We had rejected the possibility of driving to Detifoss on our first day around Lake Myvatn because the driving conditions were unpredictable but had no doubts on the second day and set off after breakfast prepared for a spectacle – and a walk!
We drove past familiar scenes – the pseudo-craters and the little blue church -before turning on to the road to Detifoss, recognised as one of Europe’s most powerful waterfalls, second only to the Rhine Falls which are more powerful in the summer months.
Snow from the previous day was lying and made the walking quite easy for the most part, although there was the occasional warning to beware the underlying ice on the uneven ground. It could have been worse!
There’s no doubting the impressiveness of these falls.
I sometimes look at the images taken on this day and find it hard to believe they are actually colour images!
The thing that was really frustrating was that there was a patch of snow at the foot of the falls that looked just like an old-fashioned teapot and is a real distraction in wider angle photos! Once you’ve seen it, you can’t ignore it!!!
Done with waterfalls for the day? Of course not, we were off to Selfoss – about another kilometre along the river…
The thing I noticed here was that I was able to see Selfoss from a distance and that really made me want to keep going to see the whole thing, though at this time of year one can only visit the West side which doesn’t have such a good view as the East. Apparently, the walk along the East side can be quite treacherous.
Fascinating how the slightest variation in light has changed the feel of these images.
Walking back to the car park was less of a trudge than I expected and it was hardly anytime at all before I was being told it was just around the corner – to my amazement!
All safely back, we set off on a mystery tour. Our tour leader hadn’t driven north of Detifoss in a long time, so we decided to explore. What a drive it was! At times we seemed to be in total whiteout and it was easy to see why this area is often inaccessible. We found lots more opportunities to jump out and try our hands at minimalist photography with varying degrees of success!
And then we found the black beach. They’re always interesting to explore but on this occasion we were battling low temperatures ( definitely – with the windchill), high winds and snow! More than usually interesting!
We thought we’d had our fair share of winds but this was exceptional and, despite it, we lasted more than an hour on the beach – freezing but energized!
A dead whale was one of a number of bits of detritus to be found
But, for me, the best way to illustrate how I felt was to deliberately move the camera and create a somewhat more artistic impression.
We were glad to get back to the comfort of the van and enjoyed a drive around the coast road as far as the fishing town of Husavik which has been featured in the film made about Iceland’s Eurovision entry, Eurovision Song Contest, the Story of Fire Saga, which can be viewed on Netflix.
A table had been booked for dinner and we were really pleased to get into the warm of a very pleasant restaurant right on the harbour. The menu tells us that Gamli Baukur Restaurant as we know it today was built from 1997-1999 by the harbour in Húsavík. It is built from driftwood found on the coastline around Húsavík. Driftwood is not only first-class building material but also environmentally friendly. Like its predecessor, Gamli Baukur is now a restaurant and a bar. There is lots of driftwood along this coast – said to have come from Russia and Finland.
Needless to say, there was fish on the menu, but there were also other traditional Icelandic meals and some less so -the ubiquitous pizza, for example. I opted for the Arctic char as I hadn’t had any on this trip: it was good!
It was still snowing and windy when we went back to the van and were driven back to our comfortable hotel for one more night before tying up the ends in Myvatn and beginning the return trip by a different route to arrive in Keflavik in three days for our flight home.
Living the Journey 