TMFL: Take a hike

After a few days exploring the city, we lit out for our first taste of the Icelandic countryside. We chartered an adventure tour to take us to the spot near where the first parliament in the world met (Þingvellir) so we could swim in the mid Atlantic ridge, which runs through the whole country and will eventually split it into two islands. The water we swam in was spring fed, filtered through rock for hundreds of years.

Besides being incredibly cold ('bout thirty three degrees), the water was intensely clear and clean. We drank from it as we swam and ice cream headached along.

Near where we started, our guide pointed out a natural dive platform. Ted jumped at the chance...

After our ice bath in the ridge, we descended into a lava tube to commune with elves and deprive our senses. Melissa dances her way to the tube, below.

We looked back at the light one more time...

and then reveled in the chocolatey interior

Towards the top of the West Fjords, we stayed in a little town called Flateyri.

If you didn't click the link above, this town has been devastated by avalanches a few different times. Rather than move to a less precarious location, the people of Flateyri chose to build a giant earthen dam around the city to divert any future avalanching. These tunnel pictures are from when we went through the bottom part of said dam to hike up the side of it for better perspectives.

Hiking up, amidst the lupin.

Almost there

The town of Flateyri, in its entirety.

Lake Myvatn and its surroundings provided ample hiking/intensely beautiful/weird geothermal formations. The day we arrived, we hiked up a dormant volcano.

The caldera...

And then we followed a sign down to Dummuborgir (no, not that Dimmuborgir).

Further and further into the "dark castles" with the volcano fading into the distance.

We were stunned into silence by the view, occasionally letting out gasps in response to the truly alien landscapes we hiked through.

Lava Arch!

And then we hiked up another volcano.

The midge flies, for which Myvatn takes it's name, were intense on this hike. Unrelenting clouds of those turds would swarm our faces as we made our way up the volcano. Melissa had to shield herself.

From the top, we could see the lake and the pseudo craters that therein lie.

We sat at the top and tried to enjoy the view. Eventually, we sought shelter under Melissa's sweater because the midges were unrelenting in their face attack. As we sat under the protective cotton shield, we noticed a couple right by us who were calmly letting the flies crawl all over them, without any sort of protective anything on their faces. Before hiking back, we decided to talk with them and found out that they were visiting from Wisconsin because the man was a professor who had scored an eight year grant to study the pesky midge fly. He was absolutely bursting with information about those flies and made us appreciate them a lot more. His wife was studying traditional Icelandic textile design and overwhelmed us with information regarding the Icelandic sheep and how singular it is in the world. More cheers for engaging strangers!

The rest of our time in Myvatn offered much more geologic splendor

And some lakeside relaxation...

A strange, tall, American guy entered the communal cooking space at our campsite one evening, and asked if anyone wanted a free ride to the very trail Ted and I were planning to hike the following day. I jumped at the chance, while the other campers raised their eyebrows and Ted freaked out over my illogical trust in humanity that may have perhaps, gone too far. During the entire drive to the trailhead, Ted continued to be wary of this strange American drifter with "duke" embroidered on the back of his cowboy hat. "Bad/weird vibes" Ted kept saying about this guy. He was indeed weird, but in the best way possible (cheers again for engaging strangers). His life story was insane, and got way more insane the more we pushed him to tell us about it. He taught "theology and technology" all around western Africa for most of the year, spent some time in America to visit various wives and children, and passed the rest of his time in Iceland, doing solo missions across glaciers and other such insanity. He also ate cold spaghetti and hot dogs for breakfast while managing to shift gears in his rental car. The half hour car ride to our hike spot was utterly baffling/amazing. We spotted the steam pile below along the way.

The area is incredibly geothermically active, and the power plant below provided alot of the runoff for the Myvatn nature baths that we soaked in later.

And then we began the twelve mile hike back to our campsite through torrential downpours and steamy lava fields. Duke passed us up rather quickly, with a huge smile on his face.

This hike still stands out in our minds as a stunning example for how alien the landscape was, accentuated by our epic hitch hiked ride up to the starting point, the subsequent rainstorm, and the miles upon miles of lava fields we traversed.