Off to Iceland, Day 11, 08/13/26 Akureyri Iceland

Akureyri, Iceland
Cloudy, Occasional Fog, Occasional Rain, Hi 57
Sunrise 4:45, Sunset 9:47

Today was scheduled to be a long active day so we set the alarm for 7:00, got up, and went to breakfast.

We returned to the room to make final wardrobe choices and prepared to leave the ship at 8:15 to be comfortably on our bus by 8:45.
Best laid plans.
It seems that everyone else planned to leave the ship at 8:15. We stood in line for 20 minutes waiting to leave.
We did make it to our bus by 8:45 and we weren’t the last ones so it all worked out.

We buckled our seat belts and settled back to enjoy the 1.5 hour drive to the first stop – Skutustathagigar – a cluster of pseudo-craters, a rare geological formation that occurs when lava and water interact. They occur when lava flows over water or wetland – trapping the water under the lava and causing it to boil. The steam created by this causes a series of explosions, piling up the lava around the steam vent. The only other place they are found is in Hawaii (where they are called Littoral Cones).

Our next stop was somewhere closer to home, the Dimmuborgir Lava Field.
Driving up to the visitor’s center we felt a bit like deja vu.

These lava fields were just prelude to the big stuff.

Fans of Game of Thrones might recognize this place from season 3 – scenes from beyond the wall.
Those familiar with Icelandic traditions might recognize this place as where the Yule Lads live 11 months of the year. The Yule Lads are 13 mischievous trolls who come down every night in turn beginning December 12. They create mischief and leave small gifts in children’s shoes placed on window sills.

We enjoyed a bit of wandering and a bit of shopping before returning to the bus for the next stop on our adventure.

The next stop was Yellowstone.

Namafjall is a geothermal area with mud pots and fumaroles.
We largely ignored the former enjoyed getting up close to the latter.
We enjoyed the smell a little less.

Then it was time for lunch.
It was a short drive to a hotel on the shore of Midge Lake (known for highest density of black flies).
Yes, they sold head nets in the gift shop.

The last stop was Godafoss waterfall.

Legend has it that this is a place where the lawspeaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði threw the statues of the old Norse gods over the falls when he declared Christianity the official religion of Iceland at the end of the 10th century.

The falls are striking. Their 40 foot drop isn’t the largest but the volume of water is impressive.

After that it was a 45 minute ride back to the ship.

Overall the variety of features that we saw was impressive and it made for a great outing.

We arrived back at the ship just after 4:00 so we went straight to the theatre for the Port Talk on tomorrow’s port: Seydisfjordur.
Our excursion tomorrow is a walk around this village (there are more passengers on this ship than live in the town.) learning about the history of the place and visiting an archaeological dig investigating an early Viking settlement.

After some time spent beginning to organize photos and such we were back in the theatre for a lecture on Icelandic Birdlife. Iceland was created because this particular Atlantic Rift zone is over a hot spot in the mantle. Lava poured out continually over millions of years and finally rose above the ocean becoming one of the best areas of rich fishing (due to the cold bottom currents stirring up nutrients and offshoots from the warm Gulf Stream/ North Atlantic Current at the sunlight surface that feeds algae/ micro organisims/ small fish/ big fish) and the lava cliffs which are great for nesting. We identified the swans we noticed during the drive today as Whooper Swans. But we have yet to see Puffins.
Maybe tomorrow.

Till then,
R