Iceland - Day 3 - The Day We Landed on Mars

Day 3 saw us covering a pretty small area relative to the previous 2 days. We drove only about 250 miles from our starting point. We woke to a foggy day and were pleased to find our charming little hotel a lot more charming in the day than in the pitch darkness we had arrived to the night before.

Photo Credit: Goh CT

The sun wasn't as bright as the day before, but the scenery was still as gorgeous as ever.

Our first stop was Dettifoss, Europe's largest waterfall. Yes, we had seen some pretty waterfalls in the past few days, but this one was different. Powerfully different.

You actually see the mist of the waterfall from a distance away while driving in. And that's how we found our way to Dettifoss. Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Look how small the people on the cliff on the left are relative to the waterfall

According to official stats, 193 cubic meters of water fall over Dettifoss every second. It's only 44 meters in height, but the force of the water is unbelievable. The noise was thundering, too! Check out the video, and turn down your speakers a little bit.

Closer view of the Dettifoss

 While we were standing by the falls, we saw a guy throw in a big heavy rock, a bit bigger than a basketball, and the river just took it away as if it were as light as a pebble!

Remember how some people love giving others heart attacks? 

Others of us were way more considerate of our friend's hearts.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

A little damp from the waterspray, we drove on through the Jokulsargljufur National Park (Dettifoss was in the south end of the park), where we visited Asbyrgi canyon - a giant horseshoe shaped canyon. It apparently remains a geological puzzle how Asbyrgi was formed, but the legend passed down from the first Viking settlers was that it was the giant hoof print formed by Norse god Odin's flying horse Sleipnir.

We trekked to the bottom of the 'U' and this was the view looking out at the two ends of the horseshoe.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

The canyon was about 1 km across its width, and the cliffs were about 100 m tall. Another lesson we learned on this trip was how many Icelanders really believe in elves and other supernatural beings. Asbyrgi is, according to legend, the capital city of the "hidden people", and they live in these cliffs. Apparently, there are concert halls, schools, etc for the hidden people within these walls. They are human-sized creatures, but are experts at hiding from us. This belief in elves actually affects building projects in real world Iceland, where there will be protests if building or development threatens elves' lairs, etc.

The bottom of the 'U'. Can you spot any hidden people? 

Another attraction within Jokulsargljufur National Park were the Hjlodaklettar rock columns, also known as the Whispering Cliffs. It is a strange weird sight because lava rock was cooled into weird, gravity defying shapes.

Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Photo Credit: Goh Chour Thong

Close-up of the rocks. Some of them seemed like gargoyles. 

This was a really creepy cave formation. I didn't dare to linger here. 

With the light falling, we decided to move along towards Lake Myvatn, a major tourist center, especially for its geothermal springs. We visited the Krafla area first, which is the heart of the most recent volcanic activity in Icealnd. Below the Krafla area is a magma reservoir, which has been responsible for several eruptions in the 70s and 80s, and volcanologists expect another eruption at any time. The landscape in this area is the reason for the title of this post. It was like we were on another planet - the lava fields, the bubbling mud pools, the smell of sulfur in the air (read: egg-y smell)...

Fields of cooled lava, but some of it was still steaming.

Mud pools
Photo Credit: Chour Thong Goh

Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

I think this was where it really hit us how young Iceland was geologically. It was still an active geological space, and it was really exciting to be there! 

Not far from Krafla, we were met with some Icelandic sheep who gave us the stare-down. Apparently Icelandic farms are pretty big, and the sheep roam free over large areas of pasture. The result: really puffy sheep!That's what I call free-range, grass-fed goodness!

Our next stop was the nearby Hverarond mud pits where there was boiling mud and hissing steam vents. It was a surreal experience. First the steam vents were loud, like standing next to the loudest vacuum cleaner (except this was spitting out instead of sucking in). 

And the mudpits.. well, were boiling. It's hard to describe that eerie feeling, and it's mostly about how it sounds. So really, the closest I can get to giving you that experience is through a video.

That brings us to the end of this weird, alien-landscaped Day 3. Day 4 - we go for nature!

Iceland - Day 2 - Waterfalls, Glaciers and Fog.

We woke to yet another spectacular day of driving through Iceland. Today, we were supposed to drive from the Southeast through the Eastern Fjords, ending up in the North-central part of the Ireland. The weather was perfect, things were green, the sky was blue the roads were long and we couldn't wait to get going.

The perfect drive

This is the cutest thing about Iceland - we found Middle Earth! Don't let Peter Jackson fool you into thinking it was in New Zealand. Tell me you don't think these were hobbit homes:

Actually they are little turf houses with grass roofs because it kept the building warm, albeit a little "earthy-smelling".
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Jokes aside, we were headed today towards Þórsmörk (pronounced Thorsmork), or Thor's Forest, which is supposed to be "one of Iceland's spectacular but inaccessible wilderness", according to my guidebook. Ahem. Remember the rivers from the day before? So we crossed a couple of them and felt awesome:

This is really us, and really our rental car. No, we did not get paid for product placement.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

But seriously, after being passed by a few monster trucks, we chickened out after the 4th river, and carried on our touristy ways. The guidebook did say it was inaccessible... 

Our first tourist stop was Seljalandsfoss, a small-ish waterfall by Iceland's standards, but we got to walk around the back of the waterfall, and that was pretty fun. 

Seljalandsfoss
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Just to give a sense of the scale of this thing - see the people behind the water?
Photo Credit: Chour Thong Goh

.. and that's the view from behind the waterfall

Some close up macro-shots for good measure. The moisture behind the waterfall gave great nature-dew drop photo opportunities: 

Our second day also brought new lessons about Iceland. They have the cutest little churches. And horses. And cows that desperately needed milking.  

This was called the Storadalskirkja church

At this point, we were passing pretty close to Eyjafjallajokull - the volcano that erupted and caused massive air travel difficulties not too long ago. Guess the ash from that eruption has been more or less covered, because we didn't see too much evidence of the eruption. There was however more lovely fog-covered scenery. 

Our next stop was the magnificent Skogafoss - a 62m high waterfall - and we climbed it all the way to the top. 

Skogafoss

That's me running bravely into the waterfall. Note to potential travelers: Bring a rain jacket to Iceland.
Photo Credit: Goh Chour Thong

That's how far we had to climb to get up to the top
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

The view from the top

The surrounding scenery viewed from the top - everything's just so green!

Rainbows are beautiful. Check out the face-profile on the cliff side.

Some of our friends think it is fun to give others heart attacks. 

Leaving the waterfalls, we turned towards the sea, to Dyrholaey nature area, where we were promised dramatic cliffs, black sand beaches, and maybe, just maybe, a puffin or two (we saw none, boo!) 

Dramatic sea cliffs, check!

Black sand beaches, check!

 Golgotha-looking caves lined the black sand beaches

Looking from the inside out

No puffins, but Sharon found a sealion! or seal? Um.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Pebbles polished by the pounding waves.

Some people found fun things to do by the beach.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Back on our way, we drove past Skeidarsandur, one of the largest sandurs - which our guidebook defined as "great wastelands of black sand and glacial debris carried out by volcanic eruptions". This particular sandur was linked to to the largest icecap in all of Europe: Vatnajokull. All the other glaciers we see today are fingers of this massive glacier which dominates all of Southeastern Iceland. 

Part of the Skeidarsandur
Photo Credit: Chour Thong Goh

Can you see a little of Vatnajokull?
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Standing where two fingers of the glacier are creeping out to sea.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Our next stop was the Skaftatell National Park, which includes part of the Vatnajokull glacier, for a spot of hiking. 

A-hiking we went. Check out the glacier in the distance, and the sandur/volcanic wasteland
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

This was one of the stops - Svartifoss.

Svartifoss up-close. Distinctive because of the vertical basalt columns.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Some greenery on the way:

We stumbled upon the tiny farming village of Sel, where there were these quaint turf houses. Check out the sandur in the distance. The extent of the sandur is impressive. 

Photo Credit: Chour Thong Goh

See, Hobbit Houses! Note that CT is a tall, tall person.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Inside the turf house.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Exercise done, we got back into the car and drove to one of the most breathtaking and memorable sites of our trip: the iceberg lake of Jokulsarlon. The ice broke off from a nearby glacier and the lake was apparently formed when the glacier's passage to the sea was blocked by land movements (Source: Insight Guides/Iceland). If you're a James Bond fan, this is where the opening scenes of A View to Kill were shot. 

Photo Credit: Goh Chour Thong

The cold makes people do funny things.
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

We were speechless at the beauty of this place (minus almost-naked men), and spent a good chunk of time here before finally pulling ourselves away to get a-driving. There was to be a long, foggy drive ahead of us through the Eastern Fjords. Watch the fog roll in a series of photos courtesy of Sharon Chan:

That foggy, diffused sunset marked the end of our second day. We we finally made it to our hotel near Egilsstadir that night, totally, absolutely exhausted, but we couldn't wait for the next day.