Europe 2019 : Day 21 The North

Thursday 29th August

If you had asked me before I went there this year I would have guessed that Iceland was about the size of Tasmania, some 68,000 sq km. Given the amount of driving we had been doing I had come to the conclusion it was bigger than that. I asked our guide Sindri if he had any idea of its actual size and he mentioned it being similar to England (not the UK combined but England only). Well, not quite. England is 130,000 sq km, and Iceland 103,000. So let's say halfway between Tasmania and England. In any event it was bigger than I expected. Note to self: do a bit more research before you leave home.

We were heading towards the thermal bath part of the tour today but had a few stops along the way. Möðrudalur is Iceland's highest farm at 469m above sea level, and possibly one of the most deserted. It's rather strategically located just off the main road between the eastern and northern parts of Iceland so appears to be a standard stopping off point for tourists. The farmer here seems to have built up quite a business with a farm shop, cafe and self-built church. The landscape is bare and it must be extremely bleak in winter.

Möðrudalur church

It's our turn in the front seat

An Arctic fox puts in an appearance

After a brief interlude admiring an Arctic fox and home-made Icelandic sweaters we continued on our way to Dettifoss, reputed to be the most powerful waterfall in Europe. This is fed from another run-off river from the Vatnajökull glacier along with other smaller streams across a large area of northern Iceland. The run-off silt from the glacier gives the river a greyish-white look. It is certainly impressive and the waterproofs were a welcome addition.

Lave flow landscape

Dettifoss

We continued on our way to the geothermal area around Námaskarð. It's all flat, bare landscapes with sulphur-tainted springs and boiling mud pools. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge cuts through the area, hence the extensive geothermal activity.

Robyn steps tentatively

Each guide appears to like to add in a few extras during the drive. Sindri was a fan of the Yule Lads, an Icelandic Christmas tradition. These mythical creatures leave gifts for children, over the last 13 days leading up to Christmas, in shoes they leave on their windowsills. Needless to say, naughty children get eaten, as they do. We stopped for a short time at a spot from where they were supposed to have originated. As I was the only one in the group who looked even vaguely like the depictions I posed in their cave.

Perry acts the idiot

Not far down the road lay the Myvatn Nature Baths where we were booked in for a long soak in the hot mineral-rich alkaline water. Robyn is a real fan of these so we soaked in there for a while until I thought I'd lost the top two or three layers of skin and my finger pads started to look like prunes. It was getting late in the day and I needed lunch.

After we'd been fed and were back on the bus it was over to yet another waterfall, Goðafoss. You could be forgiven for starting to get a little jaded with waterfalls by this time. There are probably thousands in the country and we were hitting the high points only the route. They all had their specific attractions though I was starting to notice that the amount of time the group spent at each spot was starting to diminish a little.

Gooafoss

Time for a break

This was turning out to be a long day and was looking like being even longer. The hotel we'd been booked into for the night was in the small town of Dalvik. We had an early start in the morning to go whale watching and our tour guide was required to have at least an eleven hour break between driving stints. That meant we needed to be as near to our morning spot as we could overnight. Unfortunately Dalvik didn't have a restaurant so it was off to Akureyri for dinner.

Akureyri is the largest town in northern Iceland with a population of 18,000 or so. It is situated on a deep fjord and is a favoured stopping off port for cruise ships. These ships generally flood the Myvatn Nature Baths with visitors when in town so we'd been lucky to get a soak between arrivals.

Akureyri shopping street

At this point we were only about 100km from the Arctic Circle but the town was situated in a relatively warm spot and looked rather prosperous. A small idiosyncratic note was the use of love hearts instead of circles in some of their traffic red lights. Our guide wasn't sure why but it just added to our view that Icelanders are generally pretty friendly.

Robyn and I hit a local backpackers for dinner – anything other than soup – and I was able to get a few cheapish beers in during their happy hour. Which I was happy about as the Irish Whiskey had been finished by this time.

We made our hotel at Dalvik at around 9pm. This had certainly been our longest day so far.