Iceland, Day 5

We got up around 0900 so that we could be up and ready by the time daylight started to show it’s face. The days are getting noticeably shorter and shorter, so now is the time to make sure we are getting everything we can in, in. We first started out by traveling to Seydisfjordur to see Gufu Waterfall. We went all the way to the bottom of this fjord, out of pure curiosity, before stopping at the pull off for the waterfall. We quickly jumped back onto the road to go back up and down the mountain (fun fact: Reindeer are only found in Eastern Iceland, so this mountain area was the last we’d see them).

We then made our way to Stuðlagil. Normally, you can drive up close to the waterfall viewing point and then it’s a small 4km round trip hike down to the river and the basalt comlumns that surround it. During winter? It’s about a 2km hike each way to the waterfall viewing point and there was a lot of fresh snow. It was almost up to my knees in some parts and I fell into the snow a couple of times (my center of gravity no longer belongs to me). We made her through either way. You could hear the waterfall, but it was all behind the frozen fall that we got pictures of. The water roaring was all underneath the ice and you can see in the breaks of ice the water rushing down. It was a pretty cool thing to see. We were supposed to see Dettifoss next, but unfortunately the two access roads were both deemed “Impassable” so we had to ditch that sight (definitely seeing it next time, it’s massive!).

Since Dettifoss is not accessible, we went to our next stop: Namajfall. It was similar to Geysir on day 1, but not as restricted, it isn’t water, and it smells like sulfur 24/7. We stopped and walked around the clay that surrounded the hot gas rocks escaping the earth before we headed to the Dimmuborgir Lava Field. We hit this one pretty late, but we were still able to see some parts of it (the just of it) before trying to find dinner. We struck out on dinner, and waited a bit over an hour and a half before we headed to the Myvatn Nature Baths. This hot spring was a pretty big disappointment. The smell itsn’t really anything they can necessarily fix, but it did affect some fo the enjoyment we were hoping to have. It was also so poorly lit outside we could barely make out the ledges and didn’t realize until a few days later looking at online pictures that there were kike 6 other pools we weren’t able to enjoy due to the lack of lighting. We also felt pressured into leaving sooner than we wanted due to the security guard watching us (we were one of three people in the spa at the time) and loudly talking (with an irritated voice) that we were still in the pools. Definitely not on “revisit” list for the future. The reviews were true for the expectations and outcomes of this spa. Although it did allow us to get a shower in before tomorrow, which is a long drive day for us. Hopefully tomorrow’s hot spring is better 🤞