Bubbling mud and volcanos

Our day yesterday around Myvatn was, as you will have seen from the photos and James' video, filled with dramatic geological stuff. The whole area is volcanic and much of it totally unvegetated because of sulphur. Shower water in the morning smells like sulphur too.

We started at Dimmuborgir. We didn't mean too but missed our first turn-off. It is piles of lava columns. Then off to Hverfjall, a volcano of gray lava, no vegetation, with a big caldera. We climbed up and it gave a great view of all of the lake. James kept track of Ken's heart rate - it was a pretty steep climb.

Then off to Hverir where the truly stinky bubbling mud pots were. Totally desolate landscape with steam rising everywhere. Then to Krafta and Viti - yet another volcano and a lake in part of the caldera. Pretty dramatic. There was a hot dog stand in the parking lot there but despite the fact that everyone describes the hot dog as the national food of Iceland, we actually haven't had one yet.

What we did have, though, is geysir bread. Not far from Hverir, there is an underground bakery. The locals literally dig a hole in the ground, but bread dough in there, and it cooks in 24 hours. All you see at the surface is bits of steam and sheet metal or wood covering the hole. The bread is kind of sweet (although it varies, presumably by baker) and dense and very moist. We have eaten more than our fair share of this stuff.

We had dinner at the Cowshed restaurant which was adjoined to....a cow shed. We had geysir bread ice cream for dessert there.

After dinner, at around 10 pm we went to the mineral baths. Bright blue water from nearby geothermal plant. "Ike a small scale Blue Lagoon. Supposed to be very healthy. Then back home after 11 pm - still light out.

This morning, we took a detour en route to Hofn on the east coast to see Dettifoss waterfall. Dirty gray water that is carrying tons of glacial debris over the falls every day. Dramatically different colour from Gudafoss yesterday.

Our GPS has been taken over by elves and we were taken to Dettifoss on a road we didn't expect although it turned out well - you will see from the photos that on our side of the river, we were able to get very close to the falls. Since then, the GPS has twice tried to take us on terrible roads that will take longer. We will have to contact an elf negotiator to try to have this sorted out - perhaps there is one in Eskifjorfur or Faskrudsfjordur.

We are currently driving east and south to Hofn. Very very remote and desolate with parts of it looking like moonscape. In the middle of total desolation - rocky rubble with no plants - you will come across a huge field of lupins.

We are currently stuck behind an Icelandic RV (which we passed earlier before a pit stop) who has a habit of weaving wildly from side to side on the road. The driver is elderly and, we are quite convinced, heavily into the Icelandic schnapps. Hofn tonight - glaciers and tthe glacier lake tomorrow. Having tons of fun.

PS. Just passed the inebriated RV driver.