Day 7: Seyðisfjörður to Brekka

We had a leisurely start to the morning in our apartment. It was a beautifully sunny day, so we enjoyed a stroll around Seyðisfjörður before we set off on our travels once again. 

The water in the fjord was so clear that we could see an almost perfect reflection of the buildings.

I really loved the colour of this blue house

The town is in a really stunning location. 

In places we could even still see a little bit of snow on the mountain tops

In fact we could see the mountains reflected in the water too

Once we'd done a circuit of the town, we got in the car for another fairly long day of driving. First stop was to go back over the mountain pass and down to Egilsstaðir. From there, we rejoined the Ring Road and began to head north.

The landscape became a bit gentler for a while. We stopped at a viewpoint by a river...

...then drove through a landscape of small bumpy hills....

...before catching sight of what looked like quite an impressive waterfall from the road.

We parked and climbed up a little footpath towards it.

You can hopefully just make out the beautiful rainbows in the photo

There was a lot of heather growing here, which was really pretty. This Icelandic sheep seemed to be enjoying it too

Then we were on our way again, and our surroundings began to look more mountainous.

As we got closer towards Dettifoss - the waterfall which was going to be our first main destination of the day - things began to look rather black and barren, in fact.

It also began to feel really windy, as we realised once we got out of the car to take pictures.

The road took led up past these mountains...

...and then finally we saw the turn-off we needed, down a side road towards Dettifoss.  There is a choice of two roads which you can take to Dettifoss; one goes down the western side of the falls and one down the eastern. We took the western road, which I'd read in the guidebook was well-surfaced and easy to drive on   As we drove along it, our surroundings became increasingly rocky.

We parked at the carpark (parking was free here) and it looked even rockier!

We followed the path for a kilometre or so before we got our first glimpse of water.

Eventually we rounded a corner and got our first proper view of Dettifoss.

Wow!

We watched the waterfall from a viewpoint to the side first of all.

There were barriers in place to stop you getting too close to the edge, although some people obviously thought it was worth ignoring them to get a better photo!

This was as close as we were going

Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Europe.

The spray coming up from the water was incredible.

One of the things I hadn't expected was to be able to see so many rainbows here.

They were really beautiful

There were various different viewpoints you could walk to to see the falls from different angles.

The paths were all quite dry here, which made it easier to explore. The wind was incredibly strong though, as you can probably tell from my hair  

A final look at the rainbows, and then it was time to head off to our next destination

Our next destination was supposed to be a place called Krafla. We rejoined the Ring Road and continued along it, looking for the Krafla turn-off, when suddenly we caught sight of a mountain with steam coming out of it 😮 

This is the geothermal area of Hverir, which I had somehow omitted to build into our itinerary 

There were pools of boiling mud...

...and chimneys emitting sulphuric steam.

The smell was worse than the sulphuric water in our bathroom in Reykjavik 

The turning for Krafla was only just around the corner, so we arrived there soon afterwards.

There is a volcanic crater here, with a bright blue lake inside it.

There's a walking trail all around the rim of the crater.

This part of Iceland is quieter than the south, so we didn't have to share it with many other people.

The crater lake was a gorgeous colour.

There were some good views of the surrounding countryside from the higher points of the walk as well.

We could see as far as Lake Myvatn, which is on our itinerary to visit tomorrow.

The path led through a small area of volcanic activity.

There were clear signs showing where you could and couldn't walk. You definitely wouldn't want to walk here; the earth was literally scorched!

At one point we had to jump over a stream, which I wasn't terribly happy about!

We then came round to a second, smaller crater lake....

...before climbing back up above the main lake once again.

One last look at the view, and then it was time to search for tonight's accommodation

That took slightly longer than expected, as one of the roads that we needed was closed. We got there in the end though; a small guesthouse in the middle of nowhere. Our room, which cost about £130, is in one of these wooden buildings.

It's a nice spacious room, and we've got breakfast included tomorrow which is a bonus

It's been another amazing day in Iceland and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Well, maybe a bit less wind would have been good