The day started unlike any of the days we have had so far in Iceland--sunny!! And warm??? If you can count 60 degrees warm (I do). We headed out from Akureyri to a geographical wonderland-- Mytavn. We started the day doing several short hikes around the lake, seeing "pseudocraters," pockets where lava flowed into subsurface water, which boiled and popped (like a pimple).
The second hike we did was around a small lake where really neat lava formations rise out of the lake.
But because we didn't have enough hiking we headed to the Martian Dimnuborgir lava fields, which were, bar none, some of the creepiest things I've seen. After the swarms of maddening tourists ends, a 8K round trip hike begins to Hverfell - a 463m crater AKA dirt pile. The first part of the hike was fabulous. The wind died down, the sun was shining and I was navigating beautiful lava rock. But then came the dumb decision. There were two choices to summit this thing. The "easy" route was twice as long as the "difficult" route. And for those of you who know my husband, he obviously didn't hesitate when the word difficult was thrown about.
They really really really weren't kidding when They said difficult. The path was a solid 85 degrees vertical. The switch backs didn't start until half way up. Several F bombs were thrown about as my feet were trying my very best to dig into the sand that made up this mountain. It was like climbing a rocky sand dune. When we made it to the top, I became Pissy Laura, which is no fun for anyone.
The winds were going strong at the top and in the crater far below, teenagers had drawn a giant penis with rock.
I was so sore by the time we made it back to the car, but we still had 2 more stops.
Next was Hevrir, a boiling mud pit and steam vent center. The air smelled so strongly of overboiled eggs, I saw a woman wrap a scarf around her face. The mud pits were cool as they were warmed from the magma below, bubbling and gurgling silica and sulfur. It was pretty awesome to see.
The last stop of the day, Dettifoss, which is one of Iceland's most powerful waterfalls. When we pulled into the lot, the park ranger was wearing waders and pushing picnic tables into the knee deep water, which had gone over the path. As we passed by he said "don't stay too long...there's a river that wasn't there yesterday and it's growing"
Reassuring.
And later on we could see why, the snow hadn't melted enough to see any sort of path yet, so people before us led the way. At one point, we had to walk over 2 by 4s just to get to the other side to the growing river. By the time we made it to the waterfall, I was so over the day. But the waterfall was beautiful, and it helped so much that it was sunny. I just can't believe I walked over planks; in the US the park would definitely be closed.
That's all from me today...gotta go rest my feet!!
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