Iceland: Day 4
Day 4 Itinerary:
- Dettifoss
- Hverfjall
- Krafla Powerplant
- Hverir
Day 4 was when the weather started to get a bit muggy. It rained on and off all day (mostly on) and it was cloudy. I had overloaded the itinerary for the day again, so we only made it to half of the locations and saved the rest for the next day.
Our first stop was probably the place I was most exited about seeing. Dettifoss is the largest waterfall in Iceland in terms of water discharge. The amount of water flowing over the edge is incomprehensible! Dettifoss is also where the opening scene of Prometheus was filmed (if you haven't watched Prometheus, 1. do you live under a rock? 2. go watch it, pretty awesome). We did get extremely wet because of the mist coming up from the water crashing at the bottom as well as the rain.
Our second stop was Hverfjall, which is a volcanic crater 1km in diameter. The crater was so large, I could't get it entirely in view from our vantage point, and I was using a pretty wide lens. It was pouring at this point and although I really wanted to go inside, we only stayed for a few minutes and left.
We then quickly drove by the Krafla powerplant, but again, it was pouring so we only did a quick drive by. The main building is pretty impressive, but what I liked the most were the small red geodesic dome pavilions. We did go back the next day so stay tuned for more!
Our last stop was Hverir, and thankfully the rain had nearly stopped. This place is a geothermal area with boiling mud pools that were a beautiful lavender blue color against a burnt orange ground. There were a few fumaroles as well and while it was extremely beautiful, it smelled so bad. I tried really hard to enjoy myself but the pungent smell of sulphuric fumes made me want to puke. Our boots also got soiled by the burnt orange colored mud, so we had to wash them off and blow dry them at the hotel that night.
We spent the night at Hotel Gigur on Lake Myvatn. They had some weird card that unlocked the door, which I had some trouble with at first. Unfortunately, I think they heated their water geothermally so, the pungent smell followed us there. The room was extra tiny, and we ended up banging knees (it hurt so bad). It was also very humid in our room, so this was the only time I did not sleep in pants wrapped up in a comforter. We had a light dinner at the hotel restaurant, and we finally tasted some local Icelandic beer (Einstök White Ale is pretty good). We ate chicken caesar salads which were delicious and some creme brûlée for dessert. In the morning, there was a breakfast buffet with the usual works.
