07
Jul 15

Vesturdalur – Mývatn

We woke up to a light drizzle but by the time we got up it was over. We made a nice breakfast and packed up and were ready to go, when Iest noticed that the clip from his chest strap is missing. (For the record, Osprey backpacks are the worst designed backpacks I have ever seen in every possible aspect. Iest was struggling with the piece of sh*t for the whole trip.) Fortunately we managed to find the clip in the grass, which was just pure luck, really, and were ready to go.

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Gina & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Gina & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Iest & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Iest & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

The way along the canyon was maybe even more spectacular than the day before, because we had plenty of side waterfalls to enjoy, and and also one river crossing – icy cold, straight from the glacier no less. We fancied that.

River Crossing

River Crossing

River Crossing

River Crossing

Waterfall

Waterfall

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

We arrived at the Dettifoss waterfall after 4pm, via the campsite which unlike what we thought was not actually by the waterfall but a nice grassy spot within a lava field a little way off. There were no facilities save for a wooden table and a tank of water in the campsite.

Detifoss

Dettifoss

Dettifoss itself was quite impressive indeed, with apparently the largest volume of water roaring through of any European waterfall. After we had enough of looking at it, and were also quite wet from its mighty spray, we headed back to the campsite to pitch our home for the night. Our bus was supposed to go at 1pm the next day. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot, and also a tour bus – that’s where I thought may be it would be going to Mývatn as well, and could give us a lift to save us half a day, and may be we could even have a shower already today.

Gina and Dettifoss

Gina and Detifoss

Gina and Dettifoss

Gina and Dettifoss

The bus driver indeed confirmed that he was going to Mývatn afterwards but we had to wait for the tour guide to decide whether we could take a ride with them. Fortunately she was kind, and there were two spots left on the bus, so soon enough we found ourselves in the nice company of a Spanish group on our way to Mývatn – we were quite happy!

In Reykjahlíð we saw a nice camp right on the shores of the lake, so we went in to check-in; but alas, the woman said their card machine was not working. It would not be such a big problem, we could pitch a tent, and go to the ATM nearby – but we were quite unhappy with how unpleasant and sour-faced the woman was altogether; that’s no way to treat customers, and we are not used to that here in Iceland – everyone so far has been extremely nice. She was not Icelandic either, and I would be willing to bet she was Czech. Anyway, thinking we had no other option we went to ‘town’ to get the money. While there, we met our German friends we saw at a couple of places before, and they told us there was another campsite further down the road – so we decided to make the move. This meant we had to pack our tent and bags again, then we told the sour-faced b*tch where to stick it, and walked over to the other place. The young woman in the reception was over-the-top nice as if wanting to compensate, and we had our mojo back.

We pitched the tent with a beautiful view of the lake and mountains on the horizon, and we were super happy with our long hot shower. Made a delish dinner of pasta and sauce, and were mighty tired already.

Campsite at Reykjahlíð

Campsite at


06
Jul 15

Akureyri – Vesturdalur

There was some rain at night but when we were getting up at 6am it was just greyish with no rain any more. We packed up efficiently and moved over to the cooking area to make our breakfast. Then it was about time to go down to the bus station for our bus to Ásbyrgi.

For change this was a small bus, and there were only about six or seven of us on it. Despite the grey weather we had some beautiful scenery on the way, as it is probably the norm in Iceland. The bus made a stop at Goðafoss, a mighty waterfall, and then only in Húsavík, where we had 15 minutes and managed to see it all in ten. Afterwards it was finally Ásbyrgi, where we got half hour before schedule.

Goðafoss

Goðafoss

Leaving Ásbyrgi

Leaving Ásbyrgi

After getting our bags ready for the hike and buying a map in the pretty info centre, we set out on out first multiday hike down the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. It is part of the Vatnajökull National Park – North, Europe’s largest protected reserve.

Iest and the view

Iest and the view

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

The walk started through some nice arctic vegetation with prolific birdlife, before opening views over the massive canyon. There were some pretty incredible sights as we made our way along, and the weather was getting progressively better too, so we had some sun for most of the afternoon.

Canyon

Canyon


We arrived in Vesturdalur campsite at about 4pm, and made a nice couscous dinner. The campsite was very basic, just a flat spot by a small ranger station with very limited facilities, but very beautiful setting. Mighty tired we went to bed early as we tend to do, also because it was quickly becoming the chilliest evening we’d had so far.

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Our campsite

Vesturdalur campsite