Day 7A little wasted day is over. We leave the shore and head towards Lake Mývatn. We omit a visit to Hengifoss waterfall to save some time and prefer to spend more time visiting the Stuðlagil gorge. Even so, we have the longest stage ahead of us today.
We woke up to a beautiful morning and the mood rises again.
We leave behind Eskifjörður and thick clouds over the Atlantic.
We are approaching the Stuðlagil gorge. The sun improves the surrounding scenery.
The path to the gorge along the river with the poetic name "Jökulsá á Brú" is a 4 km long hike along a stony path. Short linguistic explanation:
The name of the river in translation is the Glacier River above the bridge and the word stuðla means basalt columns.
The small Stuðlafoss waterfall makes up the surrounding landscape.
And here we are after one hour of walking. Amazing view of the river running between the basalt pillars. This area was closed until 2009. The river fed from the glaciers had a much larger and unpredictable flow. After the construction of the hydroelectric power plant, the level dropped and the gorge was open to the public.
Even today, the water flow is quite strong and you need to be careful.
The last view of the gorge and we move on.
We continue to Lake Mývatn. Around us is a country reminiscent of the desert regions of Peru or Bolivia.
Signs of former volcanic activity again determine the character of the surrounding landscape.
This relatively new fissure reminds us that we are approaching an active volcanic zone.
And we are in another geothermal area Hverir.
Hverir is part of a larger geothermal zone connected to the Krafla volcano. As we will see later, geothermal energy is used here for heating and electricity production.
Finally we come to Lake Mývatn. The last rays of the sun illuminate the surface of the lake ...
... and the surrounding mountains.