Myvatn - don't say that if you have a cold!

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Having picked up the rest of our little group from the airport we finally set off on our tour of the Myvatn area.

As we drive off over the fjord and along the shore, the same way I went on my bus trip to Husavik, we find out from our guide Oskar a few interesting snippets of information about Iceland and the area we are driving through:

~ Myvatn is pronounced nothing like I'd thought and goes something like MEE-VA-TNNN with the NNN being a blow out through the nostrils with your mouth shut. Don't try this with a cold!

~ The fjord is called Eyjafjörður which means 'fjord of the islands'. It's 60km long and the width averages 6-10km along a lot of its length widening to 25km at the end that meets the sea.

~ We see in the distance Hrísey, one of the biggest islands, known as the 'Pearl of Eyjafjörður'. The island is 7.5km long by 2.5km wide and just 150 people live there. A ferry from the mainland to the island takes about 15 minutes. Having no natural predators, Hrísey is a favourite place to go bird watching. Among its 40 or so bird species are ptarmigan, eider ducks and arctic terns.

~ When the weather is good in the north of Iceland it is usually raining in the south and vice versa.

~ Fishing has been the biggest industry in Iceland for years, but last year, for the first time ever, tourism overtook fishing. Tourism has become so huge in Iceland that many farmers are now diversifying to take advantage, converting buildings to guesthouses and restaurants.

~ As to fresh water fishing, this is controlled by licensed permits issued by fishing clubs made up of landowners of sections of rivers and lakes that they own. Fishing can only take place from June to September. Licenses are expensive - $1000 - 2000 a day! Anglers are fishing for brown trout, salmon and Arctic chub.

~ We see more of the really small northern birch trees scattering the hillsides. Apparently there is a lot of planting going on in the hope of increasing woodland cover to 12% within 50 years, up from the 4.5% it is today. Before the settlers arrived there was an estimated 30% tree cover.

~ We pass a farm house (the one with the red roof in the photos) that it situated in avalanche central. The owners are no longer allowed to live there year round, having to vacate their property in the winter as it's just too dangerous!

~ We learn that according to historical evidence the ancestry of Icelandic people is pretty mixed. 70%!o(MISSING)f men that settled in Iceland were allegedly Scandinavian while 60%!o(MISSING)f women were from the British Isles, many taken as slaves. DNA testing has proved inconclusive in backing these theories

Godafoss Waterfall

Our first stop of the tour is to witness the mighty waterfall of Godafoss crashing relentlessly over the huge wide drop in the rocks that make this spectacular natural phenomenon. It's hard to get a photo without people in, but in a way it's good to have some perspective in the photo showing how ant-like this mighty waterfall makes them seem. One very rude group is taking over an entire section of rock with the best views of the falls so I push my way in to have a view myself. The photographer asks me to move out of the way so I ignore him and take my time enjoying the view of the waterfall and taking photos of my own. I mutter to him as I pass on the way back, 'This is for everyone you know, not just you!' and fortunately he has realised how rude he was being and is sufficiently apologetic to mollify my annoyance.

I find out that Godafoss waterfall has a connection to the decision made at Althing in the year 1000 regarding Iceland becoming officially Christian despite allowing people to carry on practising Paganism in private. The Lawspeaker who made this decision was Thorgeir Thorkelsson, Chieftain of nearby Ljosavatn. When he returned from the Althing he is supposed to have come to this waterfall and thrown his pagan idols into the water as a symbol of the historic decision he had just made. This is the reason the falls are called Godafoss or 'waterfall of the gods'.

Grenjadarstadur Farm and Church

Our next stop is at the beautiful old farm house Grenjadarstadur and the pretty church of the same name next door. Unfortunately the farm house is only open during the summer months but we are able to have a good look around the building and peer into the windows. The house is really a set of houses all linked together made mostly of volcanic rock but with a wooden frontage. The roof of each house merges with the next and all are covered with a layer of turf. This method of building was very common in Iceland, using the natural materials in plentiful supply and wood more sparingly. I have seen quite a few smaller farm out-buildings dotted around the countryside similarly covered with turf. Grenjadarstadur farm house dates from 1865 and people lived in it up until as late as 1949. A few years after this it was turned into a museum, with artifacts from the past used to convey what life was like living in such a house in the late 1800s. Despite the sunshine it is pretty chilly and it's easy to imagine how difficult and COLD life must have been in the depths of winter with none of the luxurious heating and lighting provided by the thermal technology used in Iceland today.

In front of the farm house is a small, white-painted, wooden church with a little bell tower. Inside the tower are two bells one dated 1663 and the other 1740, meaning that both predate the current church which was built in 1865. One has an inscription 'I was cast in the house of fire of Hans Meyer in Copenhagen'. In the graveyard surrounding the church is a gravestone from the 15th century with engraved rune-text saying 'Here lies Sigfrid Hrafnsdottir, the wife of Bjarni Saemundsson. May God rest her soul. Whoever reads this, please say a prayer for her gentle soul and sing a holy hymn.' Instead of singing holy hymns we go inside the little church; very cute with blue-painted wooden pews and a curved, waffle pattern ceiling.

Lake Myvatn

We carry on a little further in the minibus and into view gifts a pristine, iced over Myvatn lake stretching for miles. The blue of the sky is reflected on the surface of the ice and is absolutely beautiful and totally surreal. I find out that the lake has been a protected area since 1974 for its landscape value and bird life. We stop at a smaller lagoon off the main lake called Stakholstjorn. We walk up a slope to a viewing area where we can see some of the strange pseudo craters that abound in this area. And what on earth are pseudo craters? Luckily we have Oskar on hand to explain that they are craters formed from steam explosions that occur when burning lava hits lakes or wetlands. Basically hot rock getting angry, steamed up and exploding its pustules all over the place! These craters are covered in hummocks of dead grass waiting to spring to life now the snow is starting to melt. We travel a little further on and find a place to look out across the vast expanse of iced over Myvatn lake. It's so strange to see such a massive lake completely iced over. I'm used to seeing lakes in the UK that NEVER totally freeze over, maybe just a little at the edges, but nothing like this. The lake is quite shallow, 5m maximum depth and we find out that the ice will have all melted by May. We keep moving on a little further around the lake and then stop again to get out and admire the views. At one stop we actually see some water where the depth must either be a lot shallower or there is thermal heat making the ice melt. In the foreground are these incredible laval rock formations looking like some horrible, warty, fungal skin infection! We also find out that Myvatn actually means 'lake of the midges' which doesn't bode well for summer visitors!

Hverfjall Volcano

Looming in the distance is a massive black mound, looking like some huge Welsh slag heap! But slag heap it is not. This is Hverfjall volcano crater, formed 2500 years ago following a 3 day eruption. The black colour makes Hverfjall seem quite menacing and it looks like it's made entirely from black sand. Apparently it is possible to walk up to look at the 1km wide crater at the top.

Dimmuborgir

Our lunch stop is at a place called Dimmuborgir 'dark castles' where there are loads of massive, collapsed, lava tubes making interesting jagged rock formations and caves. It seems this area is also home to some strange guys called the Yule Lads who, like Santa Claus, deliver presents to children at Christmas time, only there's a twist with these guys as they leave rotten potatoes if the child hasn't behaved during the year! The 13 Yule Lads arrive in the 13 days before Christmas. They all have names and are known for different characteristics:


• Stakkjarstaur - Harasses sheep, but is impaired by stiff peg-legs.
• Giljagaur - Hides in gullies waiting to sneak into the cowshed and steal milk.
• Stufur - Very short. Steals pans to eat the leftover crusts.
• Pvorusleikir - Steals spoons to lick and is very thin due to malnutrition.
• Pottaskefill - Steals leftovers from pots.
• Askasleikir - Hides under beds for someone to put down their 'askur' bowl to lick.
• Hurdaskellir - Likes to slam doors, especially at night.
• Skyrgamur - Loves the Icelandic yoghurt drink skyr.
• Bjugnakraekir - Hides in the rafters to steal the smoked sausages hanging there.
• Gluggagaegir - A window peeper looking for things to steal.
• Gattapefur - Has a massive nose used to smell out any Christmas laufabraud (Icelandic 'snowflake' bread).
• Kretkrokur - Uses a hook to steal meat.
• Kertasnikir - Follows children and steals their tallow candles.


Lunch is a very lovely coconut curry soup accompanied by geysir bread, a dark, dense-textured, sweet tasting bread; a little like malt loaf but without the raisins.

Grjotagja Hot Springs Cave

Lunch over we head to a place called Grjotagia where I notice there is a sneaky geocache hidden just to the side of the footpath leading up towards the cave we are going to visit. I hold back and manage to get my log written and cache re-hidden before anyone notices I'm missing. At the top of the rise we are shown a large crevice in the rock where the earth has just pulled apart! The jagged edge lines mirror each other on each side of the fissure! We reach the entrance to the cave and crawl inside. The cave opens out below us but is actually quite light as there must be another entrance a little further along which is letting light in. We make our way down to where there is a deep pool of steaming water and dip our hands carefully in. It's really, really hot! Right up until the 1970s this cave was used frequently for swimming - the one we are in for men and a similar one nearby for women - skinny dipping of course - this is Iceland! The eruptions that took place from 1975 to 1984 resulted in the temperature of the water increasing to over 50° C. It's cooled a little since then but is really too hot to bathe in, though some do try, coming out like lobsters after their dip! It's odd seeing snow at the entrance to the cave then just a few feet away boiling hot water.

Geysir bread

On our way to the next official stop Oskar takes us on a little detour. As we approach we see what look like strange Eden project shaped igloo buildings - part of the thermal heating bore hole gubbins. But that's not actually what we are here to see. We are taken instead to look at some tin sheets with rocks on with steam escaping around the edges. This is where the cafe we had our lunch at makes its geysir bread. The dough is placed in the hot rock 'ovens' over night and is ready to be eaten the next day! Talk about cheap fuel! Brilliant!

We carry on towards our next stopping point. On the way we see some cairns sticking up at intervals and when we look more carefully realise they are in a long line that heads off far into the distance. These are actually 200 year old marker points that were used to help travellers get safely from A to B. We also spot a funny addition to the landscape. At a place where lots of people go swimming in the summer someone has added a shower and a new addition has turned up in the last few days - a bright green toilet! We attempt to go up the highland road a little further than Oskar has attempted so far this year and get quite a way before it gets too snowy to go any further. After this little detour experiment we eventually roll up at Namafjall Hverir.

Namafjall Hverir Mud Pots and Fumaroles

Wow this place is amazing! It doesn't seem real and definitely not somewhere human beings should be. The first thing you notice on getting out of the minibus is the overpowering stench of sulphur - rotten egg soup! The landscape is very barren, with red tinged rock creating an almost Martian feel to the place. There's big circlular holes in the ground with dark bubbling mud. Dotted around are piles of rocks with steam venting out in long streams. Everywhere is alien and other worldly. A stark reminder that we are sat atop a crust encased ball of molten rock! How bizarre is that?!

Myvatn Nature Baths

We couldn't visit this region of amazing thermal activity without taking a dip in the hot spring waters and so the final part of the tour involves a wonderfully relaxing float in the Myvatn Nature Baths. We soon work out that the hot spots are near the protruding rocks and alternate between them, staying as long as we can bear to in the hottest parts of the pool. With the sun starting to go down over the beautiful countryside all round I feel blessed to be in such an awe inspiring landscape.

After saying goodbye to the rest of my group at the airport I'm dropped near my hostel and head hopefully to the Bonus supermarket in the off chance that finally a shop is open over Easter. Nope! I'm so hungry and am very relieved to find a pizza place that's actually open. I take my warm box of loveliness back to my cosy hostel room and stuff my face. What an amazing day. I'm so blown away by the awe inspiring scenery of the Myvatn area of northern Iceland. Weird, wow and wondrous!

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