Nordurland, North Iceland

Fearing the fog a little, as we could see the clouds becoming lower and lower over the hills, we left early and were lucky enough to arrive at the plateau at the top of the pass with good views of the big lake/ reservoir. I found it absolutely gorgeous, but poor Trudi has seen so much snow this winter, that she was not as excited as I was! Quite understandable.

Once we were back on the ring road, it did not take long before we had a waterfall stop. This time it was the little known Rjukandafoss. It had a nice gentle climb up to it past beautiful rockeries of alpine plants. This one with its dew or rain droplets and insect was simply irresistible.

Rjukandafoss does not even feature in most guidebooks and yet is an awesome 139 metres high, with two thundering falls, and is very impressive. I guess this is a great time to visit Iceland, as the snow is melting and the falls are at their maximum.

The road continues to thrill us. It is such a good road, renewed about 10 years ago and yet it still looks like new! You would think the winters and earthquakes, etc, would damage it, but it is superb. Having been warned that Iceland was now somewhat overrun by tourists, we were pleasantly surprised by these empty roads! New Zealand used to be like this.

Not only empty roads, but kilometres of open space ahead of us, but a sign of change to come in the distance.

Even in such desert environments, the plant life continues to survive against all odds.


More empty roads, but now with hills sweeping down towards them!

A small detour led us  to one of the most impressive waterfalls I have seen in Europe, possibly the most impressive, Dettifoss. In terms of volume, it is Europe's biggest waterfall. We could hear the falls and see the spray rising well before we could see these 45 metre by 100 metre falls. Wow, what a breathtaking sight. I did struggle a bit with watching the lunatics on the other side standing on the edge of the cliffs performing all sorts of poses, but apart from that it was a marvelous visit.

Just upstream is a smaller and yet still spectacular waterfall, Sellfoss. It is 'only' 10 metres high by 70 metres wide, but is nonetheless a fabulous sight.

The approach into Myvatn was fantastic. Suddenly the desert and hills change colour, volcanoes appear and the steam can be seen gradually rising from numerous vents. 

Lake Myvatn is commonly known as midge lake, probably well named for the millions of midges which surround you if you stop to rest or take a photo. Luckily, they don't bite, so they are simply irritating! I am sure they will appear in my photos in the next days!

I will come back to more details tomorrow. 

After a great soak in the Nature Baths, I need to head to bed a bit earlier than usual!