Dazed and Confused

We set off from Akureyri straight up the valley. It was broad and very fertile, like a lot of the valleys here in the north. A lot more variety of agricultural pursuit: cows, crops, even wheat at one point, adding to the normal sheep. The fertile bottom lands seem to go on for a long way.

We were headed for a hot spring called Laugafell, up in the central highlands. Another chance to get away from the main tourist route. We stooped off at Grund to have a look at the Grundarkirkja (the Grund Church). It was very ornate, apparently build by the local manor lord in 1905. The history of the manor seemed pretty interesting, it was once owned by the last catholic bishop of Iceland, who was executed as part of the reformation. Some pretty gruesome stuff happened here.....we have been listening to saga podcasts and Marjan has had to switch off some of the gruesome bits.

The valley narrowed and the river sped up. We again stopped at one of the many helpfully signed fishing spots. Whilst here we were passed by a convoy of Land Rovers.

The road narrowed further and became progressively rougher. Soon we were right beside the stream, and sometimes right in bits of it that flowed along the road. This was quite possibly the roughest road we have travelled along. Not dangerous from a height perspective but we were pleased to have a full blown 4WD.  I got carried away on a short good patch and got the car up to 20kph. We could not listen to our pod casts so had some music on, but the constant rattling of the car seemed to affect the Bluetooth connection at times. A couple of small fords preceded a bigger one where we actually crossed the river as we began to climb steadily.

Once over the top we entered a completely different land. Melbourne grey in landscape. Nothing but an rocky, grey, barren, undulating landscape. We cheered a bigger boulder for the added interest it brought. Every rise brought one of those "the road goes on forever" shots and I took a few! The rattling and brain shaking however never let up.

We finally made it to Laugarfell: a little oasis with the spring creating a little patch of green with some lovely wildflowers. A trip Google maps said would take an hour and a half, took us closer to three and a half. This time Marjan did have a dip in the pool. It was not as warm as others we have visited, but really pleasant. We had a lovely chat to the Germans who were in convoy in the Land Rovers. They seemed a little surprised that we had no guide and were just kind of winging it up these mountain roads without a proper Land Rover with a winch, snorkel and all the other necessities.

It was a good place to picnic: so we did.

We headed back off the mountain via a different route. More grey rocky plains, more brain jarring, more teeth rattling , more car shaking. which of course meant we headed the wrong way and had to do an extra couple of river crossings. The constant shaking had me dazed and confused and Marjan and I had a total communication breakdown whilst over the hills and far away, if it hadn't had been that there was a whole lotta love we may have been on the stairway to heaven.........................really it was soooo barren and boring that I was punning Led Zeppelin songs in my head as I drove. At least there were a few lakes to break up the grey, and of course the mountains are ever present.

We passed a few cyclists on the way, hardy souls. One seemed to be really struggling. Still I am sure he was comforted by the thought that if his bike caught fire, Iceland was ready. We got a little light rain, but apart from getting the windscreen a bit dirty for a bit, it was no real hindrance to our day.

Eventually we got to a river and found a few tinges of green, and slowly we began our descent from the highlands. Again the road was not particularly scary, but the bone jarring was constant.

We stopped at three waterfalls as we made our way back to highway 1 along the Skjalfandifljot River: Hrafnabjargafoss, Aldeyjarfoss and Godafoss. We really liked Aldeyjarfoss for the rock formations surrounding it, but all were beautiful in their own way.

We spotted some people picking huckleberries and so at the next opportunity we stopped to look. Unfortunately we seemed to have picked an area previous hucked, some hucksters had beaten us to the berries.

Back to civilization, Spaniards and Highway 1 for the run into the Myvatn area, where we are staying for......wait for it......two nights. Oh the luxury, the decadence, the sheer pleasure of not having to pack tomorrow.

We have changed our plans, instead of heading up another mountain road to Askja, we have decided to head for Husavik and catch a boat to see if we can see a whale or two and perhaps a puffin or three.