Travelling With Steve: Iceland Pt 4

Another long post! Iceland keeps on delivering on spectacular scenery. We went back to the puffins at 9.30pm and there were so many it was ridiculous - apparently there are 7,000 to 10,000 pairs that breed on the headland! We tracked westward and continued to be amazed at the scale of the scenery and the diversity. A good part of the drive was across high tundra with an extraordinary wilderness character (hard to capture in pictures). We’ve also visited more fjords which has been fantastic. Tonight we are in Akureyri and it is the last night for Jenny and Gillian in Iceland. They fly to Toronto tomorrow whilst Marian and I continue westward for another 5 nights. We meet up again in NYC. It’s 11.50pm and the sun has just set, but it’s still quite light - it will remain like this all night - quite bizarre! Here are some pics….

More puffins...

We had another 'high' drive across a range to get back from the puffins - this is the view from the top, down across our road. On the plain below we saw a herd of reindeer...

Stuologil Canyon was a quick visit off the Ring Road. The geology of the country is amazing. Note the scale in the first photo with the guys on the central pillar....

This is the high tundra we travelled along for hours - it was spectacular - we wouldn't have been happy to do it in worse weather or snow!....

Dettifoss is a huge waterfall but they'd closed off the more exciting viewing platform (right next to the waterfall) due to it being too dangerous (wet)...

A little further up the river was Selfoss - not as high but very picturesque...

We saw lots of sights around Lake Myvatn, where we stayed for a few nights. Viti (a mountain: with the green crater lake) is behind a geothermal power plant that we visited, which had a very interesting information display about how they convert steam (from surface water meeting the volcanic subsurface) into electricity and hot water...

Nearby are the Leirhnjukur lava fields with snow - very atmospheric and steamy from volcanic activity....

Steam pipes from the bore holes to the power plant....

Closer to the lake are the Hverir thermal fields, with steam vents and boiling mud etc - very smelly - busy with tourists....

We walked up Hverfjall crater, which is a 'tuff ring' crater caused by ash being spewed from a volcanic explosion. It's huge (partially in photo to right). There were great views from the top (partially in photo to left)...

Lake Myvatn is shallow with rich aquatic life, so it attracts substantial bird life. As it is part of a wider volcanic landscape there is a mix of volcanic rocks, vents, water and sheep that is fantastic...

Dimmuborgir is a lava field next to the lake which has volcanic vents caused when the land was underwater - so the magma would quickly cool into the chimney-like shapes - once the water goes they appear even more accentuated. There are well organised tracks around the site. It's also the traditional home of the Yule Lads, who are 13 bearded 'dwarf-like' characters in Iceland that come out at Christmas, with names like the 'Sausage Swiper', 'Door Slammer' and 'Spoon Licker'. I kid you not....

Pseudo-craters on the lake....

On the way to Akureyri we stopped at Godafoss - a very nice waterfall...

Akureyri (where we are now) is on a large fjord (Eyjafjordur) which has huge scenery and some great birdlife as well...

The historic houses are a mix of materials, the one in the foreground has slate 'scales', whilst the next two have pressed metal clad on timber....

Geese and Lupins...

At the top of the fjord is the town of Siglufjordur, which has an interesting museum about when the town was the centre of the Herring industry in Iceland. It was very well done and the setting of the town is fantastic. To get there you go through 11km of tunnels. One is 7km long. The other is 4km and one lane - so northbound traffic has to pull into little side bays to let the southbound cars past - crazy but it worked!...

The herring industry collapsed in the 1960's because they were fished out. This is a photo from 1972 showing how the former busy wharves were derelict. These same buildings are now the award winning museum and there's an esplanade road along the front between the buildings and the fjord...