Day 35 – 13 August 2023 – Lake Myvatn to Faskrudsfjordur, Iceland

A foggy start this morning as we had a good breakfast whilst chatting with an Australian couple we met. It was very pleasant & we talked for ages with them.

 Lake Myvatn looks as pretty as a picture this morning as the fog lifts so we stop & take a few photos. There are lots of islands & amazing lava formations. To think Lake Myvatn was only formed 2,300 years ago by large basaltic volcanic eruptions is a little bit daunting, that is really not that long ago. There are old volcanic cinder cones all over the place, both large & small. The associated lava field Dimmuborgir is extensive & has lots of walking paths through the old lava.

In the distance we see plumes of steam rising from the ground near the geothermal power plant, also, the smokestacks have lots of steam billowing from them. The mountains behind the power plant have steam escaping from various fissures on the mountain, with the yellow colour of sulphur distinctive around the steam on the bare mountainside.

Namafjall is the name of the mountain but also the geothermal area & just over the mountain is an area of bubbling hot mud springs & steam vents with more sulphur deposits & sulphuric acid in the air. It is not pleasant to breathe all these gases in, it takes our breath away & we start coughing from the noxious fumes so we decide not to walk around the roped off areas. Lots of others are though.

It is only a short drive to the next geothermal power plant, Bjarnaflag, which is using the heat from the Krafla volcano fissure. There are pipes everywhere coming out of the surrounding mountains & steam from the pipes & the overflow water. We drive through the plant area & up onto the rim of the Viti volcano, a dramatic explosion volcano in the Krafla chain that now has a blue crater lake. Beautiful, but sobering, we can’t imagine the power that must have been unleashed when this volcano exploded.

Driving east from Lake Myvatn is like driving through a moonscape with seemingly a never ending lava field with sheets of lava & jumbled rocks everywhere with only a bit of moss growing on some rocks & a bit of grass in places where the lava has weathered down a bit. We notice lines of stone cairns & I thought they may have been built to aid people travelling before roads, but no, they mark the boundary between separate states in Iceland. People have done one heck of a lot of work gathering rocks & building these cairns.

After a very long drive the Studlagil basalt canyon is next, it is off the main road & the bitumen turns to dirt, then rough dirt before ending in a farmer’s paddock. The small carpark is overflowing but we manage to get a spot just as someone was leaving. The farmer was on some big machinery extending the carpark. I imagine he will start charging for parking soon. The walk to Studlagil is long, around 3 kilometres but the view is worth it. Today though, it does not look like the postcards, the water is raging through & is a dirty brown colour, rather than the clear, placid shallow stream in all the postcards. The walk there is a long way & cold but pleasant, the path is reasonably level at places, with lots of people coming & going.

There are a few nice waterfalls along the way & lots of cluster of three sheep, always three. Studgasil is amazing, basalt lava columns, 15 or more metres high, are on both sides of the river channelling the glacier melt water through. People are on both sides, I think we have the best view, those on the other side also have to walk down hundreds of steps. The basalt columns are bent & twisted in some locations giving us more insight into the wonders of nature. The power of the water over countless years to cut down through the basalt is amazing, the river is a long way down from the mountain tops. The walk back is just as cold & sitting back into the car was a relief. We stopped just as we re-joined the bitumen & had lunch, overlooking the oldest steel bridge in Iceland, built in 1908 after being specially made in the USA & imported to Iceland.

A little further on we stop at another large waterfall, Rjukandafoss, it is 139 metres high & looks spectacular as it drops down from the mountain. More driving & when we reach Egilsstadir we turn & follow Lagafljot, a long & narrow lake, down to the carpark for Litlanesfoss & Hengifoss. It is about 2.5 kilometres up a very steep hill & a lot of hard work.  Tereza had enough walking for today & when she saw how steep & how many step there are, she said you go up there sweetheart & take lots of photos. I turned around about the 2 kilometre mark, right at the very top of the Litlanesfoss & headed back down the same path. Hengifoss, a little further up was clouded over. The view from the top over Lake Lagafljot & the surrounding valley is amazing. I was up there for about an hour.

Back to Egilsstadir, turn off & then another road up over a very high mountain range, above the snow again, more spectacular scenery, then down into Seydisfjordur, a very charming town full of beautiful old buildings & a Swedish Consulate in a charming old building. I don’t know why the Swedish Consulate is in this out of the way town. There is a large ferry terminal here though, but it is a long way from Sweden to here in Iceland.

Back up the huge mountain, more spectacular scenery, then on the road to our destination tonight, Faskrudsfordur. This town was founded in 1880 by French fishermen as they set up accommodation at the site for their fishing enterprise in the Icelandic waters. Our Hotel tonight is the old French hospital with the reception being the old French Doctor’s residence with the old French Chapel next door & the old French morgue also there. The restaurant looks out over the fjord & the backdrop of mountains surrounding the fjord. Dinner was good, fish & lamb for a change (haha). After dinner we watched the sunset behind the mountains on the pier outside the restaurant, the colours were amazing. We still had daylight for a few hours, it is strange how long it is light. Another good, but tiring, day.