Iceland 6

Had a long day of driving ahead of us today - about 500 km across the country. And as I had done every other night before ipad figured out whee we would stop the next day, and today we had four stops along the way. Driving to the first one the landscape had changed all over again. A huge dark sand desert with mountains that looked like they were made entirely out of sand dotted all over the place. The first stop was detifoss waterfall which was about a kilometre walk from the road. This was another huge powerful one, the thunderous sound of it you could hear miles before you could see it. I love how everything here you can get right up close to - no handrails and holdbacks. They must know that any one who visits iceland must not be an idiot. If all these amazing sights were in Australia there would be rails twenty metres back with a sign saying 'don't touch it, don't get close to it, don't even look at it.'

Anyway. Next stop was lake myvatn which had lots of cool things around it. The whole area is geothermal so there were power stations everywhere and steam coming off the ground all over the place. We looked at a thermal pool (didn't go in - saving it for the blue lagoon) with one area roped off because the water was literally at boiling point. Another cool spot was namafjall, which was so unusual and beautiful but it bloody stunk. Like a mixture of rotten eggs and Edwards farts. Mountains of yellow and orange sand and crevasses of grey mud bubbling away. Tiny holes in the ground with steam and sulphur coming up for them. There were these vents and the steam was coming out of them so forcefully.

We then drove up to this huge crater called viti with a pool at the bottom of it which was so so blue. I don't know how big it was but it would have taken quite a while to walk around it. No barriers again - and if you slipped  down there there was no getting out! Drove to another waterfall - godafoss, which was lovely too. Getting a bit blasé about waterfalls now to be honest! Left there just at the right time - when four huge tour buses turned up! Had lunch in the second biggest town - akuyeri which is the second biggest in iceland, and like Reykjavik, is nothing special. Iceland is about the landscape not the cities. Parked in this parking area next to subway and had a quick lunch, no more than twenty minuets. By the time we got out we had a parking fine! How bloody quick was he! Luckily it was only for the equivalent of about twenty bucks but still so annoying! As well considering as you couldn't even buy tickets for the parking lot - everyone had these little clocks in their car which said what time they got there. So basically just an honesty thing anyway, and the sign said you can buy these little clocks from petrol stations - so you couldn't even get one there! Ridiculous. Got out of there straight after lunch as that had turned us of the town! 

Got into our accommodation at a reasonable hour, watched game of thrones then cooked pasta for dinner. So cloudy tonight there is little chance of seeing the lights.