Monday was a bit clearer. I’d more or less worked out the art of The Morning in a Tent and so I was out much earlier, to drive around Lögurinn, a lake that’s actually a bulge in the river. Its southern bank is lined with trees, which Icelanders are very excited about, as Iceland is very short on trees. It’s nice but there’s nowhere to stop to get a proper view of the lake.
Towards the end is a bridge and on the other side, there is a canyon cut out of the mountainside. I immediately decided I wanted a closer look and soon found there was a car park and trail for just such a purpose. Hengifoss, the waterfall that carved out the canyon is Iceland’s second or third highest, depending on where you’re reading it. It takes about an hour to walk up – it’s a lot further than it looks from the ground and it takes longer if you stop for lots of photos or to enjoy the posing sheep, who are clearly very accustomed to having cameras pointed at them. Hengifoss has carved out a little horseshoe, which has several thin but bright and very visible red layers between the basalt. It’s very pretty – I don’t know why it isn’t better known.
I came back through Egilsstadir and took the “good mountain road” to Seydisfjördur, where the Denmark-Norway-Scotland-Faroes ferry comes in once a week. It’s an unexpected road – very steep, very twisty, very high, with a winter wonderland at the top – a half-frozen blue and white river. Just a few miles further on, you descend the other side and almost immediately it’s summer. Seydisfjördur sits at the mouth of the fjord, with steep mountains, several snow-capped all around it. It fails on information, though. No maps. No idea where anything is. But pretty. It also fails on people ambling across the road randomly – not defiant of cars, just totally oblivious to them and deserving of being run over. The pool is inside so I decided not to bother and instead to enjoy the mountain road back to Egilsstadir – much more enjoyable when you’re expecting it.
I lounged in my tent for a bit when I got back, slept a little bit and then went to the pool – which is hiding a nice warm play area separated from the main pool by a piece of glass – I thought the pools were connected but they’re not and it’s nice and warm.
Tomorrow night I may move into the Edda hotel. The night after I definitely will – I want a proper roof over my head for at least one night before I move to Mývatn on Thursday.