Wednesday kicked off with a walk around the brand new (relatively speaking) lava fields of Krafla. I never got such a sense of the earth as a living, changing thing until I walked these fields.
The steam made for some fun photo ops with J. Don't worry moms, we don't smoke in real life!
We had been really lucky with the weather thus far, but then the rain started to really come down. The wind decided to join in on the fun so that the rain came down sideways. Fun. The path, which was already a little muddy, got even more slippery, and we had to be careful not to slip from the path and fall into a nearby boiling vat of sulphuric water.
After our walk at Krafla, we made the short drive to check out the boiling mud pools of Namaskard. And it was super stinky! We tried to stay upwind of the steam coming from the mud to avoid the worst of it, but the smell was pretty overwhelming. I beat a hasty retreat to the car due to the smell combined with the general miserableness of the weather.
The day turned out to be kind of a dud for us with the weather being so bad. It's hard to enjoy the scenery when the rain is going up your nose and your hiking pants and boots are soaked. J and I decided to stay at the hotel while the others made the sojourn to the geothermal pools at Lake Myvatn for a good soak. It was just as well since we had tried out the Blue Lagoon, and we both realised that we are just not bath people.
I woke up Thursday morning with my fingers crossed that the weather had improved during the night. It must have worked since it was nice and dry for our walk around the pseudo craters by Lake Myvatn. The pseudo craters are formed by steam explosions as hot lava travels over a water source.
The view from the top was quite nice, and I could spot some of the farms nearby.
We then drove around the perimeter of the lake and walked down to its banks. The lake is quite beautiful, but one caveat: Lake Myvatn translates to "Midge Lake" and there were loads of them to greet us as soon as we got out of the car.
I have an inexplicable fear of bugs getting in my ears and pulled up my hood while I walked around. The water was remarkably clear, and we could see straight to the bottom.
We continued our hike around the lake, and our guide took us to these amazing rock formations. And yep, we could still see the bottom!
It was a nice and easy hike, other than swatting at the squillions of midges, and it was just a warm up for our steep hike up to the rim of Hverfjall, a massive crater by the lake.
It was a steep climb, but we did manage to huff and puff our way up to the top.
It's hard to grasp the enormous size of the crater - the diameter of the rim is 0.6km!
We walked around the top, and it's true that whatever goes up must come down. The hike down was just as steep and a lot harder than the hike up! It was a series of switch backs, and I got a ton of dirt in my shoes slushing my way in the dirt toward the bottom.
Safe and sound and shoes emptied of rocks and dirt, we left the crater to walk to the nearby lava forest, Dimmuborgir. That's the crater in the background - I told you it was massive!
The forest was filled with curious rock formations, and we had a chance to look around while we picnicked amongst the rocks.
We even got to visit a church for the elves. It's crazy that all of this is naturally occurring!
That was quite enough hiking for the day, and I was grateful to return back to the hotel so I could take off my shoes and socks and get rid of the rest of the dirt, which was no mean feat!
The steam made for some fun photo ops with J. Don't worry moms, we don't smoke in real life!
We had been really lucky with the weather thus far, but then the rain started to really come down. The wind decided to join in on the fun so that the rain came down sideways. Fun. The path, which was already a little muddy, got even more slippery, and we had to be careful not to slip from the path and fall into a nearby boiling vat of sulphuric water.
After our walk at Krafla, we made the short drive to check out the boiling mud pools of Namaskard. And it was super stinky! We tried to stay upwind of the steam coming from the mud to avoid the worst of it, but the smell was pretty overwhelming. I beat a hasty retreat to the car due to the smell combined with the general miserableness of the weather.
The day turned out to be kind of a dud for us with the weather being so bad. It's hard to enjoy the scenery when the rain is going up your nose and your hiking pants and boots are soaked. J and I decided to stay at the hotel while the others made the sojourn to the geothermal pools at Lake Myvatn for a good soak. It was just as well since we had tried out the Blue Lagoon, and we both realised that we are just not bath people.
I woke up Thursday morning with my fingers crossed that the weather had improved during the night. It must have worked since it was nice and dry for our walk around the pseudo craters by Lake Myvatn. The pseudo craters are formed by steam explosions as hot lava travels over a water source.
The view from the top was quite nice, and I could spot some of the farms nearby.
We then drove around the perimeter of the lake and walked down to its banks. The lake is quite beautiful, but one caveat: Lake Myvatn translates to "Midge Lake" and there were loads of them to greet us as soon as we got out of the car.
I have an inexplicable fear of bugs getting in my ears and pulled up my hood while I walked around. The water was remarkably clear, and we could see straight to the bottom.
We continued our hike around the lake, and our guide took us to these amazing rock formations. And yep, we could still see the bottom!
It was a nice and easy hike, other than swatting at the squillions of midges, and it was just a warm up for our steep hike up to the rim of Hverfjall, a massive crater by the lake.
We walked around the top, and it's true that whatever goes up must come down. The hike down was just as steep and a lot harder than the hike up! It was a series of switch backs, and I got a ton of dirt in my shoes slushing my way in the dirt toward the bottom.
Safe and sound and shoes emptied of rocks and dirt, we left the crater to walk to the nearby lava forest, Dimmuborgir. That's the crater in the background - I told you it was massive!
The forest was filled with curious rock formations, and we had a chance to look around while we picnicked amongst the rocks.
We even got to visit a church for the elves. It's crazy that all of this is naturally occurring!
That was quite enough hiking for the day, and I was grateful to return back to the hotel so I could take off my shoes and socks and get rid of the rest of the dirt, which was no mean feat!
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