Thwarted again by Hverfell crater

It was really rather sad to say goodbye to our portacabin on Lake Myvatn, we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The view of the crater was absolutely fabulous, I will miss it. When leaving, I walked through the snow thinking that this is likely to be the last time we walk in snow. How wrong was I. More on that later. We had a drive around the lake, stopping at Rekjahid church which escaped the Myvatn fires. We aimed to climb the mountain to the West of the lake but the pathway was completely impassable so we drove on, passing the filming of Fast 8 again. This time they had the helicopter above the lake.

Hverfell is the tephra crater we could see from our window. The first time we visited in the summer, we couldn’t get to the pathway as the road was so bad. I wrote on my blog that we would do it next time. We tried two attempts a couple of days ago but couldn’t get close. Third time lucky. We parked on the main road and walked the road to bottom of the crater. The road had a sign at the entrance to say that it is closed, and if you attempt it, being rescued will be very expensive. Three cars ignored that, to their peril, we found one jeep buried in deep snow. It was a long walk to the base of the crater, through deep snow but at least it was compacted so we could walk on it. That’s where the compacted snow stopped. We turned to climb the crater and oh my gosh, ever other step, we dropped and the snow was up to our knees. It was fine one minute, then the next step we were up to our knees again. The snow was a very deep blue colour in the holes and all I could think of is that it’s the same colour as a crevasse, my biggest fear. I just had to keep reminding myself that you don’t get a crevasse on a crater. It was getting steep and pretty scary. Alas, two thirds up the crater we have wanted to climb four times now, we had to stop and admit defeat. We sat on the crater for a bit, it was getting too dangerous and the descent wasn’t looking too much fun. There was nothing else for it, down on my bum I went. It was fine when the snow was iced on top, I got up quite a speed until the soft stuff stopped me in my tracks and I had to walk down the rest.

Thrilled to reach the bottom in one piece, we met the French couple staying at the portacabin. We made the long walk back with them, chatting away. We had another drive around the lake, lunch at the viewpoint looking at the frozen lake and then we said goodbye to Lake Myvatn, the furthest point of our trip this time. We had to retrace our steps back, through mountain passes, spotting churches along the way. Iceland suddenly has colour again. We have been in black and white for so long, the colour is so striking. Back at Blonduos we stopped at our lunch pull in spot. It’s amazing the difference a week makes. Last week it was covered in snow and ice, today it’s completely gone and back in full colour.