(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Iceland, despite its cold name, is actually the closest I’ve ever been to the scalding centre of the earth.  The last part of our day in the Lake Mývatn region brought that into sharp focus, as we walked back and forth across the very place where the North American and the European continental plates collide.

This collision isn’t just theoretical:  you can see the gap!  At Dimmuborgir (see previous post), we were able to place one foot each in North America and Europe, as the gap was only about two feet wide.  Later that day, at Grjótagjá, the gap was larger and it would take some substantial gymnastics to straddle the continents.  However, you can also explore the famous caves here just below the surface.   Like a couple of other places that I’ve seen recently, Grjótagjá has been used in the TV series “Game of Thrones”.

I can’t promise that you would still be able to straddle the continents at these precise locations.   The continental plates are moving apart slowly but surely and the landscape is changing over time.  However, tourism is quite important to this part of Iceland and I’m sure that there will still be access to the colliding continents…even if it is a little further down the road.

Speaking of “just down the road”, that’s also the location of the massive volcanic crater at Krafla called “Víti”.    In Icelandic, “Víti” means “hell” and it is not difficult to see why that name was applied here.  This is the same crater that resulted in the lava flows reaching the village of Reykjahlíð in the early 1700s.  While there is a trail that goes around the rim of the crater, we did not have time to walk on it.  We were at least able to ascend to the rim and take some photographs.  While all this volcanic activity might be kind of scary for building anything, there is in fact a geothermal power station here…you can see some of the (above-ground) infrastructure at the top of this post and in the photo below!

On the way back from Krafla, we stopped at yet another outdoor thermal pool:  the Mývatn Nature Baths at  Jarðbaðshólar.  This is similar to the Blue Lagoon (near Reykjavík), as you can enjoy the outdoor pool at any time of year; it’s also very close to a 3 km deep geothermal borehole.

Finally, after three blog entries’ worth of sights, it was time to return to Akureyri.  We loved our time in Akureyri and I’m sure that it will be the subject of a future flashback post on this blog.   There won’t be many more flashbacks in the near future, however: it’s almost time to cross the Atlantic again.  Be sure to check back here regularly for the whole story;  I am looking forward to blogging in real time again!

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

My previous post dealt solely with the otherworldly scenery at Námaskarð in northern Iceland.  However, that was only one brief stop on an incredible day tour of the the Lake Mývatn region.  We went on the tour just after our memorable day trip to the Arctic Circle on the very remote island of Grímsey and I wasn’t sure if anything else could live up to that journey.  I needn’t have worried!

Our first stop after leaving Akureyri was the famous Goðafoss waterfall.   The name translates as “waterfall of the gods”:  around the year 1000, Christianity became the official religion of Iceland and a local leader threw his statues of the Norse gods into this waterfall as a repudiation of his prior faith. The volume of water here is still immense and the mist was everywhere:  the river became even more of a raging torrent as it dramatically narrowed just beyond the waterfalls.   Despite all this fury, the landscape surrounding was eerily still. 

After leaving Goðafoss, our next stop was (Lake) Mývatn.  In Icelandic, “Mý” means “Midge” and “Vatn” means lake:  this lake is apparently infested with midges in the summer.  We were fortunate enough to escape any such infestation despite the sunny skies and (relatively) warm weather.   The lake is characterized by “pseudocraters”, as you can see from the photo above this paragraph.  A pseudocrater is volcanic in origin but it is not an actual vent for lava. Instead, pseudocraters are formed by steam explosions when flowing hot lava (from another location) crosses over a wet surface.

Lava fields at Dimmuborgir

The bizarre rock formations at Dimmuborgir are also volcanic in origin.  Dimmuborgir can be translated as “dark castles”:  we hiked around and through these for a while.  It is hard to imagine how such a landscape could evolve from lava fields, but that is indeed how it was formed. The Mývatn pseudocraters stopped the flow of lava and created some temporary lava lakes.  When the lava eventually drained from these lakes, a forest of rock pillars was left behind at Dimmuborgir.

I haven’t said much about traditional Icelandic food yet, as much of it is from the sea and we don’t eat a whole lot of seafood.  However, I always enjoy interesting bread and we found some here.  When Icelandic rye bread is baked by burying it in the ground near a hot spring, it is known as hverabrauð or “hot-spring-bread”.  We had some for lunch in the village of Reykjahlíð:  with a hearty soup, we did not need to eat for the rest of the day.

The village of Reykjahlíð is located right beside Mývatn and has also had to deal with lava flows.  When a nearby volcano erupted in 1729, the village was destroyed by a lava stream from the eruption. However, the villagers were spared when the lava flow stopped in front of the village church. Legend has it that this was a result of the village priest’s prayers.

The photo at the top of this post was also taken from the Lake Mývatn shore:  time and again in Iceland, despite the complete deforestation, we were confronted with bold and brilliant colours.  It was a great place to try out my brand new digital camera!

Stay tuned for yet another post from our remarkable day trip to the Mývatn region!