We got up early today, before 06:00.  Justin picked this time when we determined the evening before that we wouldn’t be able to see any of the sites around Lake Mývatn, and we’d have to see them all this morning.  He just made a wild guess of the time to leave so that we could eat at Teni in Blönduós at 19:00 tonight.  It was the only food reservation we made for the whole trip, and he couldn’t remember why it was so important to make a reservation there, but the fact we did made us think there was a good reason, and we wanted to keep it. 

So anyway, we had a long day ahead of us, we had a clock on us, and we needed to leave the hotel early.  We didn’t have breakfast included at this hotel, so we didn’t miss out on anything.  When we checked out at 06:30 the woman commented “You’re going early.”  Yep, we 100% agree.  The rain overnight had cleaned the car a bit, as all the mist and dusty gravel roads had given it a good layer of dirt.  Our first stop today was Hverir, with all the bubbling mud pits and gas, like something you’d see at Yellowstone or Mount Lassen.

It was only a 10 minute drive, and we arrived at an entirely empty parking lot.  We had this normally crowded area entirely to ourselves.  There was some light rain, but it was coming from the back (all the sites were to the west of the walking paths), so the rain was not really messing with the cameras or getting in our face.  As advertised, there were mud pits, yellow dirt, steam, red dirt, and a strong sulfur smell.  Justin got a small headache, as he walked on some of the dirt paths on the west side of the sites, where the gases were present.  The soil was some sort of clay, and it got everywhere on his shoes.

The next stop was also just a 10 minute drive, with us going right past a large geothermal plant on the way.  We were planning to visit both Leirhnjúkur and Krafla.  From our research, it was unclear whether they were together, whether they were in fact the same thing with two different names, or what.  We parked at the Leirhnjúkur parking lot and did a short hike.  On the hike we saw more lava rocks, more yellow soil, a couple sheep, and a turquoise pond.  There was a boardwalk in one spot to avoid the clay soil, but the boardwalk was more slippery than the clay.

Justin had in our notes that Krafla was a blue lake, and he was pretty sure the turquoise pond we saw wasn’t near big enough to have been that.  Alltrails and Google had different routes, and the pictures on Google for Leirhnjúkur and Krafla seemed to have photos of both a turquoise pond and blue lake, so it was very confusing.  Eventually Justin realized that Krafla was just a short walk away, and even better just a short drive away.  So we finished the hike, got in the car, and drove maybe 2-3 minutes east to Krafla, where there was a parking lot right next to the lake.  Here we finally saw the first people of the day, one other couple.  They were trying to figure out how to best get mud off their shoes, and Justin showed them the type of grass that works best for that (experience from doing it all the time in Hawaii).

From Krafla we drove maybe 25 minutes, back past Hverir, to Hverfjall Crater.  We’d read that the views from the crater rim were impressive, and the pictures we’d seen reminded us of the meteor crater we saw in Arizona a few years back.  As we got out of the car, we saw one of the Americans from the Thórsmörk tour.  We had just been discussing whether we’d see any people repeatedly on the trip, and sure enough, yes.  The walk up to the crater rim wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t too bad either.  At the top, Crystal decided to just go all the way around.  The views were great, with the best being to the north (towards where we’d been earlier this morning) and the west (over Lake Mývatn).  The walk was a little over an hour for the whole thing, and was pretty comfortable, as the wind wasn’t too bad, and it had basically stopped misting.

We continued around Lake Mývatn, with the next stop being Skútustaðagígar craters.  To our surprise, this place had a million buses and tourists everywhere.  We couldn’t figure out why, with all the other amazing scenery so close, everyone was here.  Skútustaðagígar was nice, with rolling green hills, some horses, but also tons of midges.  Our best guess as to the reason for all the buses is that this spot, unlike the crater where we’d just been, offered several options for people with different types of energy and accessibility.  Because we’d just seen the lake from the crater rim, and because of the midges, we didn’t stay long.  We got some breakfast ice cream at Skútaís Farm Ice Cream before heading off.  Crystal got salted licorice, and Justin got one scoop of blueberry and one scoop of raspberry with salted licorice.

As we backed out of our parking spot, we heard some crazy sounds coming from the car.  We weren’t sure if we should be worried, or whether it was just a rock wedged somewhere.  We got back on the Ring Road (which we’d barely been on in the past 24 hours) and headed west towards Goðafoss.  We skipped the Lake Mývatn Viewpoint as we assumed - perhaps incorrectly - that it wouldn’t have had better views than we saw from Hverfjall Crater, especially in the morning with the sun in the east.

At Goðafoss, there was parking on both the east side and the west side.  Unlike Dettifoss, getting from one side to the other was easy, as there was a pedestrian bridge.  We started on the east side, seeing it from the lower level and then the upper level.  Justin then went over to the west side whilst Crystal returned to the car.  Justin’s achilles was bothering him for some unknown reason, so that was slowing him down a bit.  We hoped both that and the car would last another week.

While Crystal was in the car, she found us a spot to have lunch in Akureyri.  We were curious what it would be like to be back in “civilization,” as Akureyri is the second largest town in Iceland, with a population of over 20,000.  Just before entering the town, we went over a bridge and we could see some giant cruise ships in town.  Our lunch spot, Greifinn, was just off the Ring Road, so finding it was easy.  We had some tasty breadsticks for an appetizer, Justin had spicy pepperoni pizza, and Crystal got shrimp salad.  It was nice to not have any burgers or hot dogs today.  The food was good, but we couldn’t finish it all, and ironically, we couldn’t take a to-go box, as we had dinner reservations tonight.  Notably, the restaurant had two women’s rooms and one men’s room.

We heard George Michael’s Freedom in the restaurant, which was coincidental since it was playing in the car when we arrived, and hence also when we left.  We got gasoline whilst we were in town, and the car was continuing to make odd noises.  We suspected a rock in the suspension or one of the rear wheels.  The views as we left town were great, and we stopped every 20 minutes or so to take panoramic shots.  Instead of getting to Blönduós via the Ring Road, we were taking the scenic route, going north around the Troll Peninsula and then across Roads 75 and 73.

Going this way meant way less cars, but also less infrastructure.  We went through some one-lane tunnels, which we weren’t a fan of.  There were turnouts frequently (every couple hundred meters), but all the turnouts were on our side, so we were the ones that had to keep pulling over whenever there was two-way traffic.  Also, inside the tunnel the odd car noise was 5x louder, and it was making us more and more paranoid and hampering our enjoyment of the drive.  Sadly we got the low clouds that plagued us on our morning in the Eastfjords, so many of the views on the Troll Peninsula were compromised.  We did see a bright orange lighthouse as we rounded the north tip of the peninsula.

We needed to use the facilities after driving for hours after lunch, so when we got to Hofsós we found the one cafe/restaurant that was open and stopped there.  We ordered some Cab-Syrah at Resto Mathus, sat down, and took turns using the WC.  The food in there (for people who were in there for an early dinner) smelled really good, so we made a mental note to grab lunch or dinner the next time we visit.  The WC, like at lunch, was interesting in terms of its layout.  There were two women’s rooms, and one all gender restroom.

While Crystal finished her wine, Justin literally ran down the street to take pictures of the basalt pillars on the shoreline.  The pillars were reminiscent of what we’d seen at Studlagil Canyon yesterday, albeit without walls on two sides.  Here there were steps leading down to the ocean, kind of like Giant’s Causeway (the place shown on the Houses of the Holy album cover).  The area was very photogenic, and the ocean was calm, but we didn’t have time to hang out.  We met at the car, then drove 5 minutes to Grafarkirkja, the oldest church in Iceland.  It was well-camouflaged, since it had a grass roof.  But for Gina telling us where to go, we wouldn’t have noticed it just driving by.  It was all by itself in the middle of a field, with mountains in the distant background.  There was something mystical about it, perhaps because of the low clouds in the background, who knows.

It started to rain on the way to Blönduós, and we took this as Mother Nature telling us there shouldn’t be any more photo stops between now and dinner.  We’d just guessed when to start this morning and how long to take at each spot, but we were doing remarkably well.  We had dinner reservations at Teni at 19:00, and we arrived at 19:03.  As it turns out, the restaurant was maybe 20% full, and we didn’t need a reservation at all.  

The cuisine was Ethiopian food - we had totally forgotten that.  Crystal got wine, and Justin got a gin and tonic.  We shared Ye’beg alicha (slow-cooked lamb leg cut into cubes and cooked in a curry sauce) and Lamb Tibs (lamb muscle cut into pieces and fried with garlic and chiles).  We chatted a bit with the owner, who was from Ethiopia.  Like us, she had planned to visit in 2020, only for Covid to force cancellation.  We enjoyed our meal, but we also wanted to just get to the hotel and crash.  Fortunately the hotel (Brimslóð Atelier Guesthouse) was less than a kilometer away.  Our room was really nice.  All the places we’d stayed before were nice, but this was a noticeable step up.  We checked out photos and futzed around on the internet, plus enjoyed some rum (we’d finished the vodka a night or two before), before going to sleep a bit before 23:00.  We didn’t set an alarm, as these tiring days were adding up.