Iceland: Day 5

I had a scant few hours of sleep leading into the fifth day of my stint in Iceland. My hotel was a stone’s throw away from the SBA-Norðurleið bus terminal in Akureyri where I arrived shortly before 8am to purchase my Jewels of the North tour pass. The bus leaves at around 815am and we make a quick stop on the outskirts of Akureyri where we get to take in some amazing views.

Our tour guide talks a bit more about Iceland and Akureyri as we make our way to Goðafoss, or Waterfall of the Gods. My trip in Iceland may very well be the Waterfall tour since I ended up seeing so many of them over the course of 6 days.

Our next stop is Lake Mývatn, a 42 square kilometer body of water amidst mountains and lava fields. We make our way to the largest of the many false craters or pseudocraters…

…where we get an amazing view of the lake.

Our bus goes around the lake and we make another stop on the other side of it for more photo opportunities before stopping at Reykjahlíð village. I transfer to another bus that eventually moves off the paved highway and starts traveling on dirt roads. A middle-aged professor from England (actually, I think she was originally from Ireland) who was also taking the Jewels of the North tour that day would later tell me that she first visited Iceland way back in the 80s and practically all the roads in Iceland weren’t paved at time.

Our bus makes a stop at 1pm. I get off and follow the path that leads to Dettifoss. Even from some distance away you can hear the thunderous roar of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe. And when we get there, my jaw drops. Dettifoss is massive!

The water looks muddy because it comes from a glacial river. I go around the falls taking photos from a few different spots before I settled on a dry rock on which to sit, had some lunch (I had a sandwich and orange juice with me), and just marveled at this amazing natural phenomenon. Our stop was for about an hour and a half, but the time seemed to go by so quickly! I didn’t have much time left before the bus would leave so I started walking back.

I then remember that there is another waterfall nearby – Selfoss. I quickly make my way over there to take a few snapshots before near-sprinting back to my bus.

It was a different bus that we get on at 230pm (our third and the last one we would take for that day). We make a couple more stops the rest of the way. We get to see another waterfall and we also stop at a couple of hiking trails. I follow the same trail as the woman taking the same tour (I had several long conversations with her but I actually never asked her name and she didn’t ask for mine either). We discuss how amazing it that there are so many beautiful waterfalls hidden amidst the Icelandic moonscape. It’s almost like finding hidden treasure!

The second hiking trail we visit brings us into the horseshoe-shaped canyon Ásbyrgi, or Fortress of the Gods. It was mentioned that we would stop here and I actually took pictures of the amazing rock formations there without realizing where I was. When I realized that our bus was on its way to Húsavík, I ask the woman I was with if we were not going to see Ásbyrgi and she said that we had actually seen it already.

Our final stop is in Húsavík, which is supposed to be the best place to go on a whale-watching tour. A few people on the same bus I was on told me they had taken the whale-watching tour from Húsavík and actually got to see a Humpback Whale (which is apparently the most commonly seen whale here) so I was kinda kicking myself in the butt for not doing my research well enough.

We finally get back to Akureyri at around half past nine pm. The sun is still up and since my flight back to Reykjavik was early the next morning, I decide to go around Akureyri to take a few more photographs.

Here’s a shot of the Lutheran church right next to my hotel...

…and of the colorful sky right after sunset.

Finally, one of my favorite photos. Akureyri isn’t above the Arctic Circle so the sun does actually set as you can see in the previous picture. But during summer, the sun remains just below the horizon after setting so it never really gets completely dark (the same is true for Reykjavik actually). I decided I wanted to take a photo of my watch at midnight to show how the bright the sky still is at this time. Pretty cool, ey? :)

It’s too bad that I didn’t get a chance to really experience Akureyri this trip. If I ever find myself in Iceland again (and I’m guessing that I will at some point), I would love to re-visit this city and spend a little more time there.