We left our little cottage mid morning, picked up a hitchhiker just after getting on the main road, and headed west up onto the highlands (all be it the outskirts of the highlands) . Up there the land is flat and covered in snow for longer and the air is cooler, but it felt less cold than when we were caught in the wind and the rain on the south coast.
Us by the highland snow fields
Yini jumping on the highlands
Just before we got into the lake area, we saw pillars of white smoke on the left and went to investigate. It turned out to be geothermal area of bubbling cauldrons and miniture volcanoes spouting sulfur smelling gass with a loud wooshing sound. It was quite something.
overview of the geothermal area
Cauldron of bubbling mud
Yini playing in the gas
The earth gets interesting colors from all the minerals
The newlyweds in front of the geothermal area
Feeling sick with the sulfur smell, and well satisfied with geothermal activities, we headed down to the lake, dropped off our hitchhiker and checked in to our hotel. The surroundings of lake Myvatn are chock full of tourist destinations and it turns out our hotel is right in front of one of them. Naturally, this then became our starting point for exploration. The sight we see through the window is a series of smaller volcanic crater, not real volcanos mind you though they were created during eruptions. It’s quite a thing to walk out the door and have a bunch of craters right there.
The first crater
Yini on the crater rim
View of several craters
We drove out from the village and over to a bigger crater called Hverfjall, this being a real volcano (yes mom it’s dormant). The climb to the top is rather exhausting and the thing is huge, like a massive bowl more than a kilometer across. It’s all grey sand and rock which makes it frustratingly featurless to take pictures of but I ensure you, it’s very impressive.
Us just when we got up to the top
My little good travels stone pile along the path
Yini looking out over the massive crater
Yini walking along the path towards a peak along the crater rim
We walked around the crater, it took us nearly an hour, then drove to Dimmuborgie, a strange alien landscape formed of lave from one explosion or other. Very special but I was strangely not quite as excited as I thought I would be.
Lava formation gate from a distance
Yini at the gatr
View of the other side
Close up of some lava formations
Yini walking down the Dimmuborgir path
When we came back from our stroll among the lava formations, it was about dinnertime. We had some fantastic local bread with smoked chart as a starter and some mediocre mains. We finished the day by going to some natural hotspring inside a cave. The water was too hot to go for a swim but we at least got to dip our feet.
Yini in the hot spring cave
