Here in the general region of Mývatn, there were three fine and impressive waterfalls to see, all on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum (“Glacier River in the Mount­ains”), and a geological structure of a kind I had never heard of. At the end of the day, we had the banquet celebrating the near-completion of a successful and exciting tour.

Big image, small.	Big image, small.
Big image, small.	Big image, small.

The northern part of the great glacier Vat­na­jö­kull drains into Jökulsá á Fjöllum. This river has a powerful flow, but I can’t imagine that it would ever be harnessed for making electricity: it’s loaded with sediment and glacial flour. But Dettifoss, the first falls we visited, is considered to be the strongest waterfall in Europe.

In the first picture in the block to the left, we’re all walking towards Dettifoss, and you can see the spray coming up from the cataract. In the second, the camera is looking downstream, in the direction we had just come from; that’s Jökulsárgljúfur (Jökulsá Ravine) carrying the river.

Third image shows the falls themselves from a little distance. They’re ten meters high (so 33 feet), and very powerful indeed. In the fourth image, you see X, Jerye, Paul, and Erling standing very close to the brink. I didn’t choose to go that close myself.

Over on the right, you see Erling standing at a point that looks frighteningly close to disaster (big image, small), but maybe that’s just a trick of perspective?

To the right of that is another picture that gives an idea of the strength of the falls (big image, small).

I also made a little stop-frame movie of Dettifoss, which you can see on a special page. Not as good as Mark’s video clip, certainly.

The skies were dark at this time, and as we walked upstream towards Selfoss, I didn’t take many pictures. But when we got to the falls, I switched to the fish-eye lens and took a few wide shots.

Ronnie, Kristín, Kay, and Barbara looking over the discharge from Selfoss (full-size image).

We walk upstream, approaching the falls—that’s Mark at the extremeleft (full-size image).

Gray sky, gray water, gray rocks (full-size image).

The falls stretch wide, from left to right (full-size image).

A lot of water, pouring over those rocks (full-size image).

Hafragilsfoss is the third falls we saw today. To get to it, we went back to the bus, and then drove a couple of miles to the north. Got out, and had a wonderful simple lunch overlooking the falls. The only pictures of the falls that I have are a sequence that I used for making a stop-frame “movie”, still not as good as Mark’s video, but you can see it by clicking on the picture to the right.

We walk into Ásbyrgi (big image, small). Observing platform (big image, small). Looking out towards the mouth (big image, small).

Ásbyrgi’s wall (big image, small). Admiring the scenery while standing beneath the wall (big image, small).

Another drive north­wards, and we got to the amazing geological structure Ás­byrgi. Everybody refers to it as a canyon, but that word doesn’t convey the right feeling to me. It’s a deep depression in the terrain, with steep cliffs for walls, but extremely broad. Erling explained to us that it was probably caused by a catastrophic flow of water from Jökulsá á Fjöllum, the same river whose falls we had seen earlier, some time about eight thousand years ago, and again three thousand years ago. The legend is that it was created by Óðin’s horse Sleipnir putting a hoof down in the Earth, but I’m not sure that that is more poetic than the idea of a huge flood gouging out the pit that we were in. No matter how you look at it, though it was most impressive.

Ásbyrgi is evidently a big tourist attraction for the Icelanders themselves: there were quite a few people there, clearly not international travelers. The floor of the depression is rather heavily forested (for Iceland), and in contradiction to the jape that when you’re lost in the woods in Iceland, all you need to do is stand up, I think it’s fair to say that the trees were rather taller than any others we saw on the trip. A child could certainly get lost here.

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Big image, small.

Big image, small. Big image, small. Big image, small.

That was almost the end of sightseeing for the day. We drove north from Ásbyrgi to the shore of Öx­ar­fjörð­ur (Axe Bay), and then along the coast to a nice lookout point, where I took the shots to the right.

We stayed there a while wandering about the grassy area well above the shore itself, and then drove to Húsavik, a little fishing town that’s also a tourist attraction. We stopped in to a shop selling 66° North goods: Mark bought some neat hair ties for the daughters, and I got myself a baseball cap that plainly, but not brashly, proclaims “66° North”. I’ve been wearing it proudly ever since.

There was a busy little coffee and pastry shop there, too, where we stopped for a pleasant break. And the “skyramisu” was much better than I expected it to be.

Tonight was to be our gala banquet, so we drove back to our hotel on the shores of Mývatn and got ready for a party. Mark and I got to the restaurant early, and used the time for working on our journals in the lounge across the lobby from the restaurant proper. You can see in the upper left picture (big image, small) that it’s a pleasant, spacious place, bright at this time of year in the subarctic summer light. In the upper-right picture, you see that Mark has already started the festivities with a glass of wine (big image, small). Lower left, a number of us have congregated up there. You see Mark, Shirley, Kevin, Ronnie, Diane, Gisele, and John (big image, small). In the lower right, we’re at table, actually two tables for all the dinner guests, and at this one I was sitting with Hulda, Paul, Erling, Gisele, Diane, and John (big image, small).

			Left: big, small Center: big, small Right: big, small
			Left: big, small Center: big, small Right: big, small
			Left: big, small Center: big, small Right: big, small

When we had finished eating, Kristín and Erling dis­trib­uted gifts—party favors in a way. They all were appropriate to the recipient in one way or another, and every one of them induced laughter all round.

The next day would be the last of the tour. We went to bed well fed and well entertained, but with a bit of sadness that this wonderful trip would soon end.

One more picture taken at the observation point on Öxarfjörður, looking mostly north-east to the other shore. (Full-sized view)