The Tortoise and the Finch: Road to Nowhere Ends in a Pot of Gold

The day began with kleina, tasty little twisted Icelandic doughnuts and blue sky. We decided to try to drive to Dettifoss, a spectacular waterfall in a chain of beautiful waterfalls in Jokulsargljufur National Park, it is actually the North Unit of Vatnajokull National Park. It is pretty much on the way to Seydisfjordur, our next port-of-call, so why not? Because the gravel goat trail out there became entirely too rugged for the Hyundai, in spite of what Lonely Planet told us. It probably smoothed out agaiun a bit further on, but the second time we almost bottomed out we chickened out. We had to turn back, and I mean turn back and take an alternate route to Seydisfjordur that added literally hundreds of km to the day’s drive. Thankfully we are well provisioned with a giant bag of kleina from the bakery.

Us at Selfoss

K & Z at Selfoss

We went back to Husavik and back around Lake Myvatn; it was interesting to see all the places we visited on our first day again! We went around and entered the park from the southern end, which IS paved. The landscape on this side couldn’t have been more different. The northern end was all green – a veritable Icelandic forest of stunted birch trees and assorted shrubbery. The southern end looked like the surface of the moon. It was a volcanic wasteland; nothing but black sand and rocks as far as the eye could see. Now we really wish we’d made it through from the north – we’d have loved to see where and how the landscape transitioned.

We walked the path out to Selfoss first. There are several major falls on the primary hiking route through the park. We had originally planned to do the two day hike, but that plan ended up sacrificed to squeeze in the trip to Heimaey. We really needed to spend another week, if not two. I digress, wildly. Selfoss was lovely – a somewhat horseshoe shaped fall with several small cascades off to one side. It is only 11 meters high, but the way it plunges down between a valley of columnar basalt is very striking.

The family at Detifoss

Next we walked up the path to Dettifoss. This was the roar we had heard as soon as we parked the car – almost 200 cubic meters of water pour over the edge per second. Our timing was perfect, as the sun came out and a spectacular rainbow formed over the falls. We oohed and aahed and got soaked in the spray. It was very interesting to see that the east side was a giant rock pile and the west side, constantly misted by the plume of spray, was lush and green. Slideshow of the falls at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAiAMYj .