Day 19
Friday 19th July 44 Km
Up at 8:30, not the best nights sleep. A snorer, and some
voluble Germans.
I pack all my gear onto the bike, put my painkillers in the
bar-bag and head off.
First stop is Hverarond, a large geothermal area with
multicoloured earth, hissing steam vents and bubbling mud pools. The air is hot
and damp with a pervading smell of sulphur.
Then it’s off the main road to another geothermal area at
Krafla. The road is a pig; it’s just been resurfaced with coarse gravel
chippings, very difficult to ride on, especially when the last bit is a 12%
slope.
Krafla is worth it though and I spend almost 2 hours
wandering around the twisted lave flows, steam vents and mineral deposits. There
are a lot of signs telling you that you are here at your own risk and to keep to
the marked areas. A walk on some of the ground around here could leave you with
more than scorched feet!
I climb the natural crater Viti and look at the view from
the top. There is another crater called Sjafskapar Viti which means “Homemade
Hell”, when they were drilling boreholes for the nearby geothermal power
station they hit a steam vent. The resulting explosion blew bits of the drilling
rig up to 3Km away.
Back down the 12% gravel slope again, horribly loose and
scary and then it’s back onto firm tarmac all the way to the turnoff for
Dettifoss.
The Dettifoss track is quite rough although not as bad as
I’d been warned. Washboard and loose gravel but no sand.
A creaking noise on the bike turns out to be my right
pedal, I’ve got spare grease but have no way of dismantling it to get at the
bearings
Just before Dettifoss another cyclist catches up with me,
he’s German and has been to Landmanalaugar and Modrudalar.
Dettiffoss is brutally impressive; at 400 cubic metres of
water per second it’s the most powerful waterfall in Europe. You can hear it
well before you see it, and then you see it. Foaming grey water plunging over
the falls and being cast back up as spray, soaking everything
My leg has been OK on the bike but I’m limping as I walk
around taking photos, stepping across the safety rope and gazing into the abyss.
Further up the canyon is Selfoss, a smaller and prettier
waterfall. I sit and look at this for a while and then go back to the bike.
There is a small campsite near the car park, beaten earth
and 2 big plastic jerri-cans as a water supply. Toilets are in the car park
itself, clean and with paper, not bad for free!
As I’m cooking my evening meal my hands are trembling, it’s not that cold so it must be a result of riding on the washboard earlier.