Mývatn
Posted in Travel on 07/19/2010 07:57 am by enjanerdWe got a lot more site-seeing in the next day, since we were staying in the area for 2 nights. We spent the day visiting the Myvatn lake area.
Our first stop was Goðafoss. This is the waterfall where statues of pagan gods were thrown in to symbolize Icelanders’ adoption of the Christian faith.
Skútustaðagígar Pond is adjacent to Mývatn lake and surrounded by pseudo-craters formed by steam explosions when lava spray hits water. This was our first introduction to Icelandic gnats. They didn’t bite, but they were attracted to heat, so they swarmed our faces as we walked around.
Next, we went to Dimmuborgir. This area had a lot of interesting rock formations created by lava pooled over a small lake. As the lava flowed across the lake, the water started to boil, the vapour rose through the lava forming lava pillars. As the lava continued flowing towards lower ground in the Mývatn area, the hollow pillars of solidified lava remained.
We got lunch at Gamli Bærinn (The Old Farm) in Reykjahlíð before moving on to Námaskarð to see the sulfur fields. The sulfur fields were super stinky, but pretty cool to see. I kinda rushed through the lower area because the wind would blow the steam into the valley and get trapped there.
Next, we went for a swim in a nature bath.
The last stop of the day was Dettifoss, the northern-most point in our trip. Dettifoss is the largest waterfall in Europe in terms of volume discharge, having an average water flow of 200 m3/s.
We got dinner at the Gamli Bærinn again on the way back since we expected everything to be closed by the time we got back to Akureyri (and it was the only place still open in Reykjahlíð). We saw the start of sunset on the way back to the hotel, but didn’t stay up to see it “fully” set.