Iceland - Day 5

At Myvatn I looked out at 3 o’clock this morning and the world was white with snow, and very bright with the morning sun shining on it. We slept surprisingly well and ate a chilly breakfast in the “kitchen”, an unheated plastic and wood construction. It kept the weather off but melt-water ran in one side and out the other.
Then we went for a walk. First we looked at Stóragjá, a cleft in the earth (extra). At the base there are pools of water, entered through small caves. When we were here in 1980 these pools were hot and we spent happy hours soaking in them. Now they are only lukewarm and weren't at all enticing. Then we walked on, to Grjótagjá Cave, about 3 km away (Extra). Grjótagjá Cave containing a hot pool, and has apparently featured in “Game of Thrones”, which I have never seen. We could have driven there but really felt our legs needed some exercise. There were three entrances. The one nearest the parked cars was full of people, there were far fewer people in the next entrance, all of 10 meters away, and no-one in the third entrance, 50 metres away. We walked back to the campsite and since the snow had mostly melted from the road, we decided to set off.
Hverir was our next destination, just a few kilometres away (extra).  Google maps describes it concisely; “Geothermal spot noted for its bubbling pools of mud & steaming fumaroles emitting sulfuric gas.” It was very otherworldly and Jan blipped a nice picture of it.
Iceland IS expensive but so many of the sites cost nothing to see. Hverir is typical. We parked there for free and just walked around the site. It feels good that it is like that and I hope it remains that way.
As we moved on we were headed for our old friend Hjördis, who we visited in Iceland 38 years ago! We’ve met her once since then, and Jan met her in England just a few weeks ago. She had recommended we drive around the large headland to her house, rather than taking the main road. That was definitely the most spectacular drive so far, and my Blip comes from that part of our day. The light was spectacular, the views were spectacular, wonderful mountains and cliffs, the road was mostly good, though some bits were still under construction. No-one minded going slowly on the rougher bits, we were too busy oooing  and aahing at what we were experiencing.
The tunnels were rather spectacular too.  One of them was a one-way tunnel.  As we went through the narrow tunnel there were wider bits to stop in and let the oncoming traffic by. Each passing place was long enough for our three vehicles as long as we stopped very close to each other - interesting and three kilometres long! We popped out of the tunnel, drove through Ólafsfjörður and disappeared into a 7 km tunnel. That one popped into open air half-way through and gave us a glimpse of a “secret” valley and bay, before we disappeared underground again.
Eventually the land flattened out, became greener with lots of farms, and we arrived at Hjördis’ house. It was lovely to see her and lovely to eat the delicious meal she had prepared sitting at a real table in a real house! We could have slept indoors too but it seemed easier to just retreat to our vans at the end of the evening.
(Backblip, posted on June 11. Today's blip is here.)