The Tortoise and the Finch: Marvelous Myvatn

The tour guide picked us up at the airport and we were off for an exploration of Myvatn and the surrounding area. It was a glorious day – beautiful blue sky, temperature in the high 50s and 60s. The guide, Bjorn, told us not to get over-attached to the idea that this was what Iceland was always like in the summer. We were amazed to see spectacular carpets of brilliant blue and purple lupines everywhere. They imported the Alaskan lupine to combat erosion and it is doing such an incredible job that it is now a pest that threatens the native species.

Godafoss

Our first port of call was Godafoss, waterfall of the gods, so named in tribute to the sacrifice of Thorgeir’s (Icelandic parliamentary leader @1000 AD) pagan idols at that site. The nation was threatened by potential division by the existence of two religions and they decided to abide by his choice of which faith to follow. He voted in favor of Christianity and to set a good example to other followers of the traditional Norse faith, tossed his idols of Odin, Freya, Thor, et al over the falls. It was absolutely gorgeous -glorious glacial blue waters foaming and racing over basalt columns. We took scads of pitifully inadequate pictures – be sure to check out the slideshow at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAgdmdm

boiling mud

Myvatn, which can be roughly translated as midge lake (very aptly named), is the remains of an ice cap that once sat over a volcanic basin. When the basin began erupting the ice melted, forming the lake. Eruptions have been fairly frequent in this area and there are multicolored lava flows all over. As we mentioned, the lake is aptly named. The flies are unbelievable. The instant we emerged from the shelter of the van they were in our faces. The flies are the base of the lake’s food web and their abundance is what makes the lake a draw for numerous bird species, particularly ducks.

myvatn

Our first stop on the lake was near a series of pseudo craters. These formations look like volcanic craters but are actually the pockmarks of explosions on the surface of a lava lake as it cooled. This was probably the worst area for flies. Mercifully, they didn’t follow us into the van and any that did stray inside landed on the windows wishing to be outside again. We next visited a series of different lava fields around the lake. There were several curious formations, columns, arches, benches where the hot lava has come in contact with cold water. In the distance were several snowy volcanic peaks, any of which could erupt on short notice the guide informed us.

troll

After lunch we spent a while exploring a lava field called Dimmurborgir, which means dark castle in Icelandic. We were introduced to a variety of troll tales including those of the Yule lads who are a combination of Santa Claus and the archetypal trickster. Our favorite story is that for each of the twelve days of Christmas the lads brings gifts to good children, potatoes to bad children, and really bad children get a rotten potato. Children too terrible to rate a rotten potato are taken away and eaten by the Yule Lads evil troll mother, Grylla. The Dimmurborgir itself came into existence due to an incident when the trolls were having a celebration, got carried away and lost track of the time, and were turned to stone when the sun rose on them.

Next stop was the mid Atlantic Ridge which is exposed here in Iceland. Were took the requisite “one foot in Europe one in North America” photo. We also crawled into a highly unstable cave at the bottom of the ridge filled with hot sulphurous water. We also saw the crater near the summit of Krefla, the most active of all the active volcanoes in the region. Later we visited an active geothermal field full of boiling mud puddles, steaming fumaroles, and the overwhelming stench of sulphur.

Last, but certainly not least, we stopped at the Myvatn Nature Baths. This is a pool of hot outflow water from the nearby geothermal power plant. The mineral rich water is a milky blue and wonderfully relaxing. We steeped ourselves in the hot waters for a while which was the perfect remedy to 36 hours on the move. Good first day in Iceland.