I woke up this morning and went and patted the cats The cats were sitting in the window and it was wet and chilly outside. A delicious breakfast and we were on the road again.
The weather has generally been good to us. When we have wanted to stop somewhere it has usually been sunny. The rain has only been around while we have been driving the car, or after we have checked in for the night. We had a long first driving leg this morning and it rained for most of it, but as we approached Lake Mývatn the clouds parted for some sunshine.
The bleakness of northern Iceland
Our first stop though was Dettifoss. Waterfalls that had a lot of water going over them, plenty of stupid people getting very close to them as well. There were also a lot more people here than we’d encountered the last few days. Our proximity to the second largest town in Iceland, Akureryi, may have had something to do with it.
Dettifoss
We stopped at a bistro just as a tour group left which was good timing. I had a hamburger and Claire had a salmon burger. It was the fourth day in a row I had a hamburger as there often is a distinct lack of choice for my refined non fish loving palette. We left just after another french tour group started to cause chaos looking for their chicken salads and soup. While I’ve had very little issue talking to Icelanders in english, its a hassle for the french many of whom don’t speak english and those that do are difficult to understand. Plus not all Icelanders are fluent in english, some are better than others.
So back on the road Claire had taken the keys off me as I had driven on the left hand side of the road after coming out of a few too many carparks. My excuse were the lines were not marked well and I have to avoid the guy who stopped in the middle of the carpark to take a photo with his iPad. I went back to navigation duties which is has come in handy at times.
We stopped at a town called Skútustaðir to photograph the pseudo craters created by steam when lava hit the lake, they look like mini volcanic crates, but are apparently not. There were also lots of Icelandic sheep around, with signs telling people to not chase them, because never underestimate what some people will do before thinking about it first. We checked the souvenir shop for handmade wooden sweater for Claire, which is going to be here Icelandic purchase. I’m going to buy a tacky Iceland souvenir from somewhere, maybe a mug or a fridge magnet.
We headed to our second falls of the day at Goðafoss. These falls are the place where lawmaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði tossed his pagan symbols and implements into the falls. This was after making a decision that Iceland was to be Christian around 1000AD, and thus the name, which roughly translates to Falls of God. They were quite spectacular, but again too many people, a few of which couldn’t care less about anyone else safety, they were there to get pictures of themselves at the falls and would push there way in with no regards for others. There were no fences at Goðafoss either!
Goðafoss
We got into Akureryi and found a nice cafe for coffee and cake and we checked our emails etc. Claire has been trying to sell her apartment and finally got an offer. So in this world on the internet, she then electronically signed some documents to send it all back. Of course no connectivity at our farm stay means she is not sure it was all ok. We’ll head into town tomorrow for lunch, internet checking, horse riding and dinner. We have a two day stop on a farm, which is nice as we don’t have to drive 200-300 kilometres today! We are just over halfway on our Iceland trip which is also a bit sad.
We cooked up a delicious pasta for dinner and I downed a couple of Icelandic beers, and had a banana skyr for dessert. I should point out Skyr is pronounced skeer thus it rhymes with beer!