Iceland - Part 2

A rather short entry this time, only one day out of the trip in Iceland, but you will agree that it was a full day, what plenty of diversity.

Day 3: The next morning we started of from Höfn, and took the Almannaskard tunnel to Lónsöræfi, which is a mountainous area ringed by extinct volcanoes and traversed by glacial rivers.
We did a lot of driving that day, but it took us through rough and beautifull landscapes. Some of the mountains seem to plunge directly into the sea. The area of the East Fjords, is very sparsely inhabited, some of the fjords are now deserted and each time you round a corner it's as if you enter a different world. In the picture above you can see wildflowers clinging on to the steep cliffs.
We stopped at a small town called Djúpivogur for a light meal.

We took a short cut: instead of proceeding along the coast we drove across Öxi pass (road 939), a steep and spectacular route. The scenery was absolutely stunning. You had the feeling you were alone on the planet, so desolate.
Once out of the mountain pass we followed a green valley up until the town of Egilsstaðir. While driving through the valley we saw a small herd of moose!
From Egilsstaðir we travelled across the highland desert plateau towards Lake Mývatn. That desert landscape is very daunting but there were few places to really stop and take a picture. Several times Tony was luckely engrossed in his literature (travel guide) so that he didn't see how narrow the road was and how deep the drop on both sides ;-)
The next pictures only gives you an idea:


We made a stop at the Námaskarð pass where boiling mud pools and flashing colours of the pass merge with lava and ash from the Krafla volcanic system. The colours are out of this world, the sulfuric smell of the mud pools also :-)

The Lake Mývatn area is known world wide for the abundance of birdlife and its exceptionally many breeding duck species, but to be honest we lacked the time to actually go and explore the surroundings of the lake area. We did visit the Nature Baths at Mývatn our first geothermal pool in Iceland. There are a few spots in the pool where new, warm water comes into the pool and to be honest, i could stay close to those spots for a long time, i was too hot.

We continued on our way towards the lovely town of Húsavík town.


From here we were to take a whale watching trip the next day!