Itinerary - Part 3

The East Fjords

Fjords are long, narrow, deep inlets like tongues reaching into the land, with steep slopes on either side of the inlet and jutting out to the sea at the tip.

You have to drive to the tip of the land that juts out into the water then drive all the way in to the end of the fjord only to drive all the way back out to the end of the next "finger-like" land mass.  Iceland has recently built tunnels significantly reducing travel time from villages nestled inside the fjords.

In winter there are avalanches  on the steep slopes and it's not hard to see why.  Even in the summer there are falling rocks.  The rocks have an earthy rust coloring to them.

As tourists, we took the long way admiring the scenery with plunging coasts and fog rolling into the fjords but staying on the water, not hampering our drive in any way.

The fog is in the background in this photo.

We came across a mountain that looked like a pyramid, but it's purely natural.  Needless to say settlers here thought it to have special energy and powers.

On this leg of the trip as well as the next is where we saw so many waterfalls, tall and thin, trickling and cascading down the slopes, that we stopped taking photos and filming them and simply gazed at the plethora and glory.

Iceland has to be the place where they have the most waterfalls per square foot or meter in all the world.  I know in Canada we have our fair share of beautiful waterfalls, but not at every turn like in Iceland.






Hallormsstadur

Our next destination was Hallormsstadur, a forested area (yes I said forested area...very rare in Iceland) on the shore of a long lake.  It was the first time it actually felt a bit like home, as if we were in the Laurentians or Eastern Townships.  Our hotel was very nice, modern, large enough and we had a nice view of the lake.



Hotel Hallormsstadir - photo from website

 We were offered the usual buffet special for supper but ended up ordering a large carte, much as I love lamb, the Icelandic supper buffets are pretty much all the same.  So Nick had a pizza and I had seafood pasta.  The breakfast buffet was also the same as everywhere we stayed, except this hotel offered scrambled eggs which we hadn't had since Reykjavik.  Unfortunately the scrambled eggs were prepared ahead and frozen, so when they were brought out into the warmer, they were still ice cold! http://hotel701.is/index.php/en/hotel-hallormsstadur

We could have hiked the next morning as there were plenty of nice trails leading to yet more waterfalls but we wanted to hit the road to maximize the scenery to our next destination, Lake Myvatn.  We did drive down to the southern part of Lake Logrinn where there was a bridge to crops over to the other side which comparatively speaking was again barren of trees, very weird.  We drove up the western side of Lake Logurinn through the village of Egilsstadir to continue along Route 1 which no longer followed the coast. This was by far the most isolated part of Iceland along the Ring Road (the inland highlands Road F35 being the most isolated which was going to be one of our last legs).

On our way to Lake Myvatn, we passed by Hrossaborg crater which is where Tom Cruise was filming part of his next movie, Oblivion.









We came across what has to be quintessential Iceland, Namaskard Pass also known as The Gateway to Hell!  Just look at the video and photos to see why.

 



Distinct sulfur smell - eew



Lake Myvatn
 



We stayed at Lake Myvatn 2 nights in a summer house on the lake.  There were so many things to see in and around the lake.  Many many craters appear like pockmarks all over this highly geothermally active area located on the rift between the separating North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.

Viti explosion crater at Mount Krafla

A massive crater formed by an eruption in 1724 which lasted more or less 5 years and continued bubbling for a century afterwards.

Hverafell Crater and next to me a fissure                                         a crater in Lake Myvatn

This video was filmed at 9:30 pm.  The baths close at midnight and it is still bright.

 We spent our evenings at Lake Myvatn in the Jarobodin Nature Baths where the hills around the baths are literally steaming.  Also the midnight sun was more evident as we were further north as these photos were taken just before midnight as we left the baths.