Iceland: Sir, You Have a Goat On Your Roof

 From Wednesday, September 22 and Thursday, September 23

 Two days for this post.  

 On Wednesday morning I set out from Hofn (again).  This time I could see a lot more and wasn’t fighting anything.  In the end, I’m glad I hadn’t pushed through (even though emergency services wouldn’t let me) because I would have missed out on so much prettiness.  The day was almost clear and sunny, just about the opposite of a day earlier.  The Ring Road runs right along the coast for much of what drove for the day.  First it was pretty much right along the ocean, and then it was in and out of a bunch of fjords.  Really what I have for the day is a bunch of pretty pictures, which is why I didn’t do a post for just the one day.  So you get a few pretty pictures.

Some very lucky Icelandic horses with a great view!

This is where I was when I was forced to turn around the day before.  The waves on the
ocean to the right were humongous!  And the wind was outrageous!

Just one of the many views I would have missed had I drove this stretch the day
before in the horrible weather.

 One actual activity I did for the day was driving along Lagarfljot, which is a lake with its own Loch Ness type monster.  It’s been seen 5 times since the late 1800s. 4 times in the last half century.  I did not see it as I drop alongside Lagarfljot.  After I crossed Lagarfljot, I got to the parking lot for the hike up to see Hengifoss.  Really it was two waterfalls.  Hengifoss was the higher one, but Litlanesfoss was pretty neat itself.  This hike was really quite straight up.  832 feet in about 1.4 miles.  

Litlanesfoss - with the basalt columns like Svartifoss

Hengifoss - the neat striping pattern with the red has to do with lava flow, then nothing for a while allowing the top layer to turn more to soil, then more lava and so on.

 I spent the night in Egilsstadir.  Still no northern lights.

In the morning I got put together and hit the road.  At the last minute I opted out of going to see another fjord.  Like the other days, I’ve had a few things I wanted to see, but then just stopped or turned off if I saw something that interested me.  Or sometimes I turned off and had no clue what I was heading towards.  But that’s the joy in this type of trip.  It wasn’t too long after I got started that I started see a bit of snow on the ground.  The sort of snow that looked like it had appeared within the past 24 hours.  Then I saw more of it, and some mountains covered in snow too.  These snow covered mountains were not in glacial areas, so their snow is actually snow.

Snow! Snjor!

 At an information stop (boards with some pictures and info of the region), I saw a board about a sod house.  Sod houses are what many Icelanders used for centuries because of the lack of wood in the area.  I was curious so I took a turn and headed off to find Bustarfell.  This was a sod house that goes back to the 1770s.  While no one has lived in it for the past 50 years, the same family whose ancestors builts it in the 18th century, have kept it up as a museum.  Since it is not summer, it wasn’t open, but I could still take a look around the outside of it.  And I found goats...on the roof...just bleeting at me.  But this house was really quite impressive.  It apparently had 3 kitchens and obviously looks like it could house multiple generations.

Bustarfell Sod House

From there I made my way to Dettifoss; one of the most powerful waterfalls in the country.  It was also a two-for-one waterfall special because I was also able to walk a little further and see Selfoss.  The two waterfalls, despite only being about a kilometer apart, were very different.  Selfoss was much shorter and a sort of wrap-around curtain style.  Dettifoss was another off-angle falls that somehow had so much more power than Selfoss did.

Dettifoss

 And then because my map showed more waterfalls if I turned right, I decided to see if I could see more.  But it soon became apparent I was too far from the river.  But just 5 km pass the turnoff to Dettifoss was what appeared to be a brand new road, which lead to a brand new parking lot, which led to a brand new trail, which led to a view down into the gorge where another waterfall was located.  And I had it all to myself for the whole 20 minutes or so that I was there.  I’m not really sure which waterfall that was that I was seeing.  I just know I saw a neat one.

The surprise falls that I don't have a name for just downstream of Dettifoss.

 I’ll be camped out in Myvatn for the next two nights.  Lots to do in the area so I figured I stay here both nights.  It’s snowing outside right now.  It is also currently 1C outside and wind is at 8m/s.  Inside I have my heater going and it’s not too bad.