Harbors, Horseshoes and Waterfalls
Note to self: when booking hotels online for Iceland in the summer, make sure that they have blackout curtains.
Not only did our hotel last night not have blackout (or even one decent layer of) curtains. BUT the bed was positioned so that the light from the window shone right down… onto my face. Now, Matt had no problem and slept like a baby. Me? Well I do believe I woke up an average of every 45 minutes. Despite (not) sleeping in bright daylight all night, we had a fabulous day today.
We headed out of Myvatn (attempting to dodge swarms of bugs on our way to the car with our luggage) driving northwest through some pretty desolate country. At the coast we turned north along the Tjornes Peninsula and stopped at Husavik.
Husavik is a charming fishing village of 2,500 people (a veritable city compared to the towns we have been visiting). Many older wooden houses remain, and there is a charming, albeit oddly shaped church. The harbor is quaint and colorful with a beautiful backdrop of high snow-capped mountains.
From further up the Tjornes Peninsula we caught a glimpse of Grimsey, the Icelandic island which lies above the Arctic Circle.
Our next stop was Jokulsargljufur National Park and the famous Asbyrgi (horseshoe-shaped canyon). At the far end of the canyon (at the curved part), there is a pond which serves as a breeding ground for several species of birds.
This is a picture of Sharon by the pond.
Next, we ascended the cliff walls (with the help of ladders and ropes) for a very pleasant 4 mile walk along the rim. The plateau was covered with heather and periodically we had amazing views of the Asbyrgi below.
After our 3 hours of exercise, we got back in the car and as a reward… we ate junk food. Don’t worry, we did it on our way to the next adventure so that we didn’t lose any time! Off we drove down another long, bumpy gravel road to Dettifoss. Who would expect that Europe’s largest waterfall is in the middle of a desert? The waterfall is amazing!
But the bugs were down right annoying. Flying in our noses, ears, etc. So we had a truncated stop… and spend 10 minutes getting the bugs out of the car afterwards.
So it was back through Husavik
To Godafoss
I know, I know, you are getting sick of seeing waterfalls. I have named it the “Zebra Effect”. When we were on safari in Africa… the first day we would jump up and down and take dozens of pictures each time we saw zebras… and our guide Fred would roll his eyes. By the time we finished 8 days later, zebras didn’t even register a blip on our radar screen. So it is with waterfalls in Iceland. They are EVERYWHERE! So at first we got excited each time we saw one trickling down a mountainside. Ummm, not so much anymore. Usually we don’t even point them out. But you gotta admit… this one was pretty cool.
We made it to Akureyri, a town of 17,000 (big city times!). I already checked… our hotel room has blackout curtains. Yeeehaaaa! I be sleeping tonight!
