Iceland Day 4: Akureyri to Reykjahlíð

Today we had another bus tour booked, this time to and around Lake Myvatn from Akureyri.

Route from Akureyri (A) to Reykjahlíð (C) via Godafoss (B

The front desk guy helped us carry our bags 200 meters to the bus stop, and within a few minutes the bus was along to take us on a scenic tour for the day, then drop us at the Hotel Reykjahlíð (one of the images on the homepage of this site is actually the room we are in!).

Getting a talking-to in the lobby of Hotel Akureyri before we got on the bus

It was gorgeous light across the sky and reflected in the fjord and snow covered mountains. Photos of this part of our trip don't do justice to the breadth and depth of the landscape.

Looking south as we crossed the Eyjafjordur fjord on our way out of Akureyri

First stop was a dairy farm on the side of the mountain. They served fresh milk to visitors and we saw their amazingly high-tech operation. This scraper on the floor was constantly moving slowing back and forth from one end to the other pushing the poo into troughs so the floor was clear. There was a scratching post in the middle so that cows could go get their itches scratched whenever they wanted. Each cow wore a necklace that monitored how often and how much milk they produced, with the only constraint that they couldn't enter the milking robot area more than once within a 6 hour period. But otherwise they were free to sleep, eat, get milked, get scratched and also go outside to play when the shed doors were open (not in the winter).

Overview of the dairy operation

This is the milking machine. Each of the suction things had a red laser which searched for a nipple and latched on!

Then we went to see the Goðafoss waterfall which was gorgeous in this pink light. Actually the waterfall itself was in the shadow, but the landscape around was pink.

Don't go too close to the edge, because there is no rail and the dropoff is a few hundred feet!

Here are the troops with the bus in the background

Snow angel by the waterfall

Tryfan's upside down snow angel

When we got to Lake Myvatn, we stopped to walk around the steam craters. These are formed from water being superheated and the exploding through the ground to create a crater of sediment around. They are like mini volcanoes (but without lava) and make the landscape look lunar.

Rhiannon climbed up a steam crater

A lone woman pushing her pram down the main road

We went to visit this place called Dimmuborgir, which is an area of preserved and collapsed lava tubes. Our guide took us on a walk through the area and told us stories about the 13 Icelandic Santa Clauses that come out in December, and about the trolls you can see in the rock formations. 

Following our tour guide called Triestte (or something)

One of the preserved lava tubes

Then we went to the Hverarond geothermal area, which was an area of hot pots, fumaroles, boiling mud pools and other interesting features.

Approaching the Hverarond area with steam coming from the snow

Rhodri with a steam mound

Our final stop on the tour was the Myvatn Nature Baths. I have been looking forward to this for so long! It was one of the reasons that I wanted to visit this part of Iceland. It was gorgeous light and very soft, warm, wonderful water. I didn't take photos while we were out swimming, but I did take this photos after we were done and I was back into dry clothes.

After the hot spring visit, we checked into our hotel.
And guess who the other guests were? The other Lewis family!!!! So it was just us two Lewis families plus a pair of Australian ladies. This is not a big hotel - only 9 rooms. Fortunately, Lene our travel agent sent me a text message giving us a heads up about the other Lewises so that we didn't have a shock when we checked in...