We had a windy night last night, along with some rain, but by the morning, the rain had stopped and it was just cloudy. We were hoping that this would mean the weather might start to clear, we had already had two days of rain, and surely it had to stop today.
We were not in a big hurry to get going, it was colder outside than any other morning so far, and it was still windy. I was up at about 6:15 AM for a restroom break, and I made coffee when I returned from the bathhouse. It was cold outside, but it was relatively warm inside the camper, we had run the heat on low all night. The heater works really well, but we can’t run it too much at night or it gets too hot. We don’t know how much diesel fuel it uses, we don’t notice any change on the fuel gauge the next morning after we run it.
I worked on the blog while I enjoyed my coffee and let Stephanie sleep in until just before 9:00 AM. We have a long day, but we are both getting a little tired of dealing with the rain, and then adding in the cold and wind. It is not because we are camping, we don’t have to get out into the rain much after we park for the night, but just having to get into rain gear when we go to see something during the daytime, undress, and then do it again at the next stop gets tiring. It would be the same if we were in a hotel, maybe worse because we have more room in the camper to get into the rain gear.
About the time we got ready to unhook the electrical cord, it started to rain again. Great. Plus it got even windier. Just one or the other would be better, but we got both.
We headed to our first stop for the day, a cave called Grjotagia, which used to be a place where many people went to go to an “inside” hot springs. However, a volcanic eruption changed the water temperature to where it was too hot. Now it is just a tourist attraction, and swimming is not allowed. Apparently, it was also used on Game of Thrones as a backdrop.
We arrived and went to one of the two entrances and went down into the cave. The water was really blue in the pool in the cave and did not appear to be hot, there was no steam. However, swimming in it was not allowed. Oh wait, I guess if you are young and do not follow the rules, you can swim there. While we were inside a group of three vans arrived, and several of the people in the group decided it was time to swim, and they were also videoing, so it was part of a setup, probably some YouTube or Instagram thing. They just stripped down, not caring who else was there and were going to go into the pool. Several had dreadlocks, and they stunk, so who knows what they were doing, we left and did not care other than they just had no respect for the rules or anyone else there.
While we were in the parking lot, it started to snow, great, now with the rain and wind, we had snow in August.
We headed to the next site and it was not far. It was called Hverir, and it is an area where there are many thermal pools of mud and steam. There was a large parking lot, and it was paid parking, once again using our license plate as identification for our vehicle. There are cameras in and out, so I guess if you don’t pay, they send it to the registered vehicle owner later.
It was raining still, so we put on all of our rain gear, bundled up against the rain, and headed out. It was a flat area, but pretty large and there are designated pathways to walk on. Of course, it was really muddy, and it was sort of a yellow-colored clay, so it really stuck to the soles of our Keen shoes. There were several places where the steam and hot water from the ground was bubbling up through the gray mud on holes about five feet deep. It appeared that occasionally, the mud must have spewed out some because there were grey areas around the perimeter of the hole that were the same grey color, contrasting with the normal yellow surface color. It was sort of mesmerizing.
There were other areas where there were jus a lot of small holes where steam was coming up through the ground. In these areas, there was some sort of white mineral covering the round, possibly calcium. Did I mention that all of the steam smelled of Hydrogen Sulfide, as in rotten egg smell.
Then there was one spot where rocks had been placed over a steam vent to slow down the flow of steam from the ground. It was about five feet high and four feet wide at the base. You could go right up to it and warm your hands, but we did not. Of course, it was sort of a dry steam initially exiting the rock pile, but quickly turned into a plume of visible steam, and it really smelled if you got into the steam stream, say that three times fast!
We took both photos and videos, some with the GoPro of the whole area which we will post in the future.
There was some mountains nearby, and people were taking trails to the top, but we did not have the time or the energy to do that. It looked steep and was at least a few hundred feet to the top where we could see people standing. From some of the Google information, we think this looked into some type of crater.
We tried to wash off our shoes in some puddles as we walked back to the camper, but it was only marginally successful, the mud was really sticky and had filled the large crevices of the soles of our shoes. We had to take them off outside and put on our tennis shoes, one foot at a time so we did not get our socks wet. We placed the dirty shoes in the turned-over step stool so they would not get mus everywhere.
After getting out of our rain gear, we headed to the next stop, running the heat on the camper cab on high to warm up and dry off.
It was just a few kilometers to the Viti Crater. On the way, we passed a really large geothermal power plant. We actually sort of passed right through it, we had to pass under some steam pipes that were elevated above the road. There was what appeared to be steam piping running over the ground everywhere, and especially about a quarter mile away where the pipes were almost covering a hill. We also saw geodesic-shaped domes, and from them was black piping running to different places, but ending at the dome.
I suppose these are water pipe injection points to pump water into the hot ground, and then collect it in other areas in the steam pipes to run to the main powerhouse to generate power in a steam turbine. I will have to do some research on how these plants actually work. This was by far the largest plant we had seen on the trip.
We passed a parking area with lots of cars and tour buses, so we had to look and see what it was. Apparently, there was a long trail there to hile to look at the scenery, and that was not on our list of things to do today in the rain, Soon, we arrived at the Viti Crater and parked in the small lot. Luckily, it was a really short walk to the rim of the crater from the parking area. It was muddy, so we had to put on our Keen shoes. It was a beautiful site. Inside the large crater was a lake, and it was a really blue color, even in the overcast skies. Of course with sunshine, it would have been more spectacular.
We did not stay long, and by the time we were back at the car getting ready to head out, it started to snow really hard. We were higher up in elevation, so it was obviously colder, colder enough for the rin to turn to snow.
It was not sticking to the wet ground or roads, but it was really coming down.
We headed back down the road to the main highway to continue our journey. We stopped at an area that had a pipe coming out of the ground, and it was a hot water shower, just right in the middle of a gravel area. Stephanie had wanted to use it to try and wash off the mud from our shoes, but it was too high to get to and the wind was blowing the water sideways. Instead, she tried to clean them in the gravel at the bottom of the shower were there was a small pool of water. It was only marginally successful.
Back at the main road, we turned to head to the next stop on our list, the Dettifoss Waterfall. Just as a side note, adding the word “waterfall” after these names is redundant because the “foss” in the name means waterfall, so this is really the Detti Waterfall, but that is to how it is listed anywhere.
It was about 30 minutes before we arrived at the large and free parking area, and it was packed with cars and tour buses, This is one of the most visited sights in their area of Iceland. Of course, it was still raining, so we donned our rain gear, and extra layers to keep warm.
We could see water vapor rising as we arrived at the parking area, but we did not have any idea how long of a walk it was to the falls, and it was really long. We took a shortcut from our parking area so we never passed the large signs that probably showed the trail map to the falls and to one other set of smaller falls nearby, more down the river.
The hike to the falls had to be over 2 Km, and it was on a rocky trail through the rocky lava formations, and it was wet and muddy in some areas, and did I say it was raining?
It was quite crowded and took us a while to get to the falls itself, and then once there to get to the viewing platform. Our legs were still tired from all we had been doing, and with the cold rain, my knees were really sore. I had brought knee sleeves, but I did not have them with me, and it would have helped. We just need to look at the details better for some of these sights so we know what to expect, I could have easily put them on if I knew it was this long of a hike.
There were steep steps going over to the rim of the ravine the waterfall was in, but going down there was not an option today. Plus, there was a lot of spray from the waterfall, and it would have not been that great for photos. The river over the falls was really full from all of the rain, so the waterfall was really loud and quite large. We took some photos and videos, opting not to take the tripod this time, so we could not take photos of ourselves at the falls, it was too rainy.
Now for the long walk back to the camper. There had been a split in the trail heading over to the other smaller falls, but we were not going to do that either. However, on the way back, we were able to see that waterfall from the man trail, so we took photos of it, thank you zoom lens, it was like we were there ourselves! We had not seen it on the way out, it was in the opposite direction of our view at that time, but it was easy to see going back.
We finally arrived back at the camper, and we were both tired, and our legs were sore, it is not easy to walk on rocky trails where you have to pay attention to each step so you do not stumble, then add some rain, and the rocks get slippery so it takes more effort, and is more tiring than just walking that far on a grass trail.
Wed got out of our gear, and started up the camper to get some heat and dry out a little. Our new rain jackets were working great so far, but we were still damp, maybe from sweating on the long and strenuous walk.
We now had to make some decisions about where we were going. There was a spot to visit that was as far north as you can get in Iceland called the Arctic Henge, It is near the small town of Raufarhöfn. It is an “in and out” side trip, meaning we have to turn off our main road and go there and then back. It looked like it was about 20 Km each way in and out. We also were looking for a campground for the night, and there is one in the small town, and it got good reviews, but we knew it would be windy and cold that far north.
We headed in that direction, opting to make the call to go there once we got closer to the turnoff. If we did not stay there for the night, we still had about 1.5 hours to drive to the next campground we had found last night. We are having to modify today some because of getting farther yesterday.
The weather had cleared some by the time we arrived st the turn to go to the Arctic Henge, which as some man-made
stone structures, recently completed. In ways it is supposed to be a similar thing to Stonehenge, hence the name similarity.
We decided to go north to the Arctic Henge, we had not done our jaunt to the northern tip of the peninsula near Hhusavik because of the rain yesterday, and that had allowed us to drive farther last night to shorten the long day we had today.
We arrived in about 20 minutes, and the town was decent sized, and we saw where the campground was located. The drive to the Arctic Henge was past the town and we were the only ones there, imagine that. It started to drizzle rain, go figure, and it was really windy. We put on our rain jackets and extra layers, opting not to wear the rain pants, it was not raining hard enough for those. There was a walkway up to the top of the hill, so we started out. Once at the top, it was really windy, probably 25-30 mph, it was near the water and exposed. We are supposed to only be a few kilometers from the arctic circle here, but we are not sure if it is at this spot, to at the tip of the peninsula we were on, and we were not quite at the very tip here. However, it will be as close as we come on this trip.
We only stayed long enough to take a few photos, the rain was really blowing hard and we had to seek refuge behind some of the large stone pillars to help block the rain and wind. There was a road coming to the top for construction access, so we were able to walk down that far enough to be able to get some photos of the entire “henge”.
We headed back down the walkway to the camper and started the engine for heat. We now had to decide if we wanted to vamp here or go to the next campground about 75 minutes drive from here. These were our only choices, there are not a lot of campgrounds in this remote area of northeastern Iceland.
We headed to the campground in the town just to check it out, and our decision was made for us once we arrived. There was a small area inside a dirt berm for protection from the wind. Once we got to the camping area, the entire protected area was roped off, it was really wet and muddy, and apparently closed because of that. There was also standing water, and the bathhouse was located right in the middle of the grassed area that was closed. there was one area of gravel outside the berm, but it was exposed to ll of the wind. Next campground it is then…..
We drove back to the main road and turned left for the 70-minute drive to the campground in the town of Bakkafjörður. It had good reviews and people had commented on how nice the showers were.
It was going to be almost 7:00 PM before we arrived, and this was the latest arrival we had had so far. we were worried we might not get a good spot arriving that late. It was still really windy and the wind was really affecting the drive, blowing the camper around a bit since it is essentially a tall-sided box. We passed several small lakes and they had whitecaps on them and were not much larger than what one might say is a pond.
We arrived in the town and found the campsite, but were not sure where to check-in. No one was parked in the large grassed area, but there were some cars and a “pop-top” car camper parked next to a building at the edge of the grassed field. we had to turn around to go there. It was called the Gausthouse. There was a sign about calling to check in, and we knew that meant we just needed to park. There were only a few spots with electrical hookups, and they were behind a grassed berm for wind protection, and not far form the bathhouse.
We parked and went to the bathhouse to check it out and use the facilities. It was not what we would describe as a great shower it was inside a small building and there was no light inside. There was a sink and toilet in that building with the shower, and also in another small building next door that had no shower.
t was acceptable, but not as described. It was late and we really had no choice, and we were the only ones there, so it was not going to be crowded for bathroom access.
We parked and plugged into the electrical, and Stephanie headed back to the Gausthaus to get the phone number to call to check on. While she was there, she went inside. The people in the cars were actually staying there, and there were indeed some great bathrooms inside that more than fit the reviews we had read. We moved the camper to be nearer to that building, we were not going to be using the small bathhouse in the middle of the grassed field.
Stephanie called the number and they said to pick out our campsite, which we had done, and they would be around later after 8;00 pm to take payment.
We decided to go ahead and get showers before they were being used by the several people staying inside. There were two bathrooms with showers, and each had two showers inside, perfect for both of us. They were great plenty of hot water, and heated inside.
After showers, we headed back to the camper to finally relax with a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers. About 30 minutes later, we started to cook our dinner for tonight, tortellini pasta with white Alfredo sauce, the last of our pre-cooked chicken and bread. About that time, we got a knock on our door, and it was the owner here for payment. It was one of the least expensive campgrounds we have stayed in, 1,400 ISK per person and 900 ISK for the electricity. In total, that is about $25.00.
No one ever showed up to park in the grass field with us, so we had the area to ourselves.
We made our dinner and then afterward, we headed to the guesthouse to use the great kitchen we had seen inside to wash our dishes. There were some other people there cooking dinner and they were from Poland. After washing our dishes, we headed back to the camper and I tried to work on the blog while Stephanie made the bed. We were both tired, it had been a long day and I did not get far on the blog before giving up for tonight.
It was close to 11:00 PM when we retired for the night.
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