Iceland road trip day 8 - on to the East

[sam_b]

We packed up the apartment, made flasks of hot water and pb&j sandwiches and set off towards the East of the island.
We used the toll tunnel this morning as it was -6 when we woke up. We had one last look at Akureyri which was sparkling in the sunshine.

Our first stop was Dettifoss which was a couple of hours drive away.
It was a gorgeous day - bright sunshine and blue skies.
Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Europe and is in the middle of nowhere!
It was still freezing when we pulled into the carpark. The walk to The waterfall was a bit slippy due to a combo of ice and rocks.

It was difficult to get a picture as it was all spray and water. There was a beautiful rainbow however!

The spray was freezing and did not make us want to go to the lower viewing platform!
Having seen what we could, we went back to the car and had our lunch.
Back on the road we travelled through beautiful scenery.

We marvelled at how empty the roads are - you can go for miles without seeing another car. There was also no farming here - no sheep or horses.
Eventually we arrived at our next stay location Egilsstadir. We passed through, keen to take advantage of the weather and to see Hengifoss.
30mins later we arrived at the car park.
This was a short brutal walk - straight up out of the carpark via steps, then a steep path, then more steep path...quickly rising 300m. It was still bright and sunny and suddenly we couldn’t feel the cold!

In parts the path was still icy and slippy with a precipitous drop on one side.

Once Si had taken all the photos he could, we made our way back down, pausing briefly to phone the owners of our next cabin.
With the lock box code in hand we set off to Skadas country cabins. There are 3 self contained cabins in the middle of nowhere. It was lovely and warm, in the cabin and we dropped our bags and headed into town before Bonus closed at 6.
We bought supplies, fuelled up and then came back and cooked pasta bolognese. The internet was good enough to watch the NFL matches - so Si was happy!
The owners popped over - an Aussie woman and her Icelandic husband.
We trotted off to our (single!) beds at around 10.30.