30 July - 2 August, 2010
After the fog the night before, strolling around Siglo in the morning sun was quite a change, bright colours, blue skies, mountains and clouds. It was all quite pretty, but we had a way to go, so bid our farewells to Már and family, and hit the road. First stop, Akureyri, where we would pick up Christina to join us for the rest of the trip, and also Bonus, to resupply with fresh goodies for the remainder of the weekend.
Also, petrol. We filled up on petrol here, because petrol is important.
Then, with time on our hands, we headed off in search of icecream. But not just any old icecream, Logi had heard of this farm, Holtssel, that made icecream at the farm, and although a few varieties were available around the country, at the farm itself you could try all sorts of prototype and limited edition flavours. Well, that sounded good, so icecream it was!
I went with passionfruit jogurt, and chocolate, one because I like passionfruit, and one to try out a classic, to see how it compares.
It compares well. I even went back into for a second helping, but a big crowd had just arrived, and I didn't _reallly_ need another big helping of icecream, so we hit the road, onwards eastwards, towards Mývatn.
A brief stop at Góðafoss, with all the other tourists, then Grjótagjá. I'd been there back in 2006, but it was too hot for swimming then. Today, we met some icelanders in the water, who said, "ahh, it's ok, but a little cold really" They were just getting out as we got in, and got to laugh at my face when I realised they were joking :) It's only just cold enough to get in at all, probably 43C or so? Delicious once you got in, but difficult to get in, and you couldn't stay for long.
But, this was the ambitious trip right? So after Logi and Tatja had a little photoshoot for Móri beer, complete with bikini girls, we headed off for a look around at Krafla. Last time, it had been grey and drab, and I hadn't done any background reading, so I hiked up Krafla itself. This time, we had a look at Viti, then went for the walk around Leirhnjúkur. There's some famous pictures of a big old sign here, that used to warn that the area was closed due to active lava flows and extreme danger, and well worn track with streams of people walking over to have a closer look. It's not famous enough for me to find to show you though I'm sorry.
Anyway, Leirhnjúkur is a boiling mud pit in the middle of some fresh lava, from one of Krafla's many eruptions in the 80s. It's a great walk, the lava is still very fresh, and still steams in the evening dew, it's a great walk, even _after_ having walked up to Eyjafjallajökull in the spring to see really really fresh lava.
With the sun slowly fading, we headed back to Reykjahlíð, to setup camp and get some dinner. Tomorrow, we would drive east some more, then south past Herðubreið to Askja, and see what we would see. ...Continued tomorrow
