Myvatn geothermal area

Elda guesthouse at Myvatn Lake proved to be a fantastic place to stay, with comfortable rooms, great kitchen and dining room ( with view of the lake) and super friendly staff. Breakfast was delicious too! 

It looked as if the weather would be kind to us, but as we have learnt, it can change extremely rapidly and we should have been warned if we had taken more notice of the looming black clouds approaching over the hills.

We had five wonderful minutes at Namaskard, a spectacular landscape of red clay, with the most fantastic patterns of yellow, light blue and cream.
 It is incredible that such a wonderful sightseeing area is still free of charge, but also that despite it being such a very volatile area of bubbling mud pools and steam vents, there is nobody there to check that people are staying behind the ropes. I am not sure our health and safety laws would allow this. In fact, everywhere we went today was free of charge, and rightly so because they are all natural phenomenoms, but all could be hazardous. Perhaps they have the right idea here to leave it up to the visitors to take responsibility ( though I have read of a couple of recent deaths at waterfalls!).

Anyway, it was a fabulous place, but sadly the visit was cut short by sudden, torrential, freezing rain!

Just behind us I could see that the clouds looked less ominous above the geothermal Leirbotn power station, so we literally followed the clearer skies and visited the magnificent flooded crater of Krafla, just above the power station.

Wow! It was such a fantastic colour, particularly when contrasted with the dark sides of the crater and heavy grey skies. The volcano last erupted about two hundred years and is said to erupt every couple of centuries. I am pleased it behaved itself today. The thick mud was enough to contend with! We opted not to do the walk around the rim because it was very slippery under foot and another rain squal seemed imminent. Good thinking. With very heavy shoes we scampered back to the car just ahead of the rain!
A pity really, but there was still so much to see apart from that area.

Once more following clear skies, we made our way around the lake to a fantastic area known as Kirkja where we could enjoy expansive views over the lake, plus closer to shore, some interestingly-shaped lava sculptures. For bird watchers and wild flower experts, this was also a brilliant place to wander. No blue lupins today, but fields of white instead. We were virtually alone apart from the bird population there

And , of course, the midges! Even with plenty of repellent on, it was hard to dissuade these swarms of midges from totally engulfing you. Nets would be an answer but I don't fancy the idea, so I just walked trying to simply enjoy the spectacular environment. It is hard to ignore these creatures though, especially when they fly up your nose, into your ears, and into your mouth if you open it! They also get in front of the camera lens!

One of the volcanic features which I most regretted not being able to visit on my tour to this area two years ago was the pseudocrater region. These little hillocks, looking like mini volcanoes, were formed from steam blisters popping through the hot lava. They can be found around the lake, but the area of Skutustadir has a very good track, giving a very good overview of these strange formations. They rarely have any water in them and are mostly grassed over so do not look quite so special from above as they do from below.

Just near where we ate last night is the magnificent Dimmuborgir area, well known for its wonderful maze of pathways weaving past the many lava sculptures there. It was marvelous to meander alone amongst these fabulous lava formations and to imagine how it must have been when the volcanoe erupted. 

I desperately wanted to photograph these little pink flowers, which I think become a type of blue berry, but I struggled to hold the camera steady because of the thousands of midges all around me. Thankfully they do not bite, unlike our much nastier sandflies in NZ!

Our final stop was at some caves, but with steep, slippery steps leading into these caves, we opted out of venturing into them! It is certainly an interesting area geologically.



So, the rain had set in and it was late afternoon. What could be better than a soak in the Jardbodin Nature Baths again. It was so warm and snug in there with cold rain on the head and a wonderfully warm body. Perfect end to a very interesting day.