Today we needed to get from Egilsstadir to our accommodation in the Myvatn region.
Of course, the weather had an opinion as to how that was going to go… and we hadn’t planned to deal with heavy rain, snow or driving wind - let alone all three at once.
RMB bought me some Hristerta - which is sponge cake, soaked in something sugary, covered in rice crispies, then covered in caramel and chocolate. The bag had soaked through with oil of some sort by morning tea, and it was utterly sugary. Just what I needed for the drive.
864 was closed due to snow, couldn’t go that way to Dettifoss, but it turns out we could go to the West access via the 862. Getting to the carpark was OK - I’d worked out how to drive in a snow storm by this point. Leaving the car and trekking the “short, but flat” 1.6km return to the viewing platform? That was a pretty hilarious (in hindsight) mistake.
I wear glasses to see - I can see without them OK - but I rapidly get a headache, so it’s not really optional anymore. When it’s this cold and wet and nasty? I’m basically blind most of the time - which was pretty shit when the track was a muddy, icy, slushy, rocky, ankle-deep slush mess. On the good bits.
We made it there, and back. I nearly got thrown down the rock face by the wind throwing me a bit and tweaking my knee.
Tried to go to Krafla, saw the geothermal power plant, couldn’t go further - the road was quite deep in snow at that point and we didn’t have chains or any inclination to mess with that kind of weather (again).
RMB opened the window to take a photo before I could react, and we both gagged on the sulphur for the next half an hour. Hot springs I can handle. Geothermal mud pits, not so bad. When they literally pump it all to one place to concentrate the nasty? Nope. Nope Nope Nope.
So we went to Hverir. South of Krafla, and the storm moved in - with amazingly powerful “can’t stand up straight, can’t walk directly into it” winds, with snow.
Smelt great.
Grjótagjá Cave, where some game of thrones hanky panky happened. Didn’t explore much - the snow storm was a bit much - but we got to climb into the cave and had a quick look around.
stopped for supplies in Reykjahlíð, they didn’t have much and we noticed a sign for pizza 2km down the road. I’m so glad I saw that sign.
Truly amazing pizza at Daddi’s Pizza had Lúdent - tomato base, lamb, garlic butter mushrooms, bernaise sauce swirls and cracked black pepper. We added blue cheese to half of it, just sending the flavour to a whole other level. Literally the best pizza base I’ve ever had, covered in semolina on the bottom, the sauce was exquisite, the toppings perfectly matched.
Skipped the rest and holed up in Skútustaðir farmer’s guesthouse, a lovely (and huge) facility on the south end of the lake. The reports on TripAdvisor aren’t wrong - google maps doesn’t have a clue where it is - look for Skútustaðir 2 and then look down the path a bit and you’ll see Skútustaðir 2b - the actual address. It’s in the west end of town.
