Day 9, Sep 2: Myvatn to Reytharfjorthur

The day started clear, calm and bright. French toast for breakfast and broke camp early -about 0900. East on the 1, onto a vast, bleak, windswept lava field. The land was stark and barren; if we thought it was lonely other places we'd driven through, on this wide plain it was positively desolate. The landscape was broken lava with practically nothing growing: no trees or shrubs, hardly any grass, no animals or fences. The skies were clear and the winds calm so we rolled along at 55 - 60 mph. Turned north on the 862 to the entrance to Dettifoss.

Dettifoss is Iceland's and Europe's biggest (by volume) falls. It, and its sister Selfoss a quarter mile upstream, are in the Vatnajokull National Park. The 100-meter-wide falls passes 400,000 cubic meters of water per second. The spray from it can be seen from the road, a mile away. We walked out to the edge, and took in the thundering torrent, churning dark and grey. The sun was right to catch a small rainbow from one overlook. Walked up to Selfoss, which is impressive in its own right - reminds me of Victoria, long with multiple falls.

Back to the 1 and east across the broad, desolate lava fields. To the south rose a near-perfect circular mountain in the distance. Traffic, for the most part, was sparse. We might pass a car going the other way once in three to five minutes. As we got closer to the coast, the weather darkened and grew overcast. More empty land until we dropped down into the Jokladalar, the Glacier Valley, leading down to the coast. Now we were in light rain and low clouds. The landscape changed abruptly as we descended the valley, laced with waterfalls on both sides. The steep side hills and valley floor were green with grass and hay fields. The long, glacial valley was festooned with waterfalls tumbling and crashing down the sides. We stopped at several. At Egilsstathir, we stopped for lunch at a N1 gas/convenience store.

We took a side trip up and over the steep hill and down into the "bohemian" art town and cruise ship stop of Seythisfjorthur. The guidebook says if you only visit one village on the east coast, this is the one. The steep, winding drive down the upper valley is full of waterfalls.  The cute village has wildly painted houses and the famous rainbow sidewalk up to the church. This is also the port at which the ferry to Europe docks. Back up and over the hill and turned south on the Ring Road. We continually marveled at the waterfalls tumbling down the escarpment as we made our way into Reytharfjorthur. Found the campground and set up. Good facilities here so showered. Up above the campground is a log Catholic church with great views over the harbor. Soup for dinner and connected to wifi for only the third time on the trip. Was able to post entries to the travel blog for the first time.

A couple more observations about driving. The roads are ALL two-lane asphalt paved roads (except for the gravel roads, of course). Still finding them somewhat uneven and wavy - no potholes, though. The roads authority doesn't go in much for guardrails. Most roads are somewhat elevated above the surrounding surface so there is always a drop-off to the side. On the climbs and descents over the mountains and down the valleys, the banked curves may have a steep embankment, tens of feet deep - no guardrails. Even on the almost-switchback climbs and drops to Seythisfjorthur, no guardrails! Another thing they don't have here is billboards. I think I saw some around Reykjavik but haven't seen a one since. Traveling down the coast, today, we crossed many one-lane bridges. Traffic is light enough that this works. Warning signs slow you down approaching the bridge and the vehicle closest to the bridge assumes right of way, while opposing traffic, if any, waits. Another thing they have a lot of is roadside rests. Alert signs tell you a half a kilometer ahead that one is coming up. They're usually gravel pull offs , many with information plaques, some with tables, all with a view.Læs mere