I decided to take this road now, as it seemed to look like a paved main road. It all went well for the first km, soon the farms left out of sight and the road changed to gravel. And there I drove up and down the hills on a gravelroad in the middle of nowhere. Luckily it was a good quality gravelroad, but sometimes the uprise was quite large, but a truck also crossed my path so it must be ok.
After a long drive in the middle of nowhere, lake Myvatn rose up in the distance. And must say it was a beautifull viewpoint once the road turned to turmac again.
I planned to go to Dettifoss first, as this was furthest away. Knowing it was only 23 km away from the ringroad, I dared to risk it to drive there with 250km still on diesel in my car. But once I drove on the westside of the river, my navigation told me it was 75km to Dettifoss. Wtf? Why suddenly 75km? Just because I choose the westbank? Well I decided after 20 km to turn around and go back to get diesel in the nearest tankstation, which was of course Reykjahlið, which I passed on my way to here.
Since I was on my way back, passing Krafla and Namaskarð geothermal area, I decided to visit Namaskarð already. Last visit it was raining and I didnt see a lot of this area and they say it is one of the most beautifull geothermal areas of Iceland. Well I didnt figure that one out, but it was nice to for once walk around the many fumerols and mudpods here. And yes some of them had intense colors, but still I was convinced the ones at Reykjanes are more beautifull. Maybe just because of the surroundings, as this was one plain field full of mud and sand with the Earth ever farting and releasing sulphur gasses. Im not saying it wasnt beautifull, I just dont consider it the most beautifull of Iceland. My opinion :)
After visiting here, I drove to Reykjahlið and took the chance to go to the toilet. I remember how last year I got so uneasy never knowing where to use the toilet and left places way too soon because of my need. Now I know toilets are everywhere life gets easier ;-) But thats another story. With a full tank and empty bladder I hit the road again back to Dettifoss. Only to find out I turned around only few km away from Dettifoss parking. This summer, there has been constructed a very convenient parking and paved roads to deal with the mass tourism on the once challenging and barely accesible westflank of the river. Everybody went to the east side as this was a little bit easier to access for 2WD cars, but the climb down to the falls was and still is a tricky maybe even dangerous one. So I choose for the westflank where it was safer but the road less accesible. I assume the navigation would have send me all the way up north to end up again at the eastbank on the other side. My only guess...
But everything was paved up to the wide parking with facilities, and a newly constructed trail led to viewing platforms to watch both Dettifoss and Selfoss. Probably also Hrafnagilfoss which I so badly want to see. But it is a loooong walk away. And I need to have a goal for a next visit :)
The path to the falls goes through moonlike landscape. Only rocks, wherever you look. All black and grey, barely any color. A few herbs and plants tried to pioneer here. It was also a long but not unpleasant walk to Dettifoss, despite in rain and wind it would be a killer. I took the photos on my iphone though, and havent found a way yet to get them on my computer as my prehistoric Imac cannot sync anymore with Iphone 5 and newer. Via iphone 4 I only get the low resolution photos.
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| Selfoss |
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| Selfoss. Hard to believe this calm looking waterfall and low flow turn into the fury of Dettifoss just 500 meter downstream. This photo I even took almost at the rim of Dettifoss, because I was too tired to walk all the way up to Selfoss.... |
At Dettifoss it is always raining. Lots of fogs rise up leaving you wet on this sunny day. I find my way out of the worse fogs. The fall has awesome rainbows over it though, and the sight of it was beyond imagination. This monster is HUGE. I didnt go to the lowest platform where you can almost touch the water, I was a bit overwhelmed, maybe scared to do so. You have no idea how impressive this waterfall is until you see it with your own eyes. On the photo's here, there are 4-5 people on the rim on the leftside other side of the fall. Can you see them? Exactly.... This fall is 45m high ( thats about 12 stories building) and 100 meter wide going diagonal down in this canyon that maybe is 50-60 meter wide. And what amazes me most is that the river in it looks so shallow, yet creates this massive monster.
I stood there for a while, rethinking 2 years ago; when I wanted to visit, but couldnt due to the Holuhraun eruptions and it was restricted as they feared Bardarbunga would create a huge jokullhaup, destroying or even set dry this waterfall forever. I cant imagine this to happen, sure it is possible but... the idea. Nature can be so brute so powerfull. Even Dettifoss is not gonna be like this forever thats for sure. Bardarbunga is still snoozing, and when it wakes, which is as we speak quite actual, Dettifoss will change. This is a sight to behold. Nothing lasts forever, but I hope I will see it another time again.
After I returned towards Myvatn, I followed my plan to go hiking at Krafla. My last visit I didnt go further than Krofluvirkjun, the geothermal electricity plant. This time a camper gave good example and drove on. I followed a bit unsure. Im so used that places like this are fenced in like fortresses, and made impossible to come close to. But everything feels so open. And I ended up at a viewing point. It was at Viti, Kraflas blue crater lake. It has warm water but you cant reach it, unlike Viti at Askja volcano in which you can swimm if it is not too hot. Viti means hell. So you can imagine the name isnt used for no reason. I am happy to see Viti as a pleasant surprise. Because I didnt plan nor expect to visit it, while it is on the bucket list. I take pictures and enjoy the views before I drive back for a little bit to go to another parkingplace, where the trails start. No idea what to expect here, but the information told me it was the lava fields created by the Krafla fires in 1986. An impressive fissure eruption going a lot of km wide.
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| Viti crater |
I took a long hike here, to Leirhnjúkur. Another geothermal area. And here the mudpots had the most bright colors you can imagine, from lemon yellow to blue, green and sparks of bright red, with in the background still smoking lavafields as far as eyes could see. Walking over plates of lava, earth that has surfaced 'only' 30 years old, still too hot to walk on. Sizzling sounds come from deep below. I could imagine lava to still flow there, maybe in the darkness still glimmering through the many cracks. Which is of course bullshit. But imagination... Lava isnt very far below my feets. Its a scary idea, but on the other hand a safe idea that it all has chance and places to release the heat, captured in electricity and hot water to heat the houses.
Its outerworldly here, and I understand completely why they use this area to train and test space missions and equipment. Húsavík has a space museum and if I wondered why on earth in Húsavík, I understand now. Woow....
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| Impressive colors |
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| Without this walk, it would be impossible to see the beauty. The ground is very hot in some places, full of cracks and huge plates of lava hiding off caves and fractile ground. |
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| The earth is steaming from every crack you see, lava flows quite close to the surface here, freely thank goodness. Here you shouldnt walk off the beaten tracks. You see one in the middle. No wood walks here. |
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| Sometimes its hard to believe Krafla fires where back in 1984, so much years later it feels like yesterday. Well a bit longer... ;) |
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| One of the many craters formed by Krafla fires. Its my wish to once do a guided trip to the inlands here. I could walk, there are trails, but there are many km to be made. And amazing things to see. |
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| Pieces of the earth shuffled up on a big pile. The earths forces are so unbelievable |
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| Steamvents.... Here the earth is very hot, its steams, sweats, moarns and rumbles once in a while. Dont leave the trail :) It's possible this is also a meteorite crater, there must be one in this area, but I have no idea where. |
Well the many walks I took, made the day end here too. I drove back around Myvatn, seeing it all from the other side. Beautifull area... It still calls to be explored more. I doubted to go visit Grottagjá knowing that visiting Iceland again is getting harder and harder, and that I should take chanced to visit anything I can. But it was late, I was tired after so much walking and driving today and previous days. My mind overloaded with information, impressions, thoughts and emotions. This journey had not been easy and my life is already full of too much things to worry about. In Iceland I usualy release a lot of this worries and stress, it helps me to recharge, to reset and to make life worth living. But it eats energy. And the bad news I got also had its bad share in it all.
I went back to Húsavik, but today was the day they predicted massive aurora displays. While driving back, I looked out for spots to catch the lights, I choose to go to Goðafoss. But in the evening, I drove off north, to the parking that faces to the northpole. Impossible to have light polution there. If only I didnt forgot about Kopasker still being there. Ah well... I drove off at 19.00 when it was still light. Roads can be so dark... and last thing I wanted is to drive off a cliff somewhere and no one to find me. By the time I was there, it was dark and I drove by 2 parkings as I didnt see their entrance before I checked my navigation giving a blue line where I left the road. Here it was... And at 20.00 the first auroras appeared... woow they must be strong, still some sort of twilight. And it was so cold... but happily I had the car with me, and I sat there. I took many pictures but it wasnt really the show I expected and after 1 1/2 hour clouds came drifting in, and I decided to head back to Húsavík to the airport where there is also a parking lot. But there were a lot of cars there already, and I dont want to be together with Chinese or whatever. I drove on, with another car close behind me. I turned over to a road towards a farm hoping to rid them, but of course they had to be at this farm. My luck... Sigh.
Lots of auroras colored the sky green, but still not the impressive ones, and a few clouds, though faaaar less than before. I drove back towards Húsavík. And when I drove by the golfclub, I decided to park my car here, just to check. And just that moment, the hell broke loose. I was standing there almost crying for what happened here. The cosmic shower was turned on, ribbons of green and purple bare eyed poured down from east to west from north to south, rippling down like dancing on the music of the stars. Fireworks are nothing. And the auroras were so bright it lit up the whole area like a bang. And the most epic was the silence where you would expect fairybells, twinking, crackling and other fantasy sounds. But nothing.... all silence and this awesomeness... I stood mesmerised for a loong time. Tried to take pictures, but at a time thought, what the heck with pictures. Im gonna watch, Im gonna feel this through all my body and senses, I make this glued on my brightest memories forever. What a blessing to be here right now. So I barely have pictures.
After 30 minutes the big dynamic activity started to subside to the more common weaving green ribbons with occasional outburst of cosmic showering. I drove back to the guesthouse in full satisfaction. This was what I wanted to see for so long. And finally no clouds to disturb it. This aurora storm lasted for many many days, but this was the only one with clear skies. But happy to have seen them at least on the best day possible.
And the night was a short, but the dreams of memories so beautiful. Húsavík is such a blessed place to be!
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