The road from the eastern fjords to Lake Mvatyn in northern Iceland is like a high cold desert, devoid of vegetation, settlements or even sheep. On all sides are volcanic mountains, high enough for snow, but low enough for the rich black ash to soak up the sun’s heat and melt the snow into stunning abstract patterns in rich brown and white. We admired the cow-pattern view from atop a caldera accessed through a geothermal power plant, which was super interesting.
This is No Country for Old Women, in the sense that high overlooks with no safety railings are questionable places for the unsteady.
On our route, we made our requisite pilgrimage to a waterfalls (Dettifoss and Godafoss – spectacular as usual), and later strolled the local fumarole field, which was small but enlivened by a tourist plunging half dressed into a steam cloud.
We finished our stay in the area with an afternoon soak at GeoSea thermal baths, perched atop a slope overlooking Husavik bay. Below us the whale-watching boats hustled into place then loitered waiting for the humpbacks to show themselves. Watching them surface, breach, and dive with their majestic tails raised just below us was magical.
