I love crampons

Woke up, opened the blinds and the crater has disappeared in the night! We were under dense fog. It went down to -7 last night so we had to remember that patience is a virtue and had to wait for the fog to lift. We visited Dimmuborgir, where we visited on our first trip to Iceland in 2010. My previous blog just talks about the flies that are attracted to oxygen. Myvatn translates as midge lake and swarms of them flock here in the summer. I was incredibly traumatised by it. Not this time, but one slight flaw in going for a walk in winter time is that the fences are buried, the signs are buried and every few steps, you step on some fresh snow and descend quite a way. The signs as you enter suggest you wear crampons! I’ve never been so grateful for ours. You also can’t see what’s beneath you, whether it’s jagged lava or a path. We made our way down to the lava formations, formed under a lake and are now like pillars in the air. One has a hole through the middle that you can walk through.

I need to have a moan, but something that really annoys me is when tourists ignore the rules. There are signs everywhere that this is a fragile and dangerous environment so stick to paths. Yet again, we saw tourists go over the rope and onto a cliff edge to get the best picture they could! I don’t think they know how rough lava is, nor how some of the earths crust is so thin here that you can literally fall through the crust into 200 degree boiling water. Moan over.

Dimmuborgir is also where the yule tide lads hang out for the rest of the year. Everyone that came to the wedding will remember the tales of the yule tide lads. We attempted to walk the path to the tephra crater, Hverfjall. We got some way there but every few steps we descended through thick snow, it was just too dangerous to continue to the crater. It was like walking on a tight rope, with huge gullies either side.

Instead, we went for lunch at the cow shed, Vogafoss. The cows are next door, through a window from the restaurant and gift shop. Ali had the farmhouse plate of smoked char, omelette, geysir bread made in their underground bakery, salad and whipped skyr. I had the cheese plate with geysir bread, followed by greysir bread ice cream. It was absolutely divine. The menu says that the farm prides itself on local good quality ingredients, and the final product is sublime.

As it was so sunny, we took the opportunity to drive to Dettifoss, where we also first ventured in 2010. It’s engraved onto our brains, 32km of gravel road! It was torture. What we have now found out is that there is a paved road that goes in parallel and it gives a much better view of the falls. The road is very exposed so often closed, but we were in luck. Strangely though, the road was actually steaming. To the point that I actually got out to feel the road to make sure it was safe to drive!

800m walk to Deitfoss through thick snow and we were greeted by a phenomenal rainbow. Dettifoss is huge and nothing like I remember. It also has selfoss a little further up. We have definitely had our fill of walking in thick snow over lava today. Back at the guesthouse/ portacabin, we ate dinner looking at the lake. We are now on a mission to stay awake to hopefully see the Northern Lights.