After spending the night at Hoffell Hotel, we started the day by visiting with some of the Icelandic horses that were in the field next to the hotel. We went out before breakfast and petted and photographed some of them. They were agreeable enough, although I am sure they actually were expecting goodies more than petting!
After a little time with the horses, we packed up and headed out on the road. This day was to be the longest day's drive of the trip, from near Höfn to Lake Myvatn, more than 400 kilometers. This picture was taken when we had been on the road for about an hour; this is another sandur, and you can see how flat and empty the area is.
About an hour later, we were even closer to the sea. We were past the area of the sandur, and so we were right next to the ocean, as you can see from this photo.
Our next stop was Djùpivogur, a small town which has a famous and rather odd sculpture. The sculpture is called "The Eggs of Merry Bay," which consists of 34 oversized stone eggs, each one representing the egg of a local bird species.Here's a photo of that collection.
We left Djupivogur and set out northward along and across the fjords at the eastern end of Iceland, our next major town to be Egilsstadir. The terrain changed somewhat but was no less dramatic, going along one side of a fjord then back part way on the other side. On this leg of the trip we had our first encounter with an Iceland tunnel. We had gradually gotten used to the nature of the roads here. They are well planned and executed, but they are often narrower than roads we are used to. In fact, many of the bridges are only one car wide, so there are signs before these bridges and turnouts on each side. If you are closer to the bridge than an oncoming car, you have the right of way, and they are supposed to use a pullout on their side and wait for you to pass. Of course, we were cautious and often let other cars go first before we ventured out onto one of these bridges. There are also places where the road has a steep rise, so that you cannot see oncoming traffic due to the steep rise facing you. In many cases, there are poles set on the centerline of the road at the peak so that you are reminded to be on your own side of the road when you crest the rise. To get back to the tunnels: they are one lane also, with fairly frequent pullouts to let cars go by. They are usually not very well lighted, either, so you have to keep careful track of where the pullouts are. We did not encounter any tunnels longer than 11 kilometers, but that was plenty long enough to make me very nervous. I was always very glad to finally leave a tunnel!
Here's a view of typical scenery in that region. The white specks in the photo are whooper swans, which are very common here. They are often seen in the fields with the sheep.
Here's a view of typical scenery in that region. The white specks in the photo are whooper swans, which are very common here. They are often seen in the fields with the sheep.
From Egilsstadir we turned roughly northwest, leaving the coast far behind and crossing from the eastern fjord area on our way to Lake Myvatn in the north. Because the winter had been so severe this year, we encountered a great deal of snow as we crossed this inland part of the country. The terrain was basically flat with many large hills. There was snow on almost all the hills, and there was melt water flowing everywhere. There were many waterfalls to be seen, some of them quite dramatic. We stopped somewhere near the middle of this leg of the trip to photograph the falls seen in the next photo.
We had to hike a little bit off the road to get to this waterfall. You can see the discoloration of the snow at the top left and top right as it gradually melts and is colored by the mud. The thing that really caught my eye, though, is the snow bridge you can see at lower left center, with the water passing underneath it.
Here's a view of typical terrain we saw on this leg of the trip.
After what seemed like a very long drive, we finally reached our hotel for the night - the Hotel Reynihlið. This is a very nice hotel, and it was a real pleasure to just relax after all that driving.
In the morning we found that our hotel had a terrific breakfast buffet; a tremendous selection, excellent coffee, beautifully presented, so we took our time and enjoyed it. After we ate, we headed off clockwise around Lake Myvatn. That brought us shortly to Dimmuborgir ("Dark Castles"), a phenomenal landscape of dark and unusual lava formations and caves. According to Icelandic folklore, this is the place where the earth connects with the infernal regions. We did not feel threatened by this idea, but there certainly was a great variety of lava forms to look at. Here are a couple of them.
It was a cloudy gray day, so it doesn't look very dramatic, but it was sort of gloomy and foreboding. We climbed around through a couple of lava tubes, and then drove on to see what other scenery was available. We found a nice spot to look out over the lake; here are a couple of those pictures.
Our guide books suggested that we take a look at Sigurgeir's Bird Museum, which was near the lake, although a little out of the way. Here's a photo of the museum.
The architecture of this building is said to fuse modern design with a traditional turf house of the area. I don't know about that, but the contents of the building were very interesting, and we spent quite a while there. Inside there is a collection of stuffed birds, about 180 of them, well-displayed. All the birds' names were presented on labels, and if you pressed a button at the label, a light near the bird would go on, so you could be sure which bird was which. The museum includes specimens of all but one bird that is found in Iceland as well as many others. The museum also makes available binoculars and spotting scopes for those who want to watch the birds in the immediate area.
When we left the museum, we drove over to look at the area commonly known as Krafla. Strictly speaking, Krafla is the name of a volcanic mountain, but the nale is now used for the whole area around it, as well as the geothermal power plant nearby. The 60 MW power plant has at least 30 pipes driven down into the magma chamber underlying the area, and both dry and wet steam from below are used to generate the power. Here are a couple of photos of the area. The upper photo is a panorama of the immediate area; note the many pipes which carry steam to the generating plant. The lower photo shows the generating plant (in the red building right center) in operation. The system has been operating at design capacity since 1999.
When we left the museum, we drove over to look at the area commonly known as Krafla. Strictly speaking, Krafla is the name of a volcanic mountain, but the nale is now used for the whole area around it, as well as the geothermal power plant nearby. The 60 MW power plant has at least 30 pipes driven down into the magma chamber underlying the area, and both dry and wet steam from below are used to generate the power. Here are a couple of photos of the area. The upper photo is a panorama of the immediate area; note the many pipes which carry steam to the generating plant. The lower photo shows the generating plant (in the red building right center) in operation. The system has been operating at design capacity since 1999.
Looking the other way from this view, right next to where I am standing for this photo, is a small crater, still filled with snow. Here it is:
Then, taking the larger view to the left of the crater, here is what I saw:
So, after all this viewing and driving, we went back to the hotel and relaxed, ready for the next day!
