We planned a long trip around the Tjornes peninsular and some of the diamond route today taking in some waterfalls, canyons and volcanic activity. We set off at 11:30am and the weather started out quite promising, cloudy but with a few blue patches of sky so we were hopeful it would clear up or at least not get any worse.
Firstly we really had to get our tyre pressure sorted out as we still hadn't done anything since the little old local man advised us that they were low. Whilst sorting this we stumbled upon a camping shop which sold the elusive gas canisters for our stove which had by now given up we would find - hooray!
Firstly we really had to get our tyre pressure sorted out as we still hadn't done anything since the little old local man advised us that they were low. Whilst sorting this we stumbled upon a camping shop which sold the elusive gas canisters for our stove which had by now given up we would find - hooray!
We journeyed up to Husavik in search of our hotel key to no avail and then on north 10Km to some cliffs near the farm Ytitunga. We turned into the mud track to be confronted with a gate (which Leigh kindly let me open):
and started on a dirt track down down to the sea. To say the track was steep was an understatement. We got about half way down (I chickened out -L) and decided to do a u-turn, park at the top and walk, but this in itself was tricky due to the width of the lane.
Bracing the cold wind of the arctic seas (The Arctic circle is only about 20km north from here -L), we ventured down to see layer upon layer of shells in the cliffs, with the ones at the bottom being up to 3.5 million years old.
(There was an old boat at the bottom of the track, I'm quite pleased with this photo of it as with all photos in our blog you can click them for a larger version -L):
We then headed around the peninsular towards the canyons at Asbyrgi. The weather turned for the worse, with driving rains and reduced visibility due to the fog, but none the less we could still take in the beauty of the surroundings. We arrived at Asbygri which is a huge horse shoe shaped canyon formed by a giant glacial flood (although the Icelandic folk believe a giant 8 legged horse left his stamp - will let you decide!) We ate the pack lunch the Edda hotel had kindly prepared for us and took a stroll down the lake at the canyons foot.
(Edda Hotel packed lunch, woohoo! -L)
(I took this on the way down to the lake -L):
It was very peaceful with a few ducks and their ducklings diving down to eat.
(I took some photo's near the lake. In the first one you can see the two viewing platforms that we later walked upto as well as lots of ducks in the lake. Please excuse my experimental feet to sky panoramic! -L):
We wondered up to a viewing platform where we could see right across the canyon. It was pretty amazing to think it was all carved from some water and ice!
(You can see the horse shoe shape of the canyon with this panoramic, click to zoom in -L):
Our next stop was to be Dettifoss, Europe’s most powerful waterfall. We had to take a dust road to the waterfall and started out thinking it was a bit bumpy and not going to be that enjoyable, but we had to take this road as we were doing a circular route. The landscape was eerily quiet with very few cars. One minute there would be grey/black sands with jagged rocks, which looked very lunar like. A few km down the road there would be lava fields, all covered in fog and a smattering of moss.
(The Road to Dettifoss. This is the road at its best. -L)
When we arrived at Dettifoss it certainly lived up to its specification as the most powerful waterfall in Europe. The speed and volume of water crashing over its edge was immense (500 cubic metres of water per second). The noise of the grey water was incredible as it crashed down into the 44m drop to the river below.
(The view as we walked up to it -L):
(Click into this photo and look for the people to get a sense of scale -L):
(This guy must be crazy, it was really windy and he was standing right near the edge with an umbrella! -L):
(Look we made it to Dettifoss! -L)
(I like this photo as it portrays the power of Dettifoss, and this only the top -L):
(But in my opinion these movies I took are even better at portraying the raw power -L):
Dettifos Movie 1
Dettifos Movie 2
Dettifos Movie 3
(This sign is an understatement, it should say "beware of the road from hell" -L):
To say it was bumpy it an understatement. The car violently shook as Leigh carefully manoeuvred it through the bumps and holes in the ground. Now we had two options, to turn back and miss the sights ahead or journey on. How long could the road be this bad for??? We agreed that as this waterfall was one of Iceland’s biggest attractions, the road couldn't be bad for long. Oh how we were wrong. We think we travelled 20+km on this road, with the car shaking, us both vibrating from the car at an average speed of 20km/hr (at times I couldn't even to 10km/hr -L). What should have taken us half an hour in the end took over 1hr 30mins! We affectionately named this route ‘the road from hell’ as the scenery and misery it caused us seemed quite appropriate. After what seemed like an eternity we saw the bridge of route 1 on the horizon and eventually found tarmac.
(This was a sight for sore eyes! When I stopped the car it looked like it was going backwards as I'd been concentrating on the road so hard for over an hour moving forwards. -L):
We were overjoyed but it still felt like the car was shaking for a little while longer. By this time it was nearly 8.30pm and we still had 140km back to the hotel so we decided to give the other major attractions a miss and head home. However as we neared lake Myvatn, we began to smell sulphur and saw in the distance between two mountains, steam streaming up into the sky. This was the volcano Krafla so we thought we’d take a quick look. The Icelandics have managed to harness some of the volcanoes steam to generate electricity. You have to drive through the power plant with giant pipes coming over the hill (and over the road) before you get to the caldera.
Apart from being extremely cold, it was very quiet and calm. You can’t help thinking as you watch the steam bellowing out of the sides of the mountain, that this could go any day (as the guidebooks like to point out - its overdue for a blast!).
(Here is a panaramic of mount viti's summit, zoom in to see a very cold Anna! Beware its a big file so might take a while to download -L)
As we were so cold and wet by now we decided to head back and see the rest of this awesome lake Myvatn area (with hopefully better weather the next day). Our journey home took a while, past the mud pools and round the lake, arriving back in Akureryi about 10.45pm.
Weather: Worse than yesterday
Distance Travelled: 378KM
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