Day 6 – Lake Myvatn Region

Today we  head to the Lake Myvatn region.  Our first stop is Godafoss, the waterfall of the gods. It was the first of many waterfalls that we saw.  One strange historical idea is that everything seems to be related to myths and sagas from ancient times.  I mentioned this before but it is very prevalent in all the stories about the many Icelandic geological areas and structures. Godafoss is where the statues of the pagan Norse gods were thrown after the introduction of Christianity in the year 1,000.

I enjoyed this falls quite a bit because you were able to walk along a path which meandered next to the gorge.  It was a beautiful day as well!

The next stop was very interesting.- it was an area with open air geothermal pools, bubbling sulphuric mud pits and a wide expanse of red clay with yellow and white streaks.  The landscape looked like it was from a science fiction movie.

I think from the photos you can get an idea  what the area looked like. We went to lunch after we left this site.  I think this was the time we just had soup and bread.  It was a meat soup and if I remember correctly they had forgotten about my vegetarian request so they threw together some vegetables in a cream broth. The potatoes and squash were totally raw.  Every vegetarian soup they made was cream based.  It was hard enough being vegetarian so I didn’t complain about eating dairy products.  Their diet is based on milk, cheese and yogurt (their yogurt is different from ours – much sweeter) and not a lot of vegetables.  The vegetables we had were mainly carrots, potatoes, and squash.

After we had lunch, we went across the street to see the pseudocraters.  Erik did not tell us which way to go so we went the longer way along with several others.  The rest of the group went the short way.  The wind was blowing so hard that I never even took my camera out until the end of the hike. The pseudocraters were formed from steam blisters popping through hot lava as it flowed over marshland. Those dots at the top are people.

Our next site was a place with twisted lava formations called Dimmuborgir,  There we found an extraordinary maze of natural lava sculptures.  Shawn and I walked along the yellow marked path ahead of the group.  Here are a few photos: There were many of these formations. It took us about 30 minutes to follow the path and see the formations.

Next we traveled to see the crater lake called Viti which means hell in English.

That was the last area we saw and then we went on to the hotel.  It was called Narfastadir and was a former sheep farm located in the countryside. Not much there but a pond down by the road but I think everyone was too tired to explore it. Erik had been having meetings in the evening but Shawn and I decided not to go.  Mainly, it was to show your photos and get feedback. I decided that night to go to see what people were doing.  Most of the photos were very good and the people very knowledgeable.  I went back to my room at 9:30 pm as it had been a very long and busy day.