Iceland - Day four

One thing you should know about Iceland if you intend to go there, apart from the fact that it is a fascinating and wonderful place to visit, is that visiting it is very expensive! For example, a hamburger for lunch would cost around $20 CDN perhaps more.

Remember to click on any photo to see a larger version.

This would be a long travel day from Brekka to the town of Akureyri so we had to be prepared for a pretty early start. Getting ready involved packing up the food and drinks we had purchased but not yet consumed - some we were able to take, some we left for the folks who maintain the “lodge”.  After cleaning up and putting out the trash and recycling we were on the road by 9:30 or so.

By the way, as with the sheep in the previous blog, this image with the horses in the distance was made a couple of days ago but I wanted to put it in, so this seemed a reasonable place.

Our route was mostly on the main highway #1 but not far past Borgarnes we left the main road in order to visit three places. At Deildartunguhver we expected to find the largest hot springs in Europe and Krauma, a brand new bathing complex with hot pools, a cold pool, steam baths and a restaurant.  A big buildup for a big let down as what we could see of the hot springs was unimpressive and all facilities were closed.  The second place we hoped to visit in that area, Viðgelmir, is the largest and least challenging lava tube to visit in Iceland. It is apparently 1100 years old and displays interesting ever changing rock formations along the 1.5 Km long tube.

This was another disappointment as we were unable to see the cave because our time there did not coincide with the next tour and we couldn’t wait as we had a long day planned. 

So, on to Hraunfossar, which means “Lava field waterfall”. Surely the waterfall would not be closed and it wasn't. Unlike Gullfoss, this waterfall is neither high nor clouded in mist but, instead, a beautiful series of lava formations of various widths and heights, extending quite a long distance along the river into which the waterfalls flow. Some areas of the falls are like rapids, others are low cliffs where the water falls off more sharply while some appear to be large springs. The source seems to be entirely from underground with water flowing both through and over the lava rocks into the adjacent river. 

From the Lava falls we drove back to the main road and headed north east en-route to Akureyri but with a planned stop at Hvitserkur, a 15 Meter high “sea stack” which, I read somewhere, is comprised of Basalt.  For  those like me who don’t know, basalt is a fine grained igneous rock with generally 45-55% silica (SiO₂) and at least 65% of the rock is feldspar. (I know, that's over 100% but my guess is that feldspar has silica in it.)  This is said to be the most common volcanic rock type on Earth. 

As you might expect, however, before arriving at Hvitserkur we stopped at a couple of spots for some photos. Here Michael is attempting, I think, to capture a glimpse of the west fjords and, below, Rod is zeroing in on the birds resting on that rocky ridge just off shore.

When we arrived at Hvitserkur we found that the parking lot is located in an area which did not make it easy to figure out where the rock was. We walked along a path on the cliff well above the water and finally found Hvitserkur.

Hvitserkur from the cliff

Initially we were content to take photos from the top of the cliff  until we realized that we could, by taking a bit of a hike, get down to the beach much closer to the item of interest. 

Beach path to Hvitserkur

So we did and, though it was a relatively steep climb back up, the trail was not difficult. The sun was getting pretty low so provided some lovely light for photographs. 

By the time we took our photos and walked back to the car it was getting late so we needed to move on in order to get to Akureyri before it was totally dark.

Looking south, I think, from Hvitserkur

In spite of passing up many great photo opportunities, we did not achieve the goal of arriving at our accommodation before dark, a factor which contributed to a bit of difficulty finding Hamragril Lodge.

Looking east from the cliff near Hvitserkur

When we  did find it we were pretty happy both because we were tired and ready to relax and the place was excellent, providing all the comforts advertised including a geothermally heated hot tub!