Saturday, July 31
Another day with brilliant sun; although it only reached 54 degrees, many Icelanders were out sunning themselves on patios and balconies.
We started the day with a drive around the lake. The western end is green and rolling, home to an enormous variety of birds. The south end is dominated by “false craters,” 10-15 foot knolls that were formed when the lake was much bigger and deeper. Steam pushed up from superheated groundwater, forming these large pimples. The eastern end is where most of the action is. The lake itself and a number of small lagoons are punctuated by lava columns; basaltic magma had risen through what was then water and cooled in thin stacks.
A local couple has lovingly deforested a promontory extending into the lake; we would have loved to walk its trail, but without our midge nets it would have been torture.
Our next stop was a wonderland of lava called Dimmuborgir. We had intended to take a short stroll, but the area was so fascinating that we opted for a brisk two-mile circuit. Like the columns in the lake, these formations had been pushed up through the water and cooled. We wish the photos were better, but we were stuck with some unusually harsh midday light.
Legend says that these bizarre formations are actually trolls who have been caught and frozen in the light of day.
We thought that Vivian and Ingrid would have fun imagining what the trolls might have looked like. Here is a photo of a troll merging with the lava.
We had a couple of favorites.
Yes, Nathaniel, that’s your grandmother.
And here she is again in front of a formation called “Church” (Kirkja).
Leaving the trolls behind, we drove north through an increasingly verdant valley dotted with lovely farms. At the end of the road is the little port of Husavik, Iceland’s whale watching capital.
We were taken with the little seaman‘s church, with beams from a ship. Pay close attention to the altarpiece: Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead…in a lava field!
Neither of us had ever gone whale watching, so we signed up for a boat tour with fifty of our closest friends on the „Sylvia,“ an old traditional wooden ship. It proved to be a lot more fun than we had anticipated. The whale spotter / announcer, a young woman named Asdis, was terrific: extremely informative and very focused. We have no idea how lucky we were, but the boat followed not one but two humpback whales while they were feeding…for the best part of two hours.
The pictures below give a taste of the experience, but we have some really good video that is too big to upload to the blog. Let me know if you‘re interested, and I‘ll put some video on Dropbox once we‘re home.
we finished the day with a wonderful meal at Naustio∂, a seafood restaurant overlooking the town. Another great day.