September 16 – Day 78
Today for the first time in a while we woke up refreshed and ready to hit the road. It was mid morning and we took part in our free breakfast which was a wonderful retreat from the gas stations and To go food we were used to at this point. There was about 10 people in the entire Inn, so we had most of the place to ourselves and enjoyed the sun coming up over the valley. It was surreal to be in Iceland on this trip. It finally hit me how lucky we were to be doing this.
We went to the town center to meet Jarrett at the gas station as we had all agreed to do this morning. He was a little late but it was ok as we didn’t have far today just allot to see. This actually gave us time to explore the city park center and walk along the nature trail they had for the public. We finally crossed paths with Jarrett and started our day. This was good since we didn’t have signal for communication and for a bit I didn’t know what was going to happen with planning if we didn’t meet on time. Thank goodness no issues came of that.
We started the drive and our end goal was to be in Akureyri by dark where our hotel and campsites were. We started the drive, and the first stop was a place called Dettifoss. This is actually the second largest waterfall in Europe and Iceland, and is also the famous filming location the recent alien movie called Prometheus. This was an amazing stop, and the hiking trail to the primary area, and secondary falls called Selfoss, which was amazing. It was a little rainy but that is ok. We hiked along the canyon rim, and there it was the roaring Dettifoss. It was so powerful the noise from water crashing was almost deafening. Incredible stuff! We hiked for about 3 miles to the secondary water fall which was just as impressive as you have a massive river flowing into a canyon over the entirety of the rim, which made for a series of maybe 20 different waterfalls. As you can see below.
To get to these falls we had to take a wet dirt road which evidently most people went on. There was over 2 miles of it so we decided to leave the smaller car and drive with Jarrett. This was fun as being a texan he was used to dirt roads and how to drive them.
From this point we left the waterfalls and headed eastward now that we had started the top end of iceland. The drive became full of dormant volcanoes and the landscape was black and covered in volcanic ash. It was truly eery and magical all at the same time with the over cast skies.
The next stop of the day was Hvegir, which was a location right off the road for geysers and mud pits from the volcanic activity, right near the town of Reykjahild. This was a great stop along the road that took about 30 minutes to see all geysers and mud pits. This was a fabulous opportunity for pictures and to soak in the amazing landscape. This was similar to Yellowstone but without the nice surrounding trees and nature its own for. this was must more primitive, and rarely visited by people who come to Iceland.
from this point we went to an area that was literals over the mountain divide that the geysers were located on. This area was called Myvatin, and it was known for the land of lakes and volcanoes that surrounded the town, also the large volcano Blafja out in the distance. We jumped around this area hoping in and out of the car for different sites after getting lunch at the gas station.
The next stop of the day was Godafoss, and this was an absolute gem of a waterfall, and was about an hour form this volcanic area. At this point of the day the sun broke out of the clouds and we had bleu skies for the remainder of the day. This was awesome as during sunset the light hits the waterfall perfectly as you can see. This was a large tourist area however so there were a couple hundred people around this iconic fall. Either way it was a perfect exploring opportunity. We took some great pictures and had our time perfectly planned to head to Akureyri.
Akureyri is the largest port town in all of northern Iceland and is the main stop for cargo on the way to Scandinavia and Greenland. This town has about 30k people and some great bars. wE checked into our hotel, after an incredible oceanic drive into the city of surrounding snow caped mountains. This truly was an amazing day, but we were tired. We checked into our airbnb for the night and it was a nice 40$ hotel even though the key was actually left behind and all was self accessible. This was next to a bar that we decided togo to while Jarrett setup camp.
The bar we were in was R5 Microbar and they actually had my favorite beer that I had mentioned back earlier in this trip…Kronenbourg Blanc/ We headed into there and started making friends in the lounge, and once Jarrett showed up it was game on. We ended up spending almost 5 hours there and meeting about 20 different people. By the end of the night we were best friends with the bartender, and a few people who came to Jarretts came site with us, and we drank scotch that he had bought at the airport a few days earlier. To top it off the campsite was on top of a mountain and the northern lights were out. what an incredible experience to be on top of the world and see this. This was truly a spiritual experience that I will always remember. This was one of my favorite days of the Icelandic trip. Time to get some rest now for the next day and go back to the hotel!
EXPENSES
18.25 beer
14.32 snack
11.86 beer
11.86 beer
27.34 dinner
10.04 beer
45.61 gas
11.86 beer
Total- 151.14