Heading North

 I apologize for writing a day late but yesterday was just too jam packed to allow time for the blog!  We actually got to experience the more realistic Iceland weather….cool and rainy!  As we travelled along the east side of the island, we were quite high up.  It was very intriguing to travel through intermittent fog but we still got glimpses of beautiful waterfalls. We definitely felt the change in temperature when we stepped off of the bus for photos.  

Mid morning we stopped at Modrudalur Farm, the highest farm in Iceland.  Several generations of the same family have endured the hardships to eek out a living.  The highlight of our visit was catching a glimpse of two arctic fox pups playing near the boardwalk on the farm. We had time to check out the various buildings, many of which were made of sod. Of course, we were sure to grab a coffee and a homemade goodie from the cafe before we left.

Next we made our way to Myvatyn Lake area and went to the Myvatyn baths.  We grabbed lunch at the cafeteria there before heading into the hot pools.  These hot pools are smaller but feel more authentic than the Blue Lagoon.  It was quite cool and windy, and we even had some rain, so it felt good to relax in the warm water.

Once we were finished at the hot springs we travelled a short distance up the road to the Dimmuborgir lava fields.  We felt like we were on another planet as we made our way through this area of interesting and intriguing lava formations.  The locals claim that these formations are home to the 13 Yule Lads of Icelandic Folklore.  We were on the lookout but didn’t manage to spot any of them.  We kept our hike fairly short as it began to rain lightly just as we were setting out.   

Another interesting stop that we made was to see the pseudo craters.  These are formations that look like short craters but they really aren’t craters.  They are formed when there were magna flows under water.

The highlight of the day was the stop at the Godafoss waterfalls.  If possible, these waterfalls rivalled the previous falls that we visited!  They were spectacular!!

In the late afternoon we rolled in to Akureyi, Iceland’s second largest city, located in northern Iceland.  It is a beautiful city located along a fjord.  We walked into the downtown and divided into small groups for dinner.  At 8:30 we departed on our whale watching tour on the fjord.  It was cool, windy and rainy so it made for a real adventure!  We motored out to the northern end of the fjord and we were rewarded by three humpback whales that were feeding in the area.  We returned to town at 11:30 and it was still light out!