Day 7 – Dettifoss and Traveling East

We traveled from our hotel to Dettifoss. Iceland’s and Europe’s most prolific waterfall.  Dettifoss is a watefall in the Vatnajokull National Park in Northeast Iceland. When we stopped to walk to the waterfall, I was surprised as there was no indication of a falls in sight.  All around was nothing but lava rock as far as you could see.  As we walked through the trail of rock we came upon a sign that said Dettifoss and Selfoss.  Selfoss was another waterfall in the  Jokulsa a Fjollum river. We decided to see the Selfoss waterfall first.  There were 5 of us going to Selfoss first, the rest of the group went to dettifoss.  When we arrived there was no one there.  You really couldn’t get close to the falls the way it was situated but there was plenty to photograph.

After getting all the photos we wanted, we then took the path to Dettifoss.  It was in the opposite direction through a path of lava rock.  The path actually takes you to the top of the waterfall.  In order to see it from the bottom, you had to take a long walk and most of the walk was wet from the spray. I did have fun taking macro shots of the wildflowers along the edge of the falls.

We spent about two hours here.  Finally, everyone met at the bus.  Of course, we had to wait for the few stragglers who didn’t pay attention to the time. Then we were off again and this time to our lunch stop.  It was one of the most enjoyable lunch places we stopped at.  Not because of the food, but because of all the photo opportunities.  When we first arrived, there were a group of sheep in the parking lot.  A few of us jumped off the bus and started taking photos.  This was the only place we actually were able to take close-ups of sheep.  Sheep are everywhere but trying to get photos seemed to be very difficult especially from the bus window.

The day was overcast and cold but everyone hurried out after lunch to take photos. There was a picturesque church, old rusted farm machinery, two dogs.

While people were wandering around, someone discovered one of the dogs barking at a hole by one of the buildings.  Evidently, one of the sheep had fallen into the hole and couldn’t get out. Our guide, Erik was able to grab hold of the sheep and pull him out. It was a fun photo shoot but it was time to leave so we climbed back on the bus and headed east through desolate highlands.