{"id":721,"date":"2021-06-24T04:53:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T09:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/?p=721"},"modified":"2023-12-26T21:52:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T02:52:00","slug":"wed-june-23-2021-day-8-exploring-myvatn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/?p=721","title":{"rendered":"Day 8: Exploring Myvatn"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

We got a good night’s rest and slept in a bit as the rain was still with us. The wind had kicked up a bit as well. Hoping the weather would clear we lingered over breakfast. This day, weather-wise, was starting to feel a bit more like those we have experienced the past.\u00a0 Since the rain never really stopped and the wind just got stronger we went ahead and started exploring the area. We made it to 3 of our 4 planned stops for today and added a few more unplanned ones.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Mountain<\/a>\r\n
A part of Mountain Namafjall with steaming plain below it.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

First stop was Hverir-Namafjall a volcanic mountain\u00c2\u00a0 with a golden red hue, that made it appear that the sunlight was on it, even on this overcast day.\u00c2\u00a0 At its foot was a thermo geo active area with mud pots steam vents & fumaroles. In fact, all of the volcanic-related sites around Myvatn are active. Bubbling, brewing, like a stew pot sending out it\u00e2\u20ac™s vapor into the air.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac™s quick access off the Ring Road so anyone traveling it can do a quick detour.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Steaming<\/a>\r\n
More of the same boiling and steaming.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"\"\r\n
Mud Pot<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There is an easy walk around the boiling mud pots, every now and again we would come to a place where the vent would be spewing out great torrents of steam, and while it smelled of the most sulphuric \/ rotten eggs you could ever imagine, the warmth of it was very welcome against the cold wind and rain.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Bubbling\r\n
I just loved the color of these dark blue gray bubbling mud pots.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The area was interesting and strangely colorful, appearently the sulfur crystals dry and take on their color.\u00c2\u00a0 I could imagine on a bright sunny day some of those colors could be quite brilliant.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no vegetation around inside the area of the geo thermal activity. Apparently, the process makes the area too acidic.\u00c2\u00a0 However, just outside the area, as close as it possibly could get, was some green growing on the lava mounds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Sulfur\r\n
More sulphur build up from the steaming vents.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"Steaming<\/a>\r\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac™s a photos of the Thermal Vent, spewing out steam. Sometimes the whole area would be covered in it. In the background on the first knoll you can just make out some greenery testing the limits of the sulphuric field.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"Steaming\r\n
The Sulphur Crystals<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Our second stop was the Krafla Lava Fields.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a big area, consisting of a couple of volcanos and a smoldering landscape. The Astronauts on Apollo 11 came to train on it for their mission.\u00c2\u00a0 It is so geothermal active up on the mountain that they power their cities with electric from it.We decided to do only the crater lake here today and not the longer hike to and around the lava fields.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Steam\r\n
This is the power plant tucked up inside the mountain, pulling in steam to provide power to the cities.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The mountains were covered with clouds.\u00c2\u00a0 After our chilly walk around the mud pots and the look of the clouds around us, we decided to put on another layer and some rain pants. As luck would have it, as we walked up to the crater the clouds lifted their veil to reveal a beautiful\u00c2\u00a0 blue lake.\u00c2\u00a0 It was so clear that even from high above on the rim you could see the rocks and pebbles along the shallow edges on its shore line below. There was still snow up there, although what remained was melting.\u00c2\u00a0 Along its cracks and edges was that beautiful ice blue shadows.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Lake<\/a>\r\n
The blue lake inside the old volcano. Still has some dirty snow left to melt, but you can see the icy blue shadows near the parts that have come away.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We decided to walk along the rim path a bit while the cloud had lifted a bit. But it wasn’t long before it returned with icy wind and rain. Luckily we had prepared for it. What we were not so well prepared for was the thick clay like mud that clung to our boots. We were comical coming down laden down with mud weights on our feet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Cloud<\/a>\r\n
The clouds returns and hides the lake from our view.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Boots<\/a>\r\n
Paul’s boots covered in mud.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Our last tour stop on today’s tour was the Grjotagia Cave. It is part of the same Krafla volcanic system which has erupted 9 times between 1975-1984. You use to be able to have a soak in the cave’s water, but since the last eruptions the waters have become too hot and unsafe to bath in.The openings are small and littered with big boulders you must climb over and around to get to the water.\u00a0 My knees told me I best not go down into the rocks, but Paul clambered on down the rocks and grabbed some photos for the blog.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Grjotagja<\/a>\r\n
This is the cave lake that Paul took from inside. You can’t really tell from the photo, but it is really steaming. Maybe if you look closely you can see the back portion of the water is more hazy. This is caused by the steam.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Towards the end of the day, we decided to take care of some mundane tasks. So we took a drive back up to Husavik\u00c2\u00a0 to try to find some SIM cards or there would be no more blogging and to grab some food and maybe do laundry.\u00c2\u00a0 A journey of about 30 miles on the Ring Road, not much different than some folks travel to the mall, but a shopping trip means traveling a mountain road where you see only a few others cars.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We accomplished all tasks but laundry, which for some reason it is rather elusive.\u00c2 Googling “laundromats near me” returns a choice of two in the entire country. This will have to wait until we reach another, much larger city.
The skies finally cleared towards the end of day, the wind is still blowing steady, but if you are bundled up it’s not so bad.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We got a good night’s rest and slept in a bit as the rain was still with us. The wind had kicked up a bit as well. Hoping the weather would clear we lingered over breakfast. This day, weather-wise, was starting to feel a bit more like those we have experienced the past.\u00a0 Since the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[193,7,115],"tags":[143,133,117],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-193","category-iceland","category-iceland-2021","tag-lava-fields","tag-myvatn","tag-ring-road","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2047,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/2047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}