Thor's Outdoors!: The Lake of Midges and the Whispering Cliffs

The Lake of Midges - July 22

Monday morning! With fresh legs after sleeping two nights in a bed, I went into town to get supplies and then head out of Akureyri. I made sure to stop first and get a Þór jersey from the local football club. Þórsarar! Þórsarar! It was a slow departure because the view of town was incredible from across the fjord. Plus there was a steep climb to make it across into the next valley which was absolutely beautiful and green in the sunshine, with a swollen river running through it from all the snow melting in the mountain tops. The road then turned east, and that is when I met the wind again which I would have to battle for the next several days. The road was relatively flat but lots and lots of wind, all the way through the town of Laugar until I got to Lake Mývatn. I learned a new word too, two in fact. Mý is Icelandic for Midges. A type of small fly from which the lake takes its name. Once arriving at the lake I had to ride around it to get to the town with the campsite. Mývatn is a protected area so there isn´t any wild camping allowed. It was a wonderful hour long ride or so, with one of the highlights being a group of 25 ducklings that all scuttled away as I biked past. Mývatn is also a great place for birds, apparently it makes for a great breeding ground for many bird species :) The camp site I arrived at was very different from what I´d seen before, SO MANY tourists! There were Germans, Italians, Frenchmen, and maybe a few Icelanders. Very much a hotspot for backpackers. It was fun hearing so many languages spoken, and hearing the chatter about the previous days adventures

and plans for the next!

Leaving Akureryi - what a great place!

Goðafoss - the waterfall of the Gods, halfway to Mývatn

Sunset at Lake Mývatn - as seen from my tent

Hike into a crater and Whispering Cliffs! - July 23

I got an early start as I wanted to climb a nearby mountain before heading out, so I biked about 5km to Hverfell and jogged up. It wasn´t a very high mountain but the view was spectacular! Both out across the lake and the colourful hills to the north, but also into the crater of the extinct volcano. Absolutely amazing! Once back to the campsite I packed up, but also spoke to an American woman traveling on her bike, and Englishman who was about to cross Icelands interior by bike, and two Spaniards from Barcelona (who I got to speak in Spanish with) who seemed a bit unprepared because they were complaining about getting soaked in the rain without proper gear! They were in high spirits though, all smiles! So I didn´t leave Mývatn until 2pm, and there was plenty more to see. I had only made it about 6km when I got to Námafjall and stopped to look at the boiling mud pots and inhale big gulps of Hydrogen Sulphide! It was really cool to see geothermal activity in action! I also learned that they used to mine for sulphur there to be used for gunpowder, which almost caused a war between Denmark and Sweden in the 1560´s. Sweden had even considered attempting to conquer Iceland from the Danes! When I finally continued, I again had to head straight into the wind. It was strange, because it was an easterly wind for the first 20km, and when I turned north towards Dettifoss it was suddenly a northerly wind! I arrived at about 6pm and set up my tent at a great hidden camping spot beyond the main parking area, where only a couple of other hikers were set up. The park ranger also brought water every day so it was a great spot!

Ég up on top of Hverfell

The bubbling mud pots at Námafjall

Disregarding the snow in the mountains, this looks more like west Texas to me than Iceland!

Midnight hike and mountain biking

After a quick snack I thought I´d go on a short 24km ride up to Hljóðaklettar (the Whispering Cliffs), and make it back early enough. However, the gravel roads in eastern Iceland are not quite like those in the west. I´m very glad I had a sturdy bike, because even though I wasn´t carrying any gear, it was extremely slow going over a beat up road with lots of sand and deep gravel that would make me fish tail every so often. After what seemed like an eternity I finally made it and it was completely worth the ride. The cliffs that had been exposed by erosion from major flooding of the Jökulsá river were unbelievable! Worm like shapes frozen in the rock, and tall basalt columns rising out of the ground. Caves as well, with the roofs taking on a honeycomb pattern. By the time I had hiked around the area for probably two hours, it was already midnight, and across from the red glow of the sunset, a full moon was rising. It kept me company all the way back to Dettifoss, through another couple of hours of bone-rattling rough cycling. I still had to eat dinner once I got back, but crawled into my sleeping bag by 3am, and then fell asleep to the rumbling of the Dettifoss waterfall that I was to look at the next morning!