Iceland Day 6: Akureyri to Egilsstaðir

Goodbye Akureyri, little town of the north that I will spend more time in one day.

Hello Húsavík, cutest whaling village in the country and last view of the Arctic Ocean we would have. I bemoaned the fact that a boat trip would make me so seasick that I would not enjoy the rest of the day and settled for walking along the wharf instead.

This was the hottest afternoon (and by that I mean 59º which resulted in wearing a short sleeved shirt for a brief 30 minutes). 

An example of fancy housing in the neighborhood above the town center. Alas our brief stay in Húsavik did not feature a trip to this (just seeing if you are paying attention). Our time was limited as we were on a mission and it included the most powerful foss in all of Europe - Dettifoss!

The drive defined isolation as we charged through the basaltic terrain - dust trails followed the SUV for kilometers through a sparse landscape with little to no vegetation. Upon our arrival, there were no guard rails so I tested my limits on proximity to the edge.

 

This was the closest I dared despite my fear of heights. I still do not know if I was brave or foolish as all I primarily thought about was falling. I have never experienced a waterfall like this. It was so powerful that it vibrated the rocky surroundings. The sheer volume of the water was startling as the landscape driving to the source was nearly flat.

Donna is in the distance trying to decipher my unimaginative hand signals.

Here is where I touched the ice cold water thinking of standing over the top of Niagara Falls five years ago knowing that absolutely no one would survive the fall into this watery abyss. I was thankful we drove to this side as the view across the foss did not look as impressive. [Here is a decent link to see photographs from both perspectives.]

The pathway to the parking lot. Needless to say feeding wildlife is not a problem here.

We pulled off alongside the road after leaving the foss (this is a major thoroughfare) to document how crowded it was at the beginning of high tourist season.

I whipped out the binoculars to document my favorite tuya on the horizon:  Herðubreið.

There were few photographs taken of Egilsstaðir as we arrived late and were locked out of our hotel room due to the battery running out in the automatic key system. Here is a photograph of the dessert consumed for dinner instead. Passionfruit. Yum.