“Shoo fly don’t bother me” was our theme song today! Lake Myvatn, our destination this morning, is well known for their midges. Eight years ago we had seen some but they weren’t too bad. Today I was SO happy I had my head net. I needed it. The flies were out in full force. I honestly don’t know how the locals stand it. But before we could beat off insects, we had to get there and along the way we got another language lesson.
We learned that “mi” means midge and that “vatn” means water/lake. Those Vikings weren’t very creative with names but I like how they made their names all one word. It’s very convenient. You just have to know what the various parts of the word means. Neil has been fabulous breaking down the names for us each day. And honestly, it helps me remember them better. Like I’ve said before, he is a natural teacher. I believe he does teach classes in tourism.
We got to drive through yet another tunnel on our way to the lake. They should have done more research before they built this one. They hit a ginormous snag with it. When they were cutting through the rock, they hit hot water. It was running down the sides of the mountain and made a big pool. Darn! What were they going to do? Being Icelanders, they turned lemons into lemonade. An entrepreneur came up with the idea of turning the pool into a spa. It’s called the Forest Lagoon and is doing quite well.
The area around Myvatn is at the border of the American Plate and the Eurasian Plate. As a result, there is a huge amount of geothermal activity here. I learned that the American Plate is the largest tectonic plate while the Eurasian plate is third. The Pacific Plate is the second largest.
At one time an American company was dredging the Lake Myvatn for diatomite. In the process they were making the lake deeper. That wasn’t good for the midges or the birds. The numbers for both began radically declining. The company had to cease dredging because of the negative impact it had on the environment.
The midges haven’t stopped Hollywood from filming here. Neil informed us that one of the “Fast and the Furious” films was shot here. They were driving on the frozen lake during the winter. The lake does freeze to a meter and a half so it was safe. And during the winter it’s too cold for the midges. I’ll have to see if I can find that movie on Netflix or Amazon.
Another little tidbit about the lake is that it is suppose to be a good spot to see the Northern Lights in the winter. We’ll just have to come back then and see 🙂
Before arriving at the lake we drove by a tremendous lava flow. This lave field came from an eruption in the 1970s. It erupted for seven years. Holy cow! Amazingly, the flow of lava parted right at the church, saving it. We drove right by it. It was amazing to see lava on either side but the church itself undamaged.
Our first stop of the morning wasn’t at the lake but near it. We were going to learn how to cook rye bread using geothermal power. Freddie was the man of the hour. He owns a cafe at Dimmuborgir which is where we were going to have lunch later. We were going to watch him cook bread for the cafe.
I have to admit, I was nonplused when we pulled up beside what looked like a garage for vehicle repair. The area all around had an industrial feel to do. It definitely didn’t seem like a place to cook anything. Looks were deceiving, however. This was a whole new kind of baking. Freddie took us to the side of the garage to a hole in the ground. It was private property so he had to get permission to put his “oven” here. I believe he said that 80+ people had their “ovens” here as well. I think the entire village has geothermal ovens. The people owning the property pretty much have to allow others to make a geothermal oven on the land. Freddie told us that once a year you give them a case of beer and it’s all good. So very Icelandic.
Freddie’s hole was covered by two metal sheets to keep the heat in and protect the plastic containers that held the bread. He slid back one “lid” and used the two ropes to pull up a tray of cylindrical plastic containers. These were plastic containers that you could cook in and made so that they didn’t melt in the intense heat and didn’t contain any nasty harmful things. He popped off a lid and showed us the bread inside. It looked like bread :-). And all baked with steam and hot water. Pretty incredible. Of course the best part was tasting the rye bread. He explained how you usually have to let the bread cool for an hour before slicing. However, there was a second method that we could utilize this morning. You took a spoon and got a gob of butter on it, then you scooped out a chunk of bread, and popped it all into your mouth. MmmMmm good! I think we all had seconds. Neil was a bad example though. He kept getting the bread first and then the butter which got bread crumbs in the butter. Bad trip leader! 🙂
You can cook more than just bread in these geothermal ovens. In the old days there was a woman that used a sheep stomach to cook food in. She would put whatever she was cooking into the cleaned stomach and lower it into the hole. When she pulled it out, the food would be cooked. That’s pretty amazing. Freddie said they did try cooking their meal in the oven once but the meat got too soft.
Freddie talked a bit about the midges as well. We were wearing our head nets but he wasn’t. They didn’t seem to bother him. He said that certain blood types attracted them more than others. When asked what blood type, he was a bit evasive. He answered that it depended on the season. He should be a politician 🙂
We thanked Freddie with our now familiar “takk og bless” (the g is silent) and headed on the the lake. As we drove we learned about the Lake Myvatn. It is a thermal area that was created by lava flowing over water. The lava trapped bubbles of water and turned it to steam. Eventually the pressure was so great in the bubbles that they exploded creating things that look like craters. A magma reservoir still sits less than two miles below the surface there which is why it is a high temperature area and the locals can cook using geothermal methods.
Lake Myvatn is actually a shallow lava field that filled with water. Because it is only 15 feet at its deepest point, it has a complex ecosystem and can sustain many types of algae. It is a heaven for algae eaters, in fact. Midges eat algae so they go hand-in-hand with the lake. The midges do provide fertilizer for the plants. And they bring a variety of bird life to the area as well. That is why you have such vivid green areas of grass. It is due to the midges. So it is truly an amazing ecosystem.
Our first stop in the lake area was a place called Namafjall. It is a location that is chock full of fumaroles and mud pots. Amazingly the temperature is 200 degrees Celsius and higher at depths of 1000 meters. We had to be careful here to stay on the paths as you could break through the crust and get badly burned. The fumarole gas helps create sulfur deposits which were mined in centuries past to produce sulfur for gun powder. These days they are protected so no mining. The sulfur smell wasn’t too bad but you could definitely smell it.
I hate to say it but once you’ve been to Yellowstone, every other place like this pales in comparison. Namafjall was interesting but really couldn’t compare. There was an impressive amount of steam coming out of some of the fumaroles. Others were blackened craters in the ground. A scattering of mud pots bubbled noisily as well. The entire area had an alien feel to it. Stark hills devoid of plant life surrounded the hot spot. The only color came from splashes of yellow from the sulfur and red from iron that had oxidized.
The entire time we explored, we were careful to leave our head nets on. When the wind was blowing, the midges weren’t too bad. When it stopped, they were awful. You had to keep moving to get away from them. Obviously the sulfur smell was not a bug deterrent.
We wandered around carefully staying on the marked path. Hot spots like this are always fascinating. Mother Nature is truly wonderful. And Iceland was full of so many contrasts. Basalt mountains coated in green moss rising up from blue seas to rolling green pastures to areas covered with fantastically lava formations. Iceland truly is a feast for the eyes.
At the allotted time we boarded the bus to head to our next location—Dimmuborgir which translates to “dark castle” or “dark citadel.” I remembered this place well from last time. It was filled with fantastical lava sculptures. Mother Nature is a wonderful artist.
Dimmuborgir was formed 2,300 years ago by an eruption. The lava from the eruption passed over the nearby lake and caused it to boil. This cooled down the lava faster and the resulting steam caused the cooled lava to shatter. The area is filled with black lava pillars amongst a forest of vegetation. Caves and caverns had been formed by the bubbles of intense steam.
Now there is an alternative explanation as to how these lava pillars came into being which I like better. The trolls were having a big celebration, laughing, drinking and having a fabulous time. They got so drunk that they lost track of time. The first rays of the sun hit them, turning them into stone. Thus we have the trolls there, frozen forever in their drunken revelry.
Dimmuborgir was actually quite crowded this time. With the narrow paths, it made the visit a bit difficult. Neil wanted us to stay together as a group so we wouldn’t get lost. I could understand his point but it made navigating a bit tough. We couldn’t even get near the sign talking about the Yule Boys. The area was packed with tour groups.
We did manage to make our way down the path and see some of the lava sculptures. We climbed up one area to peek into the cave where the Yule Lads “live”. It was on the hokey side. There was a few of stools inside as well as a hammock. I don’t think that thirteen trolls could really live in this tiny cave.
And this brings me to the Yule Lads. Icelanders consider them their Santa Clauses. The brothers were born to two trolls, Gryla and Leppalúdi. Gryla was a vicious troll. Leppalúdi like to chill out. He’s rather lazy. The lads aren’t seen much during the summer because they are resting in their caves. However, when winter comes around, they start preparing for Christmas. It is their favorite times of the year. If you want to see them, just come to Dimmuborgir in December and walk down the path to Hallarflöt and yell loudly “Jólasveinn!”.
The lads are also pranksters, especially at Christmas. Starting thirteen days before Christmas, children in Iceland put a shoe out at night hoping for a gift. Each lad visits the children during the 13 days. If child was good they might get something nice in their shoe by the lad visiting that night. If they were bad, they would get a rotten potato.
The lads have outrageous names that come from a particular trait they have that stands out or a food they like to eat. For example we have Spoon Licker, Pot Scraper, Door Slammer, and Skyr Gobber as well as Sausage Swiper. Their name tells you all you need to know about the particular lad. There are Christmas stories relating to their mother Gryla as well but I’ll save them for another day. Typical Iceland, they aren’t cheerful stories.
We made a stop at the stone throne the Yule Lads like to sit in to talk to their visitors are Christmas. We all had a chance to get our picture taken there. We only went a short way down the path before we had to turn around. We didn’t get to spend much time at all in the Dark Citadel. I was disappointed. Eight years ago we had at least half an hour of free time and got to wander all around the place.
Lunch was at Freddie’s cafe. It was called Kaffi Borgir. It was bustling with business because it was just outside the paths in Dimmuborgir. It had a captive audience. We were lucky as Freddie had saved tables for us. We could eat all of the soup and bread that we wanted. I got the meat soup. It was good but there wasn’t a lick of meat in my bowl. I did get plenty of vegetables though. The bread was the rye bread he baked in his geothermal oven. I took a piece of that and enjoyed its almost sweet flavor.
After lunch we had one last stop in Myvatn and it was at Skutustadir. This is an area of pseudo-craters. The midges were terrible here, too. Thank goodness for head nets. It’s the most I have ever worn mine. It was worth the bother though to see the beautiful area we were in. The brilliant greens reminded me of Ireland and Hawaii. The landscape was pock-marked with craters that were now covered in moss and vegetation. Instead of being blackened holes, they were green hollows in the rolling land.
Pseudo-craters form when lava flows over water or wetlands. The water becomes trapped under the lava field and starts boiling. The pressure causes explosions and the steam escapes to the surface. The repeated explosions rip apart the lava, which piles up around the steam vent, forming a pseudo-crater. That sounds very similar to how the lava stacks in Dimmuborgir were formed.
We spent half an hour following one of the trails among the pseudo-craters. From them we got a good view of Lake Myvatn. We also got the midges as well. The lake is actually very shallow which is why the midges can breed. There is a certain type of algae ball that grows in the lake that the midges and black flies eat. It’s called Marimo. It is a nest of hairy threads that grow into a ball. It’s rare and getting more rare as the algae balls of Marimo are declining in number.
The midges aren’t the only wildlife in the area. From the trail of pseudo-craters we could see birds floating in the water and flitting around the edges of the lake. I tried to take pictures of the swans but they were always bottom up as they were feedings. Neil says there are loons here, too, as well as the Arctic tern, the horned grebe, and the tufted duck. Actually you can find more nesting ducks here than anywhere else in the world. The birds do love munching on the midges.
The midges are good for feeding the soil as well as the bird life. As annoying as they are, the grass wouldn’t be as green or as thick if the midges weren’t around to fertilize it. When they die, and at least one species has a lifecycle of a day, they fall onto the ground and help fertilize it. So they do have a purpose other than annoying people visiting the lake 🙂
Here is an interesting midge fact that Freddie shared with us. Midges’ eggs incubate at the bottom of the lake. When they hatch, the new midges form a cloud that rises up through the water to the air, almost like a miniature cyclone. Freddie watched a YouTube video of a man sailing his boat through a cloud of new midges rising from the lake. He said when the man entered the cloud, it was pitch black. That’s a lot of midges. Midges are particular about their weather. They don’t come out when it is windy or if it is too cold. They don’t like strong sunshine either. And that’s enough about the midges.
We continued walking the path around the mini craters until we climbed up a tall one. I remembered it being more black with bare lava. Today it was mostly green. Eight years makes a difference. However, there was tiny lava pieces blanketing the outside of this crater.
Slowly we wound our way back to the bus. As Jón drove us, Neil explained that he had a special treat for us. One of the farmers at the lake had an ice cream shop. They made their ice cream fresh. He was treating us all to a single scoop. Neil does like to support the local people which is a wonderful thing. The ice cream shop was called Skútaís. I ordered coffee with chocolate ice cream. Doug got the same. The shop was very small so we went outside to eat it. That was challenging with all of the midges. You had to keep walking around to keep them off of you. The head net was no help because you were eating and it had to be lifted out of the way. We managed to savor the sweet treat though as we admired the penned rabbits in the back of the building and the gorgeous scenery.
We had a friend while we were enjoying our ice cream. The farmer’s dog was front and center. One of our men broke off a piece of cone and gave it to him. The dog was so happy with it. Neil also shared with the spoilt pooch. He was Neil’s best buddy. He sat there and watched every move Neil made. He was covered with midges but with his thick hair, they didn’t bother him.
Our last stop before we headed back to Akureyri was the Godafoss Waterfalls. We are in Iceland so there is a story as to how the falls got its name. This one is absolutely true. These are the falls that Law Speaker Thorgeir Thorkkkelsson threw his icons depicting the old Norse gods into once he made the decision to make the country a Christian one back in 1000. This was near his home and he came here to “seal the deal” so to speak. Ever since he tossed in the icons, the falls have been known as the “God Falls.”
These falls were powerful and beautiful. The main falls were horseshoe shaped. They weren’t very tall, but the water coming off of them was powerful. And cold which isn’t surprising since it’s all coming from a glacial river.! It was fantastic to stand there watching the water come crashing down.
The falls had changed since the last time I was here. We had to cross a bridge and take a path along the river to get to the falls. That path and observation point was still there but now there was one on the near side of the river. We checked out the new vantage point first. You could feel the power of the falls as the water thundered over it. The force the water is traveling with it incredible. After enjoying that side, we headed for the other side. The views were pretty similar. Neither was better than the other. It did spread out the tourists.
Our day wasn’t over yet. We had to drive back to Akureyri for our Home-Hosted dinner tonight. We were split into two groups and delivered to our hosts. We went to the home of Valdìs and her husband Helgi. They have two sons and a daughter. They all five greeted us at the door. We did like Neil instructed and took off our shoes before entering the house.
Helgi teaches carpentry at the senior secondary school while Valdìs is an ER nurse. She and the oldest son had just gotten home the day before from a three week Boy Scout Jamboree in South Korea. They had to be evacuated because of a typhoon. Everybody was okay though. It just added some excitement. I felt badly that she had to feed us after getting home from such a long and hard trip.
The family was very nice. The two boys were quiet but the daughter who is twelve was a bit more outgoing. They were all three talented. After a delicious baked cod dinner, the children each played an instrument for us. The oldest played the guitar. The youngest played the piano, and the daughter played the viola. Their parents were amazed at their musical ability as they have none themselves.
We had a lovely time chatting with them. One of our fellow travelers was an art teacher and an artist in her own right. She made sketches of all three children. The kids were thrilled. What a special thing she did for them! Before we knew it, Neil was knocking at the door. It was time for us to leave. We had had such a wonderful time, we were all sorry to leave. I’m sure Valdìs was ready for us to leave so she could go to bed.
We are hitting the high seas tomorrow. We are driving to Dalvik and going whale watching. I can’t wait. I love doing things like this that involve animals. We had good luck with whales last time. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we have equally good luck this time as well.
Tales from the Trail 