Day 11 - Myvatn to Varmhalid

We started the day with a walk up the Hverfjall crater, just a short drive from our campsite in Myvatn.  There wasn't much wind to speak of at the start of the walk, but by the time we'd climb just over a hundred metres to the rim of the crater, the wind was howling and it was difficult to stand up. The view inside was disappointing, just grey rocks and sand.  For some reason I thought there would be more colour.  We decided against walking around the rim, and headed back down to the van.

Hverfjall crater

The path up the crater rim

The view from the top

Inside the crater

Next stop was Dimmuborgir lava field.



The helpful info boards tell it much better than I can.  We spent maybe an hour wandering around the lava field, with a brief stop at the gift shop afterwards.




As you can see, a pretty decent day with blue.sky, sunshine and little wind to speak of, and we hit a max of 20 degrees today.

We decided on a 45 minute detour to visit Aldeyjarfoss, a waterfall we had missed last trip due to snow. It was down a gravel road and it seemed like we were driving to the middle of nowhere. We were next to the river that eventually turns into Godafoss waterfall, and it was a very pretty drive past farms, and sheep meandering on the road. Through a few farm gates and we had arrived.  It was pretty impressive, not only for the waterfall but the steep sides of the gorge next to it.

Aldeyjarfoss


We hit the road back to re-join the ring road and head to Akureyri, in search of an electronics shop for B to buy a charger for her Mac that she had forgotten to bring. We found the Elko store and a generic charger and were heading to the checkout counter when I spotted these.

Dildo's are us

Right there on the shelf, in between the hair straightening irons and the Nespresso machines.  Too funny.
We hit up the local Netto for something to make for dinner and hit the road again, aiming for  a campground in Varmhalid.  It was a cute little camp, with no reception area, just an honesty system, where they would come around and knock on the van door about 8pm when you were already tucked up in your sleeping bag, asking for payment. They had free showers, which I took advantage of, even though the water, hot and cold, smelled quite sulphorous.
We made mince and pasta with mushrooms and a tomato sauce for dinner, and had a good laugh with a couple of Dutch guys who had also been watching a family faffing with backing and parking their caravan.  It's always entertaining watching fellow campers.
Very disappointed to report that the donut we got in Akureyri was stale 😢  You let us down Netto!

Some pix of the scenery on the road, taken through the window of the van as there are very few places to stop.





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