Iceland, the fairy-tale – day 5 (2)
Posted: July 18th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: trips and notes | Tags: Dettifoss, Iceland, Krafla | No Comments »Iceland – day 5, 28/06/2011, continued
this is the day with the worst weather throughout our stay in magical Iceland
the valley of Jökulsá á Fjöllum, covered in mist and slanting cold rain, captures and attracts me in my memories as if a cool breeze under the rays of the summer sun; unearthly and enchanting, it is the home of all the fairytale characters of my childhood; all of the imaginary sanctuaries and figures came alive angrily pointing a finger at me for doubting they existed…
upstream, half an hour from Asbyrgi we reach Hljóðaklettar; ; the path leading to it passes through green crooked forests
at the end of the path, green makes room for the rock giants
Hljóðaklettar means “the whispering cliffs” because of a specific echo reflected by the hundreds of pentagons and hexagons of the basalt
honoring our visit everything is belated and only the sound of rippling raindrops is whispering ancient stories;
we reach The Eye
the remains of Valhall are next to it; the bottom of the formerly glorious hall pulls like a magnet
the eyes of those sitting at the throne are turned to the valley
there is no trace of the Valkyries and only this little fellow is peeking through the cracks
we pass by a dwarf’s chair – no wonder it is empty – dwarfs, as we all know, walk in groups of 12-13…
on our way out, we notice a gigantic organ
two magnificent dragons emerge from the screes on one of the shores; buried in the hillside, they have been waiting through the centuries for a brave hero to set them free from the spell; as if accidentally the wind has uncovered the top layer – as if I see things that are not meant for my eyes
half an hour upstream we reach Dettifoss – the most powerful waterfall in Europe (in terms of quantity of water falling per hour); the water in the air is so abundant that I do not even make an attempt to take out my camera
Selfoss is a bit further up while Hafragilsfoss is a bit further down; the clouds are touching our heads once again
a crack in the cliff we are standing on
we start towards Kafla and Vitti although we don’t feel like going
on the way we decide to resolve a mystery which we cannot keep peace with – the embankments along the road; the roads here are usually surrounded by embankments (sometimes up to 3 meters tall) and we guess they are there because of string spring waters; however, it is weird that the slopes of these embankments are the favorite spots for local flora although the embankment itself is a typical one – rock, rock and then rock again
we often see sacks filled with something placed at crossroads close to farm houses and while we argue what is inside of them, we come upon another group of sacks; we stop to check out what’s inside
fertilizer, synthetic one; no comment…
we approach the estates of Krafla; the landscape and its colors change; Krafla is one of the most active volcanic zones in Iceland; the last eruptions took place in 1984 and the volcanic fields can be easily recognized even on google
we reach the crater Vitti, one of the more dormant ones but, unfortunately, the road to the more active volcanic spots is closed; their territory is used for a training ground for American astronauts
the best vehicle for these roads is parked at the parking lot:
although its name means “hell”, the crater itself is a surreal blue lake; we go back to the main road
the heights of the volcano host an electric power plant and a place of a pilot drilling for a unique Icelandic project– Iceland Deep Drilling Project; magma has been reached here at only 2000 meters of depth…
there are uncapped hot springs right on the road fork to Krafla
these things smoke, babble, swish, gurgle and have an abundance of the most amazing colors
the name of these hills is Namafjall – mining mountains; The Mountains of Iron….
time is running out; although we are not threatened by the evening dusk, we are tired and we hurry to Husavik; we roar by Myvatn; the sun is low on the horizon and its rays glow upon the lake
we are going to sleep at Husavik in order to go whale watching tomorrow 
before we reach the port, we fly by these strange greenhouses
there are no vegetables in Iceland except for the traditional carrots and some kind of cabbage; we did not see any vegetable gardens except for these (in the whole of Iceland) greenhouses for tomatoes – the orange light above is from lamps and on the ground they water them from the hot springs; as you can imagine – the taste of the tomatoes is not at all memorable.
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