Iceland 10: Myvtan: Magical, Mystical, aMazing

It may astonish you (or dismay you) to learn that we are only on Day 5 of our 10 day driving tour!!! When I tried to blog a day at a time, well, there was just too much in each day. That, to me, is the most amazing thing about Iceland. There is so much to see and do within reasonable driving range. Each day.

So, driving into Mývatn, we first came across the Krafla Crater with its Viti sapphire blue lake in the middle. From a distance it looks like a steaming volcano, but the steam you see runs through pipes and ducts for geothermal heating so it does come from the volcano...but deep under. We walked the upper perimeter And there was this beautiful gem!!

Leftover from its eruption in 1724 that lasted for FIVE Years!!

Much of Iceland's energy is derived from geothermal.

You could see spouts steam here and there around the country.

This one is quite a large geothermal plant.

On to the Namafjall Georthermal Area and its "mud pots"

Just your normal steam coming out of the ground.

Bubbling mud and steam here and there

 Driving into Mytvan around the lake, Dave suddenly said: "There are your horses!!"

(I'd been wanting an iconic photo of Iceland horses). We immediately turned around and with the iconic Vinbelgur volcanic cone in the background, got my two horses.

 And then they starting galloping around

 And this is what I really wanted: a photo of Icelandic horses galloping around wild and free.  Not the sharpest pics but certainly you get the feel of the movement. I was one happy camper!!

Nearby, these are called psuedo craters. 

Some kind of result of the eruptions.

The sheep safely graze here.

 The lake is full of little outcrops, rocks, inlets...very picturesque.

I love the sheep. They look like a painting.

 The curly horns make them so wonderful to look at. 

 Can't wait to paint this one! 

 My heart was totally taken by the conical Vinbelger; 

perhaps because it reminded me so much of Mt. Fuji.

And like Mt. Fuji, it had many personalities.

Here with sheep grazing.

Misty evening shot

Early morning mist

 At sunset; view from the restaurant

 Yes, I said restaurant. I told Dave I absolutely had to have one normal meal!

The Kaffinorger restaurant in Dimmuborger (that's a mouthful right there) had a trout meal with dessert special for $35 so we split a meal and boy! it was nice to have a real dinner. The restaurant sits up on a hill overlooking the lake. Spectacular view. That's Dave finishing up every last morsel of his fish. They were so kind to give us 2 desserts.

Afterwards, we went for a walk through the lava fields. Really neat formations.

 And the sun set after yet another day of adventure and beauty.

Iceland 9: Fishing village, tundra and the most powerful waterfall in Europe

The clouds began to lift little by little as we drove up through the fjords of east Iceland.

Finally beginning to see the mountains silhouetted against the fjords.

 We were enchanted by the fishing village of Stöðvarfjörður.

(I had to cut and paste that word!!!) 

 The little fishing boats all lined up on clear, reflective waters.

I finally saw a puffin!!! ..in this lovely mural

(way on the right)

 Another stunning church view.

In a rather colorless landscape, I love how they paint their churches to liven up the scenery!

 Finally,  an absolutely gorgeous day!!

Now we began driving across the north-eastern "tundra". Very barren landscape. Much of it volcanic rock.  But still beautiful.  

Absolutely no trees but the grass and brush has an autumn tinge to it.

We kept seeing these stone cairns at exact intervals across the landscape. These old stone cairns acted as beacons for people travelling in Iceland, a kind of a GPS system of the olden days. Pretty amazing to see in such a barren place. Unfortunately, tourists want to build their own and it's quite a problem over there.  Some of these date back to the Vikings!!

Then it got more colorless and volcanic.  This was the path to the largest (volume of water-wise) waterfall in Europe

And suddenly..this!!!  Detifoss! 

It plummets 45 meters, the approx height of the Statue of Liberty!

 And then..a rainbow!!

So there were a few things I really wanted to see in Iceland:

-a rainbow by a waterfall (check)

-a puffin (too late)

-northern light (too early)

-Icelandic horses (coming up soon)

-glaciers (check) 

 I got my rainbow!!

 You can't even fathom the amount of water pouring over the edge!

And you really can't see the bottom due to all the water spraying up

 We hiked up a bit to get this view

Then, you walk upstream over volcanic rock and see a peek of Detifoss's younger sister Selfoss.

 It is a horse shoe shaped waterfall, quite beautiful

 Appears to be a whole row of small waterfalls with the main flow in the rear.

Stunning. 

The craggy basalt chunks and columns lining the edge are quite beautiful in their own right.

 What a day! Your mind can hardly take it all in. So much beauty.

Iceland 8: Glaciers and Ice

I was really looking forward to seeing glaciers. And we were not disappointed, although the inclement weather kept us from getting the full experience. We arrived at Glacier Lagoon just as the fog lifted temporarily.  The blue ice was so lovely!  The black streaks are lava sand that comes with the ice. We were able to spend just under an hour taking it all in and then, once more, it started really raining. But at least we got the thirty minutes of amazement!

Random ice floating around

Beautiful ice chunk

The background should be a glacier but all we saw was fog

 Love this one. Looks like a white mama with a grey and black children

Now do you see it? 😁😁😁

Varieties of blue

Ice rabbit

 Ice sculptures

 a model boat?

Crystal clear ice

Ice chunks on lava beach.

 The temperature was not freezing but the ice stayed frozen. 

They told us to look for seals. We saw one.

 Then we saw three.  barely.

We did have some blue sky to be able to see some parts of the glacier

Majestic!

Most glaciers we saw were not blue and lovely but rather had the black lava mixed in

Looks dirty but it's just the lava sand leftover when the glacier melts

This glacier also had some hunks of ice floating at the base

This photo clearly shows the flow of a glacier..and the recession.

This whole valley used to be filled, but not anymore.

An eruption and subsequent melt of parts of the glacier ripped this bridge to pieces.

They left a bit there so people could see the force of nature

A little Photo-shopping makes it look prettier :)