… and they had some random ass marble eggs… but yeah, nice little town, everything was shutting down, sun was going down, so we got back to our campground quick. Well worth the drive though…
The campground in Egilstaadir was a legitimate campground with great facilities… and we slept like babies…
Day 4 – Myvatn
Again, we woke up early to drive across the “Northern Wall” on our way to the city of Myvatn. Now… coming up on this day… is my new happy place. I’m just going to tell you now. The city is a few thousand people living around Lake Myvatn and they have an abundance of geothermic pools in the area… and some pretty amazing natural formations.
Our first stop was just before the city, where there are a number of boiling clay “Hot Pots” in an area known as Namafjall Hverir. This area… after being surrounded by icy mountains straight out of Westerfell the past few hours driving, IMMEDIATELY become a trip back to the Cretaceous period where I half expected dinosaurs to be walking around. The heat from all of the little geysers and boiling clay pots kept the ice away, though you can see snow & ice everywhere around, and you can pretty much walk up to within a few inches of these geothermic anomalies. Check it out…
Another fun thing about the city of Myvatn...
This beautiful blue lagoon... is essentially its sewer runoff...
Our next stop was Grjotagja Cave, or better known as Jon Snow & Ygritte’s love nest, where Jon breaks his vows of the Night’s Watch and dips his wick in that red ink… but yeah, it’s an underground cave with a natural hot tub in it… f**king amazing!!!
The next stop was Dummuborgir aka “The Dark Fortress”!!! According to Icelandic folklore, Dimmuborgir is the home of a homicidal troll named Grýla, her third husband Leppalúði and their sons The Yule Lads. Though Grýla has psychopathic tendencies, the children aren´t quite so murderous, and are more mischievious than anything. Originally told as a scary story to stop children misbehaving, the Yule Lads have now been merged with the idea of Santa Claus. Children either get gifts or rotten potatoes in their shoes at Christmas depending on whether they´ve behaved well or not. So what is this place then? A mystical castle stronghold like Helm’s Deep? Nope… it’s amazing rock formations with all kinds of nooks & crannies that you can walk through… enjoy…
Our next stop… is my new happy place. Now, we had been playing hard & fast for a few days… and now it was time to unwind. We went to Jardbodin Natural Baths which is a magnificent spa facility that you might recognize from “Hostel: Part II”. Now, in that movie, the beautiful spa scenes were shot at Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik… but this is basically a smaller, less expensive, more intimate version of that paradise. First class accommodations in the spa portion, beautiful blue warm mineral baths soothing your tight, war-torn muscles, the bathes have an infinity edge overlooking the city & lake of Myvatn, volcanic peaks in other directions, a wonderful fog settling & washing over you… and you can enjoy it all while drinking some wonder beers from Viking brewery. Like I said… THIS is my new happy place when the world has me down…
After melting our worries away, we drove to our next stop… which is only the 4th largest waterfall on the island… but basically a slightly smaller version of Niagara Falls… Godafoss!!! Here are some wonderful pictures…
Our Campground that evening was a legitimate campground with children’s play area, a little river area, all the fixings in the city of Akureyri (home of Viking brewery by the way). We didn’t get to see much of this city but… it’s basically situated in the base of a glacial inlet where ships can pass into the island, between giant majestic mountain shelves… and you can honestly see where a giant glacier tore through there millions of years ago making a path for the city… yet protecting it from a lot of the elements. Truly magical looking city… but we’ll have to elaborate more on that on a future trip because we basically just slept there. Here are some pictures though…
To be concluded…
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