Category: Non classé

We’re staying another night in the hotel we reached last night; and today we didn’t go that far away from our home base, but we still did a lot of things!

We had a few spots we wanted to get to, and we had seen many other possibilities in the region. We had some worries this morning because at first it looked like the road to Dettifoss might not be easily accessible with our small car, but the information that we had first found was outdated, and the road was a beautiful paved road all along.

We left shortly after these breakfast worries to go a few kilometers away to have a look at the Skútustadagrig pseudo-craters – pseudo-craters because they haven’t been created by a magma chamber but by a steam explosion when lava came in contact with the lake. Beautiful area, cool formations, and amazing views on the Mýtavn lake.

A bit further away, Höfði was a small hike in a woody area which, considering the low amount of trees in this country, is somewhat of an oddity. The viewpoint at the end of the wood was lovely, and it was a nice and quiet moment.

Next was one of our “must do” for the day: the lava field in Dimmuborgir. It was apparently a “must do” for many people, because this may well be the place where we’ve seen the most tourists so far! And it’s not surprising: it’s a really peculiar place. It’s full of lava pillars that were formed as a lava lake drained and steam erupted, and there’s a lot of structures that really feel unique. The site is well developed with multiple paths of various lengths going through the lava field. Walking around these was definitely a great experience (we may or may not have made Astrosmurf references.)

Our next “must see” was Dettifoss, and we decided to go there immediately after that since it was already the beginning of the afternoon. We made a very short stop on the way when we saw a lake with an amazing blue/turquoise color next to a geothermic power plant.

After a few dozens of kilometers in a landscape that I’d qualify as “desolate”, we arrived at the Dentifoss site. Dentifoss is the second largest waterfall (in terms of water volume) of Europe (the first one being the Rhine falls in Switzerland). I’ve been to the Rhine falls, and the weirdest thing about Dentifoss is how long it takes before you actually see water. We saw the rainbow of the fall much before seeing any water at all, and the surrounding area looks very dry (it’s mostly basalt columns everywhere).

But Dentifoss itself is awe-inspiring. I was speechless when we reached it, and for a while after that I could only make incomprehension noises and gestures.

It’s powerful, it demands respect, it’s incredibly beautiful. The water is an opaque grey, probably from the rock around, and the swirls before the waterfall are mesmerizing.

We walked to Selfoss as well, which is on the same site; and Selfoss is probably suffering from the comparison with its big sister. It’s still a grandiose waterfall (after all, the water volume is comparable, even if it’s not split exactly in the same way), and the area just before the waterfall is beautiful.

Our initial hope was to be able to reach the canyon in Ásbyrgi, but it was too tight, timing-wise, to be sure to be back in our hotel vicinity for dinner time. Instead, we drove back to where we were coming from, and did a stop in Námafjall – we had seen the site from the road on the way, and it looked interesting. Interesting it was, but beware the smell! It’s a geothermal site with a lot of fumerolles and clay pots, and it’s super impressive to see the gray clay boil. The steam coming out of these was also impressive. A great visit, but the strong smell (more than sulfur in there, we think) can be at times overwhelming.

Finally, we still had a bit of time before we had to go back, so we went to see the Krafla crater that was basically on the other side of the road. It’s also the site of a geothermal power plant, and we were both fascinated by the industrial infrastructure around it, pipes going down the volcano and high pressure steam coming out of the vents. The crater itself was also beautiful, with some water at the bottom, and very cool to see from above.

With that, we reached the end of our day; we had dinner at a hotel next to ours – the food was tasty (I particularly liked my broccoli soup), if not super memorable. And we’re back to the hotel, I’m hurting a bit everywhere (it’s been two fairly intensive walking days!) but I’m incredibly happy with the great day we’ve had today.

The photo album for this day is here: Iceland – 2025-08-19.

We had a significant amount of road of today’s programme, because the minimum amount of driving was 270km for 3h21. We ended up doing more than that and visited many things along the way: we left the previous hotel around 9h30 and we arrived at today’s hotel at 19h15!

We started with a first stop in Kolugljúfur Canyon, which was, as expected, a canyon. Beautiful place with a waterfall ending in a river flowing inside a canyon.

We then drove to Þingeyraklausturskirkja, which promised a small church with a beautiful panoramic view, and it didn’t disappoint. The church was unfortunately closed (I would have liked to see the inside!), but the panoramic view didn’t disappoint!

Nearby (basically going back to the main road and crossing it), we did a stop at the Vatnsdalshólar view point. Google Maps had a lot of pictures of a dog, and said dog was indeed in the vicinity and very friendly 🙂 There was a small hill with a staircase that had a very nice view over the nearby water and the field of hills behind it.

By that point, we hadn’t moved very far from our departure point towards our goal, so we drove a bit more of the main road, with the goal of stopping at Reykjafoss.

Reykjafoss is a beautiful waterfall, and probably my favorite one of all the ones I saw today. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and the river that feeds it is surprisingly quiet. Of note: there’s also a hot pot on the side of said river, so we crossed paths with a least a pair of people in bathing suits and there was a few more around 🙂 It’s also very close to a stable, so there’s quite a few horses around.

After Reykjafoss, we aimed for our next stop, but did an extra one near Hörgarsveit, which was a decent parking lot on the Ring Road, where we wanted to switch drivers (I don’t drive that much, but I’m trying to drive a bit more so that Pierre can rest a bit!). That bit didn’t work that well because I had to yield the wheel earlier than I would have liked (but my drowsiness level was becoming dangerous 🙁 ), but Hörgarsveit was a nice road stop, with a river flowing down a canyon. Officially there should be hiking trails starting there, but the bit we saw looked frankly too dangerous for us.

Goðafoss was our last planned stop for the day; an impressive waterfall (although carrying a significant amount of particles), with very well organized paths on both sides of it. A very enjoyable site (and sight!).

By then, we were half an hour away from our hotel, which was a good thing as we had a restaurant reservation there 45 minutes later. We arrived in the beautiful area of the Mývatn lake in time for the evening light. We had dinner at the restaurant hotel  (good stuff and well prepared), went outside for a little bit to enjoy the evening view – vaguely spoiled by the amount of insects; this is going to be a problem tomorrow, probably. Still, the area looks amazing.

Back in our hotel room, I realized sunscreen would have been smart today (oops), and Pierre stumbled upon Ghostbusters on the TV (so I watched the end of Ghostbusters, which apparently I know by heart more than I thought), and that’s pretty much it for today!

The photo album for this day is here: Iceland – 2025-08-18.

We left our friends after breakfast and drove to Víðgelmir, a lava cave, where we enjoyed a guided tour. All caves I had visited so far were caves dug into the rock by water; this one was made by a river of lava whose exterior cooled while the lava inside continued flowing and draining.

It was fascinating to see the differences and similarities of structures – fluid, whether lava or water, will still do similar things, but also leave different patterns – and different colors and geology too. Our guide was also very entertaining, and overall we were delighted with the visit.

Not too far away, there’s also the waterfalls of Barnafoss and Hraunfossar (both on the same site). Barnafoss is a powerful waterfall that goes below a stone arch, it’s impressive and very picturesque. But my heart definitely goes to Hraunfossar and its gazillion of waterfalls coming from the rocks – as far as I understand, the aforementioned lava river flew over the water, but water still had to go somewhere, and that’s Hraunfossar.

At that point we were both a bit hungry, so we got a couple of slices of cake at the Hraunfossar café – they were much appreciated!

We went back on our tracks to get back to the ring road and continue our way towards Laugarbakki where our next hotel is. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the road, stopped a few times for pictures, and arrived there around 5PM.

We made a small break in the room, and I debugged my photography backpack: I had in my mind that it was much easier to put the camera back, and after a few tries in a quiet place with a mirror, I figured out the trick again (I need to lift the camera pocket a bit so that it slides correctly in its place).

We had some time before dinner, so we decided to get out again for a little bit – initially, the plan was “get out, go see the horses nearby, and then we’ll see”. We did end up doing a much larger loop than that, following a path that had indicators but not much of a ground track: small hike, but large adventure 😛 But I managed to not hurt myself despite the fairly challenging terrain: yay me!

To end the day, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant; the selection of “icelandic tapas” and both our mains were excellent; the desserts were good but less memorable. And now we’re just chilling in the room – we have a fairly long road planned for tomorrow!

The photo album for this day is here: Iceland – 2025-08-17.

For our 3rd day, we spent the day in the vicinity of our friend’s cabin, and did a few short hikes around.

In the morning, we went for a hike around the Hreðavatn lake, uphill to get a view of the lake and the surroundings, and then up to a cascade between basalt columns, very pretty.

Not far from there, there’s the Glanni waterfall, which we had seen 9 years ago, and which is still very pretty and impressive too!

By then it was lunch time, we made some pizzas (and saw our first Ooni oven in the wild 😀 ), played a game of SCOUT, and then everyone was feeling kind of in the mood for a nap, so we took some quiet time (I read a bit, I caught up on Mastodon, that sort of things.)

After the nap, we went for another stroll to the nearest lake, picking some flat stones on the way to skip stones there (which did happen, but not for me, because I don’t know how to skip stones 😛 )

We walked back to the cabin, had dinner, played a few more games (Innovation, Decrypto and Skull King – Decrypto was really good!), and then we put a map on the table, explained our itinerary and where we were stopping, and got all the places we could and should see along the road.

Another good day – and the weather was far more pleasant than yesterday, there was some sun and a much clearer view on everything!

The photo album for this day is here: Iceland – 2025-08-16.

We didn’t have a very precise plan for the beginning of the day today; we had plans for the middle/late afternoon, though, but we kind of made plans as we went before then.

Pierre went for a run before breakfast; he came back and pondered whether he wanted to have something more than his shorts in the current weather. We decided we’d go have a look and that it would be one of our morning missions.

But first, breakfast – fairly unremarkable (quite good though, and surprisingly good bread), apart from the tiny shelf of board games that Pierre noticed:

A Fortnite Monopoly and an Axis&Allies box: some choices have been made, but it’s unclear how 😛

After breakfast, we went to Ice Wear to try to find running leggings for Pierre, and we found something! Interestingly, this is the same shop chain where he had bought a beanie hat 9 years ago (and he’s still traveling with this hat 🙂 )

Then it was time to go and explore. We knew there was a lighthouse not very far, so we went to see the lighthouse; however, we didn’t know that the lighthouse wasn’t accessible at high tide, and… low tide was 5 hours before we arrived.

We still got our first selfie, and it’s a lighthouse selfie, as it should be, even if the lighthouse is a bit far away.

We could have gone for a walk from there, but we decided to start from a bit further away as I’m not entirely confident in my right knee these days (so let’s not fuck it up from the start…); we drove a bit further away to go for a small loop around the nearby golf. It was pretty nice, some sea all around, flat terrain, good stuff. And a hilarious sign at the beginning of the loop, saying essentially “you can relax here, you should hurry here because golf balls fly in this and that direction” 🙂

After that walk, we decided to go to the open air museum on the other side of Reykjavik: it’s a museum where they moved old houses and made a few exhibitions around, mostly, “life in Iceland from the 19th century to now” – there was a lot of neat stuff, and the work on the museum  and the exhibitions was very well done.We also saw one of the (as far as we understand) two locomotives that ever were in Iceland (there are no trains here), which was an unexpected bonus!

We had plans to go see the nearby park/canyon/river, but eventually decided against it as we were quite tired already and the rain started pouring quite heavily.

But, this is where our mid-afternoon plans were starting too! We’re spending a couple of days at our friends’ summer house an hour away from Reykjavik 🙂 We made plans to meet around the local board game shop, Nexus (very nice shop, by the way – good and diverse selection), we went for a bit of grocery shopping (and we got some travel snacks for ourselves), and we arrived in the early evening at said summer house.

We chatted a bit, had dinner, played a couple of board games (Harmonies and Forest Shuffle, both good in different ways!), and it’s now time for bed, for more adventures in the area tomorrow!

The photo album for this day is here: Iceland – 2025-08-15.

Last year I wrote my Denmark travel log as I was traveling, and it was a pretty good experience – apart from the fact that writing on a phone is miserable. I’m still writing on a phone, but I added a BlueTooth keyboard to the mix – this should help!

Do not necessarily expect pictures in these posts, as I’m mostly using my DSLR and I’ll process stuff when I come home; but maybe the occasional selfie will still happen here 🙂

Anyway, the first day was mostly a travel day – we left home at 11, spent significant time in the airport because our flight was at 2PM and security was a breeze (the security person made appreciative noises at my camera 😁). We had lunch, we boarded the plane, and we landed in Keflavik after what felt like a long (4 hours) but completely uneventful flight.

Last time we were in Iceland was 9 years ago and we remember the feeling that the airport was under strain, especially in the car renting area; this time around it felt far more streamlined. We had the bad surprise to see that our car had been reserved for 2 days rather than 12; we decided to pay for the difference and handle it with our travel agency (which handled it swiftly) – good thing we could actually do this, it wasn’t a trivial amount of money!

After this small kerfuffle, we took the car from Keflavik to Reykjavik, where we had our first hotel. And, it turns out we have friends in Reykjavik, so we met with them for a small stroll in the city center, followed by an excellent dinner at Monkeys – great food and great company, what more can you ask for!

We ended the day with another stroll around the water, with the hope of digesting a bit (food was great, I had a bit too much of it ˆˆ;). It didn’t completely work – I had a fairly hard time falling asleep after that, and the couple of leg cramps that I attributed to plane and dehydration didn’t help either. But, overall, for a travel day, it worked well, and we did take advantage of our first few hours in Iceland!