egilsstaðir, dettifoss, & myvatn, iceland (8)
Halló visitor.
I've had a good day today, I think. Well, it was good at first, then really awful, then great. So overall alright. I started today in Egilsstaðir. I woke up to clean, dry and non-stolen laundry. I took that, took a shower, and went to a nice local cafe full of Icelanders. I had a fairly good espresso, then left for my first stop, Stuðlagil canyon. The drive must have been fine, because I don't really remember it.
Stuðlagil was very beautiful. It was pretty bright and sunny, and the water was blue. The canyon itself is large and has two sides that you can walk on, with parking lots on either side. I walked on the left side for an hour. Not much to note, got some good pictures. I bought a portable coffee cup from the souvenir shop and got a truly horrible, extremely sour Americano. I also had a very good hot dog. These hot dogs might be my favorite food in Iceland.
Pictured: Stuðlagil from the ground.
It was about 2 hours to the north of Iceland for Asbyrgi canyon, so I got on the road. Boy, did I not expect what was coming up. About an hour and 20 minutes in, I missed a pretty crucial exit that took my estimated time from 34 minutes to 51 minutes. So I said, hell nah, I'm making a U-turn! Not a very smart thing to think in Iceland. I drove for about 10 minutes before seeing one. I hit the brakes and got into the little U-turn, but my car was kinda struggling, and I realized... this is not a U-turn. This is natural gravel. I'm stuck in gravel.
So I'm now 16 minutes away from Mývatn, and there's a tow shop there. So I try to call the tow shop, ready to pay the $300, but I don't have service. I'm sitting off the side of the road with my hazards on, feverishly waving to passing cars, but none of them stop. I sit back in the car and try again to call the tow guys. Then, a big ass truck comes my way, so I try to wave them over again. The truck stops. It's a search and rescue truck. I'm saved!
Pictured: My savior.
The search and rescue people are nice Icelanders. A man with an accent, a young woman, a scrawny teenager, and a guy in his 20s. I was still ready to shell up a hundred bucks for their service, but they let me know that their service is actually free. Hell yeah! They get me back on the road, and I vow to not take a U-turn again.
Well, at this point, the turn I missed was so long ago that I was an hour away from Asbyrgi canyon. I decide to skip Asbyrgi, and look for somewhere to stop before I head to Dettifoss waterfall. As it turns out, the only place in this barren area to stop was actually Hverir, a cool looking geothermal area that I wanted to stop at anyway.
The stench of Hverir was so bad that it seems my nose has developed some sort of post traumatic stress. It was the rotten egg smell of Icelandic geothermal water, but turned up to 11, but add old clay, dirty socks, and straight up shit. I don't even feel motivated to say the positives of Hverir. The smell is enough.
Pictured: Hverir. Boiling clay.
I left quickly for obvious reasons and drove back to Dettifoss. To get there, you turn off the main road to this random barren road. This road has no features at all, it's a barren gray landscape with nothing around and no cars. Very eerie. In Iceland, I've felt like I'm on the moon or something regularly, but this place really feels like Mars.
Pictured: The Mars-like terrain near Dettifoss.
Dettifoss was cool. It's absolutely massive, and very loud. I also forgot about Selfoss, the waterfall next to it. I had a great time at both of these waterfalls. I got really immersed in the terrain here. It was pretty chilly, and the gray skies added to the martian feeling here.
Pictured: Selfoss in all its glory. Quite a bit smaller than Dettifoss.
I left Dettifoss and skipped the cave I had planned for later. I looked it up, and it seems like Grjótagjá cave is only famous for being featured in Game of Thrones. So, I drove back through Hverir to get gas and food. You can actually smell Hverir in the car. Luckily, the gas station was a few minutes away, so I was in the clear. I got gas and groceries and went to the fish and chips shop next door. I had a more fancy place planned, but after yesterday's experience with the lobster place, I stayed away from the 5-star places for today. But this fish and chips place was great. The fish and chips were super fresh and crunchy, and the sauce that I forget the name of had a lot of character.
Pictured: Fish, chips, house sauce I think?
I ate that in the car and drove 30 minutes to Laugar. Laugar is very small. In this campsite, there are only 12 vehicles and 4 tents. I didn't really pay attention, but it seems like there's only one shower. I hope I'm wrong. I don't really know what I have planned for tomorrow. I kind of want to rush back to Reykjavik so I can do self-indulgent stuff and be in a metropolitan area. But I also don't want to miss some of the stuff I have planned around the northwest. I'll decide in a bit. See you later!
Bless bless,
Ayaan