We woke up to a light drizzle but by the time we got up it was over. We made a nice breakfast and packed up and were ready to go, when Iest noticed that the clip from his chest strap is missing. (For the record, Osprey backpacks are the worst designed backpacks I have ever seen in every possible aspect. Iest was struggling with the piece of sh*t for the whole trip.) Fortunately we managed to find the clip in the grass, which was just pure luck, really, and were ready to go.
Jökulsárgljúfur canyon
Gina & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon
Iest & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon
The way along the canyon was maybe even more spectacular than the day before, because we had plenty of side waterfalls to enjoy, and and also one river crossing – icy cold, straight from the glacier no less. We fancied that.
River Crossing
River Crossing
Waterfall
Jökulsárgljúfur canyon
We arrived at the Dettifoss waterfall after 4pm, via the campsite which unlike what we thought was not actually by the waterfall but a nice grassy spot within a lava field a little way off. There were no facilities save for a wooden table and a tank of water in the campsite.
Dettifoss
Dettifoss itself was quite impressive indeed, with apparently the largest volume of water roaring through of any European waterfall. After we had enough of looking at it, and were also quite wet from its mighty spray, we headed back to the campsite to pitch our home for the night. Our bus was supposed to go at 1pm the next day. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot, and also a tour bus – that’s where I thought may be it would be going to Mývatn as well, and could give us a lift to save us half a day, and may be we could even have a shower already today.
Gina and Detifoss
Gina and Dettifoss
The bus driver indeed confirmed that he was going to Mývatn afterwards but we had to wait for the tour guide to decide whether we could take a ride with them. Fortunately she was kind, and there were two spots left on the bus, so soon enough we found ourselves in the nice company of a Spanish group on our way to Mývatn – we were quite happy!
In Reykjahlíð we saw a nice camp right on the shores of the lake, so we went in to check-in; but alas, the woman said their card machine was not working. It would not be such a big problem, we could pitch a tent, and go to the ATM nearby – but we were quite unhappy with how unpleasant and sour-faced the woman was altogether; that’s no way to treat customers, and we are not used to that here in Iceland – everyone so far has been extremely nice. She was not Icelandic either, and I would be willing to bet she was Czech. Anyway, thinking we had no other option we went to ‘town’ to get the money. While there, we met our German friends we saw at a couple of places before, and they told us there was another campsite further down the road – so we decided to make the move. This meant we had to pack our tent and bags again, then we told the sour-faced b*tch where to stick it, and walked over to the other place. The young woman in the reception was over-the-top nice as if wanting to compensate, and we had our mojo back.
We pitched the tent with a beautiful view of the lake and mountains on the horizon, and we were super happy with our long hot shower. Made a delish dinner of pasta and sauce, and were mighty tired already.
Campsite at
