Iceland - Land of Fire & Ice Part 6 - Our Home Has 6 Wheels

Iceland – Myvatn, Dettifoss and Selfoss Day 6

Linda didn’t sleep well the previous night and we thought she was coming down with something. Damn, we shouldn’t have given the gods the finger at Myvatn Nature Baths yesterday! She says it feels like a cold. She had a bit of a sore throat, lots of snot and a bit of intestinal distress…not good!

LInda enjoying breakfast at Hotel Laxa on a beautiful sunny, but windy day

Even though she felt like crap we headed out for Dettifoss, a huge and spectacular waterfall not too far from Myvatn. The drive there was through some pretty desolate volcanic landscape and yes, the wind was just ripping! There was huge dust clouds blowing across the lava fields in the distance!

Lava fields & dust clouds on the way to Dettifoss & Selfoss

Dettifoss & Selfoss Waterfalls

As we pulled into the parking area for the falls, we were surprised at the number of people here, but I guess, nowhere near what there will be during the summer! It was a bit of a hike over some roughish terrain to get to the falls, but Linda made it ok. The big problem again, was the WIND and while the sun was out, the wind chill made it pretty cold!

Linda wore her buff over her face to try and filter some of the blowing sand and dirt out of her nose and mouth. Unfortunately, Linda suffers from some neuropathy in her feet and has a bad back which makes her little unstable on her feet at times. That damn wind almost blew her over a few times. Fortunately she had her walking pole and hung on to me for some additional support!

Linda bundled up for the walk to Dettifoss

Dettifoss is located in Vatnajökull National Park and is the second largest waterfall in Iceland. and apparently the second most powerful waterfall in Europe. It is situated on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river. The falls are 100 metres (330 ft) wide and drop 44 metres (144 ft) down into the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon.

Dettifoss was certainly spectacular even though it runs through a very barren and desolate landscape. There is a huge volume of sediment-rich water colouring it a greyish white, pouring over the falls and with the sun shining, there were beautiful rainbows visible in the mist thrown up by the falls.

Dettifoss,

As beautiful as it was, Linda was really glad to get back to the car and out of the wind as she was feeling pretty rotten. However, there is another waterfall upstream from Dettifoss that I wanted to check out. Selfoss is not as big as Dettifoss, but it drops into a spectacular canyon and was worth the extra walk to check it out.

Selfoss

On the way back to Myvatn we stopped at the gas station in Reykjahlíð, for a hot dog with the works then headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest. Linda didn’t want to overdo it and be out of commission for the next phase of the trip. So while she stayed back and got some rest, I headed out to to get photos around Mývatn Lake and hopefully see some bird life.

Vindbelgur Volcano sits near the shores Myvatn Lake

Mývatn Lake

Mývatn is Iceland’s fourth-largest lake with an area of 36.5 square kilometres. The lake is very shallow, the deepest point being only 4.5 meters deep (15 ft); and on average it’s only around 2.5m (8 ft). Mývatn has one of the world’s largest populations of breeding aquatic birds. 115 species of birds have been recorded in the area, including 28 species of ducks. The large bird population owes its presence to the abundant supply of nutrients in the lake and an abundant quantity of insects and other small creatures, providing rich feeding for the birds.

Marsh lands around the southern end of Mývatn Lake

Tufted Ducks on Mývatn Lake

Horned Grebe on Mývatn Lake

A number of farms are on the shores of Myvatn Lake

Unusually shaped lava fields line some of the eastern shore of Myvatn Lake

Salix lanata, the woolly willow, is a subarctic species of willow native to Iceland

Hotel Laxa

We ended our day back at the Hotel Laxa taking in happy hour once again before heading off to dinner. We met a lovely couple from from South Carolina who were also on driving tour of the Ring Road but in the opposite direction. We were able to trade stories and experiences of the things we each had seen so far.

Dinner was very good, though our choices weren’t as satisfying as the previous night. Linda’s risotto was very tasty, but had a huge amount of olive oil in it. She paid the price with some seriously unhappy guts later that night. The gods, they always win!