Northbound

Day 9:

Leaving another lovely ranch, we headed up through the tundra with only one stop and a lot of driving in the plan. Despite the fairly mundane itinerary, this was one for the books almost entirely for one reason... we saw 2 reindeer! During the drive, we were enjoying more waterfalls and river carved canyons, then right when we were driving through the highlands, we slammed on the breaks when flippin' Sven and Rudolph popped into view! Considering that only about 3,000 of these live in Iceland, we are EXTREMELY lucky to have seen them! *note the overuseage of exclamation points.

Snow covered mountains abound, we made our way to our one stop for the day, Dettifoss. This is known to be the most powerful waterfall in Europe in terms of how much water flows over the edge and how far the water drops. It is an impressive sight to behold, but we had to earn the view, so a little backtrack is needed. We pulled up to a snow covered parking lot, complete with rain and a nice bit of wind. Nothing we hadn't experienced before. Within an earshot of the falls, the trail became... different. Deep, yellow mud covered the path and made for slow progression. Once at the falls, the path between the two viewpoints honestly looked like a mixture of baby poo and yellow curry, but somehow was more gross. The less than 1km hike took more out of us than a 5km hike normally would. Exhausted, we finally arrived and right as we were admiring the beauty, as if by the power of some ancient Nordic god, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds and displayed a brilliant rainbow in the mist from the falls. Then, of course, the trudge back to the car, but this time with an extremely cautious pep in our steps.

Layers stripped off and weatherproof flooring thanked, we set our sights on the old fishing town of Húsavík. After arriving in the adorable little town, we went to dinner at a tiny little yellow house called Naustið. We tried the national dish of Iceland for the first time and it was an interesting experience. The fermented shark has a tough texture, but tastes like a fairly bland fish for the first 5 or so seconds. Then comes the ammonia flavor. It fills your mouth and your sinuses and is a bit overpowering. We're definitely glad we tried it, but once is enough.

Tomorrow, whale watching and the waterfall of the gods!Read more