Through the Desert

7-24-10    Leaving Husavik, we drove through a desert to get to Myvatn Lake. Amazing. It is all they said it would be. A thousand years ago volcanic activity closed off a small stream and it backed up to make several little ponds and one big lake, about 36 km around it on a paved road. That "paved road" bit will become a theme in Icelandic discussions. The quality of roads really depends on where you are in Iceland. Dettifoss, the largest waterfall in Europe, is at the end of a 38 km road full of boulders. They think they have plans in the future to pave it.

   Berry just read somewhere that the magma chambers in the ground near Myvatn have filled in again and it's only a matter of time till the "Big One" hits in this region. At that time, "paved roads" will be truly superfluous.

   Myvatn Lake is shallow and full of fly-like midges. You can see them on the water. Ducks love them. Berry and I wore our handy bug net face guards and used a repellant with Deet. Nobody got in. The list of birds we saw is long :

• Barrow's Goldeneye
• Slavonian Grebe
• Tufted Duck
• Whooper Swan
• Common Scoter
• Blue-Winged Teal
• Eurasian Wigeon
• Redwing
• Greater Scaup
• Common Teal
• Harlequin Duck
• Mallard
• Whimbrel
• Ringed Plover
• Meadow Pipit
• Redshank

   Midges are not birds. So they will not go on the list. Really, there were thousands of ducks stretched across the water. We were next to two people from Switzerland observing ducks and a family of Horned Grebes, momma and pappa and a little baby, parked themselves right twenty feet in front of us. The mother put a piece of fish in the baby's beak. Then the little baby fell asleep, putting its head on its shoulder and floating peacefully next to mamma. Cute.

Berry at Myvatn Lake

   We could have spent several days at Myvatn. We were exhausted when we left. Then the desert really began. Volcanic cones and empty desert. The earth in this region is as close to infernal as you can get. Berry walked to within ten feet of a geothermal vent. There was boiling hot (80-100*C) steam shooting up out of the earth. Here is a photo she took.

photo by bshelton

   The water in the pipes at the hotel comes from these same geothermal vents and, even at just 38 degrees C, it is scalding hot.

   Below are various photos of the terrain we drove through.










   Note from the road : They do not sell ice in Iceland. We have been throughout western and northern Iceland and again here in Egilstadir, no one will sell you ice for your cooler. No bags of ice are available. I think that's ironic. No ice in Iceland. There are no laundromats either. This little country is not really used to its people actually moving around the island, on the roads, with ice, needing to wash.

-Robert

(photos by rfowler, bshelton)