Midges and Mudpots and Whales, Oh My!

Days 7 -8

June 13-14, 2025

Today’s drive takes us along the northeast side of Iceland. Our goal is to arrive in Mývatn, where we are staying for two nights.

Remember me talking about the huge glacier, Vatnajökull? Well, our first stop along today’s route was to see Dettifoss, whose water makes it way here from Vatnajökull’s runoff. No wonder this waterfall is the second most powerful waterfall in all of Europe!

There are a couple of different viewing platforms for Dettifoss, both of them from above the falls. The first platform is pretty much smack dab next to it. Although we couldn’t view the entire falls, seeing the river with the water approaching the falls, the falls themselves and the river as it continues on its way 144 feet below us was pretty impressive!

The trail then led us further away from the falls, yet still right on the edge of the canyon. From there, we felt the tremendous power of these falls. We also felt the tremendous amount of water that evaporates from the falls and becomes a thick mist and soaks you! We were once again glad we had our raincoats along!

A mile hike along the canyon from Dettifoss, we found Selfoss! This horseshoe-shaped falls was just upstream from Dettifoss. Selfoss was a little kinder to us in that we had finally dried off and this waterfall didn’t get us wet again!

Our next stop was at Namafjall Hverir. This geothermal area is a little reminiscent of the smoking fumaroles and boiling mud pots you find in Yellowstone National Park. It also has the same sulfur smell as Yellowstone!

This area also is known for its hot springs. Those who have the recipe bake hot spring bread here! They bury the pot in the ground and leave it to bake for around 24 hours! Now that is making good use of your natural resources! Our resort served some and it is delicious!

Another wonderful use of all of this geothermal heat that Iceland does is to convert it into energy. In this same area is a geothermal power plant that was built in 1969. The plant produces 3MW of geothermal energy with plans to increase it to 90 MW!

Sweet Emma somehow caught a stomach bug of some sort and was not feeling her best for today’s trip. We were hours early for check in to the resort we were staying at, but we went ahead and gave it a try. I’m telling you, the people of Iceland are incredibly kind. They were more than happy to reprioritize their cleaning and get our cottage ready for us. Within a short time, we were checking in and settled. With Emma resting comfortably and Evie keeping her company, the four of us drove the couple of miles to check out Hverfjall. This crater exploded 2,800 years ago! To give you a little perspective, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii in 79 AD.

Hverjfall is a quarter of a mile tall, and 0.62 mile in diameter. It is among the list of largest and well-preserved explosive volcano craters in the world. Amazingly, it is the view out of our cottage’s window!

Just down the road from the resort we stayed in was a small shop that sold locally-made handcrafted items. About 60 different artists contribute their work to this shop, 20 of which are knitters. We had to stop! There, Dick found the perfect sweater he had been shopping for. Its great colors were the first attraction and the fact that it fit him just right sealed the deal! To sweeten the pot a bit more, the woman who knitted it, named Adalbjōrg, happened to be in the store that day! I’m still shaking my head that Dick found the perfect hand-knit sweater and was able to meet the woman who knit it! BTW, it takes about 40 hours for Adalbjōrg to knit an adult-sized sweater.

Have you heard of midges? They are thick in this region of Iceland. In fact, so thick that the resort handed out insect nets for us to wear over our heads! They really don’t cause any harm, but are quite a nuisance!

A short distance from our cottage was the entrance to Dimmuborgir, a lava field that sits at the base of Hverjfall. There is quite the fable of 13 Yule Lads who apparently are reported to live in Dimmuborgit. These mischievous trolls include Sheep-Cote Clod who is known for harassing sheep, Gully Gawk who hides in gullies and steals milk, Stubby who is known for his small stature and stealing food from frying pans, Spoon-Licker who likes to lick spoons, Pot-Licker, Door-Slammer, Skyr-Gobbler, Sausage-Swiper, Window-Peeper, Doorway-Sniffer, who sniffs doorways looking for laufabrauð (bread), Meat-Hook, and Candle-Beggar!

We had fun with our imagination during our visit to this strange land these naughty Trolls live in. I declared myself Spoon-Licker and Dick to be Sausage-Swiper!

Breakfast was included with this stay and consisted of the typical European breakfast with a couple of twists. Here we were treated to home smoked trout and lamb in addition to hot spring bread! Of course, they had all of the other traditional breakfast items we have been seeing along the way. This place just had some extra special touches they included!

Our last adventure for our time in Mývatn was a day trip to Husavik for a whale watch tour! Fortunately, Emma was feeling better and was able to join in on the excitement! It was about an hour drive north to this whale watch capital of Europe! This was as far north as we got in Iceland. There, we were about 30 miles from the Artic Circle. It was fun looking at the map and seeing our blue dot so very close to being inside the Arctic Circle. Another fun thing was looking at the weather app and noticing the time for the local sunset. “No sunset today” was the prediction it was sharing!

The whale watch did not disappoint! They geared us up in insulated coveralls that guaranteed we wouldn’t get chilled. During the three-hour cruise, we saw five humpback whales and, as a bonus, saw numerous puffins! Once we headed back to the harbor, just in case we did get cold, they handed out deliciously hot, hot chocolate and homemade cinnamon rolls. Yummy!