More waterfalls anyone?

May 9 – budget day in Australia, but we have no idea over here. We have an overcast day today but will still make the most of it. Our target today is Myvatn Lake with a thundering waterfall to see along the way. As we walked through the trees and bushes to the car we noted that even though it is really cold, spring growth is starting on all the bare branches, and it seems to be growing more each day. In a couple of weeks there will be green and colour everywhere. It’s sad that we will miss this, but it still beats the massive crowds we would have to endure in June or July. We will now be heading northwest, having finished with the south and east. Initially we passed through very hilly country with ranges on either side of us. Most of these still had snow on the top and sides, so there were many, many waterfalls resulting from snow melt. In fact there is so much water in this country – it must be an embarrassment. There are waterfalls from trickle to medium size everywhere there is a slope. The further we went the higher we went and the landscape turned to undulating desert with no vegetation other than short, dry grass. There were mountains in the distance but the rest was desolate countryside, often with outcrops of twisted volcanic lava and areas littered with small stones. It was bitterly cold outside the car. Early afternoon and we arrived at the car park for our target waterfall, Dettifoss. We rugged up and trekked across volcanic debris until the spray from the waterfall came into view. The falls were awe inspiring – only 44 metres high, but 100 metres across, with a flow of around 190 cubic metres per second. This is a vast quantity of water. A fascinating aspect of looking down along the banks of the river is that the black sand banks were decorated with swirls of snow, a really attractive appearance. This should be clear from the photos. There is a two kilometre walk along the canyon edge to a sister waterfall, Selfoss, not as large as Dettifoss but more interesting to look at. These falls are in a semi-circle, with a number of smaller falls running off to each side, as the river had spread out at this point. We trudged back to the car along a rocky pathway and set off for our lodgings at a tiny settlement south of the major town (very small town). Myvatn is a crater lake, and the area is popular with tourists as it has numerous different kinds of lava sites, thermally active areas and so on. It is quite unstable as it sits right on the mid-Atlantic ridge, which is the source of all the earthquake and volcanic activity in the country. We settled into our hotel and did a quick walk around a nearby area of “pseudo craters”. These are small craters formed when lava flows over water, the water boils and produces steam, and the build-up of this steam blasts through the lava flow to form these small craters, about ten metres high.  They are fascinating to walk around. We settled in for the night, looking forward to tomorrow when we plan to explore the area as much as we can. We should get lots of good photos unless the weather is really poor. Dauntingly, gale force winds are forecast for tomorrow. At least the place we are in has a 7am breakfast, so we will be able to get an early start.