Hofn to Laugar

Sam's word of the day is a phrase … "I'm too effing tired to care anymore"!
Huge day of driving today, about 450 kms of winding road taking us from the glacial region of the south to the volcanic north. We left the lush greens of the south of Iceland and travelled through farmlands spotted with sheep and Icelandic ponies (both have such a variety of colour) to the sharp and often more barren moonscape of the north, though with lakes and falls in between. Such a country of contrasts.
There was no stopping along the way today (except for the necessary) as we travelled a quarter of the way around the Ring Road. We did stop though for the incredible Dettifoss and Selfoss (Dental Floss and Selfie Floss) waterfalls. Such power!! Both falls flow from the Jökulsá á Fjöllum River and Dettifloss is considered the most powerful in Europe. It's massive … you can almost feel the ground shake from above the river! Apparently, 96500 gallons of water pass over this fall every second. It's gargantuan!! We got wet from the spray and we stood way above the fall. It did shoot us some lovely rainbows though 🌈
Krafla is an 813m high volcanic caldera situated near is little sister, Viti. It's walls are sheer and steep and I was a bit freaked out walking the rim in the wind. It's deep blue, hot water lake was a sight to behold. The Krafla volcanic system is still very much alive and the depths of its caldera provide heat for geothermal energy across the north. It was starkly beautiful.
The Leirhnjúkur Hill is rhyolite formation rising above the surrounding lava field. And when I say lava field, I mean kilometre after kilometre of hardened lava, swallowing the entire valley. It's spectacular (to geo nerds like me, anyway). The Krafla Fires between 1975 and 1984 (a succession of fissure eruptions and magma movements), saw this Ridge swallowed by molten rock, cooling and hardening at different rates and leaving diverse rock formations. There are bubbling pools of reds, yellows, whites and blues surrounded by the blacks of hardened lava. I thought it was brilliant.
Our last stop of the day was at Hverir, a high temperature area with fumeroles and mud pots. What more could a girl ask for?? The scent of sulphur would put a lot of people off but no!! In we went, me with more gusto than Samara. The colours were spectacular, the bubbling mud was fun and the hiss of boiling water under rock was musical. Fun fact - sulphur was previously mined in Iceland to make gun powder. Now it's there for making one's eyes water and rotten-egg jokes!Read more