“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”

Unexplorable

Exploring | Wandering | Collecting

Midges & Mudpots: Exploring Myvatn & Detifoss [photojournal]

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Driving around Lake Myvatn and its surrounds was like driving on a different planet - milky blue pools contrasted with the sprawling orange deserts, and steamy mud pots gurgled and bubbled underfoot. 
It was an alien place.  The air was filled with midges (Myvatn literally means 'midge water') but they weren't the biting kind.  They just filled the air and clouded your face and made every attempt to infiltrate your eyes and mouth.  When it wasn't full of bugs, the air stifled you with the overwhelmingly putrid smell of sulphur.  I'm not selling this place, I know - but once you adjusted to the discomforts, it held a certain magic.

Lake Myvatn


Beautiful homes for hidden people surrounding the lake itself.



Just near the lake is "the Blue Lagoon of the North" - the Myvatn Nature Baths.  With the same pearlescent silt, masseurs and cocktails, this place is perfect for ultimate decadence.  Once you're warm and soft-skinned, it's time to make your way to Hverir, for the most unforgettable site in the area.




Hverir is a super geologically active area, with bubbling hot mudpools and steaming fumaroles (which are literally openings in the crust of the earth, which totally blows my mind).  The contrast of colours and sites here is something unlike anything else, but the sulphur stink takes a little bit of getting used to.





A little lesson in Icelandic spelling and pronunciation - nothing is phonetic here.  Nope, nothing.  "Hv" together, is actually pronounced "K".  Go figure.  We learnt this on this little excursion, and realised that we were definitely mispronouncing the "hervagerdi" hot river we'd visited a few weeks ago.








 From Hverir we continued driving toward Detifoss - targuably the most powerful waterfall in Europe.  The pictures don't do this one justice.  As luck would have it, the rain started to fall just as we pulled up to the parking lot.  This compounded with the spray from the waterfall, and we were quickly drenched.  Camera, lenses, glasses, jackets... everything was soaked through.  

This was one of those times, though, when you really do get a sense of how intense and powerful nature can be.  There are several walks you can do around the waterfall, and if we'd had a little bit more time, we would've liked to hike down around the base (I think this is a four hour walk, but there are signs when you arrive).  We had to settle for scrambling over the rocks that are the closest you can safely walk, where a small river separates from most of the flow, and the water carves out strange shapes in the rocks.



We stumbled upon some beautiful long, lonely roads on our way back north to Skagaströnd, where the sun was setting/rising over the harbour when we arrived just before 2am.


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About the Author

A lover of things whimsical and mysterious, I've packed my belongings and set out in search of monsters and magic. I love sea monsters on maps, climbing mountains and the bump when the plane lands.

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