Gone Munching: Iceland - Day 4 - Puffins, Whale and Pseudo-Craters

Before I begin the narration Day 4, can I first begin to rave about our accommodations the night before? We stayed at a university dorm that had been converted into a summer hotel - something which the company Edda does all over Iceland. It was cheap, clean and very comfortable! We didn't half mind the showers that were down the corridor. Very acceptable.

Hotel Edda, Akureyri

This was my daily breakfast -- cereal with icelandic skyr (a VERY thick yogurt), yum!

OK, so now on Day 4. We did relatively little distance today - mainly because we spent 4 hours out at sea on a ship, in search of puffins and whales to show our cameras to. Our starting point was the fishing town of Husavik.

Dramatic scenery in Husavik

The church at Husavik - built in 1907, and according to my guidebook, one of Iceland's most attractive.

We got onto the boat at the back, on the left.

It was all aboard, and we were glad to get off our land legs for a while!

All suited up, and ready to go!
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Our first destination was Puffin Island. Disclaimer: I don't remember if that was it's real name, but that's what stuck.

Puffin Island

What's that you say? Where are the puffins? Well, look closely. 90% of the flying things around the island are puffins. They're shy apparently and, unlike gulls, stay away from humans. Good thing, since the Icelanders do serve puffin in restaurants.

According to our boat guides, there are 10 million puffins in the world, and an estimated 6 million of them are at this island.

Thanks to Sharon's super zoom lens!
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Aren't they cute?
Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

The whales were more elusive. With whale-watching, it's really a matter of luck. And this time, we only saw one whale, a smallish-Minke Whale. No major tail flips or anything, but still cool.

Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

The rest of the boat trip, we just spent taking pretty pictures enjoying hot chocolate.

A curious gull

Returning to the picturesque Husavik
Photo Credit: Goh Chour Thong

After a quick lunch, we were back on the road, and off to explore the attractions around Lake Myvatn. First stop was the Hverfell crater, a 1000 meter-wide (3280 ft) crater formed in an eruption 2,500 years ago. The sides are entirely loose gravel, which made for a more-tiring-than-expected-15-mins-straight-upwards climb.

Hverfell
Photo Credit: Goh Chour Thong

Loose gravel sides of the crater

That's the path up

The inside of the crater

The view from the top. See the little cars below? That's how far we climbed.

Hikers on the edge of the crater gives a good sense of the scale

Next stop was Dimmuborgir or "black castles", a 2,000-year-old field of cooled lava pillars, contorted into different shapes. I didn't think these were as impressive as the ones we saw the day before, but still interesting.

Dimmuborgir

This hole was about 3 m (16 feet) across!

This one kinda looked like a camel, or a tortoise.

Kirkjan, or "church". One of the most famous formations in Dimmuborgir.

Another attraction in the Lake Myvatn area were the pseudo-craters. According to my guidebook, these were formed when "water was trapped beneath flowing lava, boiled and burst up through the surface, creating what looks like volcanic cones".

Photo Credit: Sharon Chan

These were considerably easier to climb than Hverfell, but the whole area was infested with little black midges which flew in bunches and were way more annoying than gnats! We spent a lot of time swatting in between photo-taking.

Wildflowers on the slopes of the pseudo-craters

We couldn't go a day without a waterfall, though, so we stopped at the powerful Godafoss on the way. Godafoss, or "fall of the gods" was apparently so named because of Thorgeir Thorkelsson, Law-Speaker in 1000AD, who decided Iceland's turn towards Christianity and threw his pagan gods into these waters.