Our home base for the northern portion of our trip is in Akureryi – just an hour west of Myvatn and its crazy volcanic scenery. We have been having a neat time with small little black bugs (midges, and sometimes biting black flies) that have been everywhere up here. I don’t remember them last time and it seems we were here just a touch before they hatched. They are EVERYWHERE. Mostly annoying outside – they don’t go into enclosed spaces except for a few that strayed into our car now and again.
As I was doing some of my googling for Facts About The Places I’m In For My Blog Posts, trying to find what the volcanic steam burst cones were called around Myvatn, I ran into what Myvatn means. Wikipedia puts it best:
The name of the lake (Icelandic mý (“midge“) and vatn (“lake”); “the lake of midges”) comes from the large numbers of midges present in the summer.
It’s just MIDGE LAKE. I thought it was icelandic for something like “weird volcano cones lake” or “lake in the middle of Mars.” But no – it’s named after midges. The small flies that are literally everywhere.
Oh.
I guess Minnesota does have a leech lake and personally that’s 10,000 times worse because at least the midges don’t suck your blood.
This concludes Lake Facts. On to your regularly scheduled programming.
On Sunday, it was time: time to horse around. Yes! Icelandics! And it’s time for that one time a year I end up on a hungry horse and go into a bush because the horse can sense my weakness as both a human and a rider and goes to get snacks constantly! Maybe one day I will get better at horseback riding.
Icelandic horses are smaller than other horses but are not in the pony category (I don’t know why, I don’t know horse facts, and quite frankly I’m now put off from researching anything for the rest of this post). They’re strong and built to withstand the island’s climate. Their natural gait is called the tölt, which is both pretty and quite a smooth ride.
Fun fact, if an Icelandic horse is exported, it can never be re-imported – it loses its Icelandic horse status the moment it leaves the island. They surely don’t horse around about their horses.
Upon arrival at our stable, they handed out riding helmets and fly-net hats. It’s hatching time for midges and small biting black flies and I guess we just barely missed this timeframe last time we were here, because I don’t remember the lake being a pit of flies. (BUT IT’S IN THE NAME IF YOU SPEAK ICELANDIC)
The horses were also equipped with nets around their faces to prevent too much irritation on our two-hour ride.
I got saddled up, or my horse got saddled with me, a useless sack of potatoes that doesn’t know much about horses, and off we went. My horse had an Icelandic name that was extremely difficult to pronounce to my untrained foreigner self – knowing my luck, it was probably Icelandic for “Becky who eats a lot.” Lots of the biting flies (not the midges) landed on her and I did my best to give her scritches when she got too itchy-twitchy.
Our ride started out quite rainy, but the weather cleared up as we moved along. The flies were absolutely bonkers and I was very grateful for the netting. We proceeded through rolling volcanic fields and out between the lake and river, across narrow ridges just wide enough for the horses. Our guide taught us the difference between the tolt and the trot – and I actually figured out how to get my horse to tolt instead of trot!
It got easier if I shifted my weight and position in the saddle. I didn’t have to do anything special to get her to tolt if our guide turned around to check on us. The moment he shifted over in his saddle, she would start tolting if she was trotting. So smart. The tolt is smooth and not bouncy, and it’s a lot nicer to ride compared to the trot. For most of the last hour, and especially when our guide turned around, my lovely horse tolted.
Notably, my horse did not take me into any bushes to eat food. She did snap up some tasty mouthfuls when we stopped. She had places to be and wanted to eat food as we got there. I can relate.
Our ride took us along the shores of the lake and the nearby river, where the ducklings and swans were out in force. The sheep would huddle in the shelter of the volcanic cones as shelter from the midges (which didn’t like enclosed spaces).
Old horse road (no lil nas x) 
Run, sheepies! 
Old volcanic steam cone
The paths we followed were quite narrow, ancient roads that were used by Icelanders all the way til the arrival of the car in Iceland in the early 1900s. The original ruts from the horse trails were overgrown but you could still see them, and a few remained today for tourists to trot on. It would take three days to get from the lake to Husavik to get supplies. Best not forget anything.
After obtaining sore horse legs and booties, we ended up back at the stables, the crushed bodies of many flies on my rain jacket. We gave our horses treats and they started headbutting us for more goodies. We got a lot of good scratches in as we said farewell.
Off to the nature baths – not! They were all booked up for the rest of the day. We scheduled our visit for Wednesday instead. Good thing we had a free day in the schedule.
We instead headed over to the burbling, stinky mud pits and steam cones of satan’s butthole (Hverir) just past the lake. We discovered that masks do a pretty good job of keeping some of the butthole smell out. I of course forgot mine in the car.
And on our way back, we stopped at the cave sex cave from Game of Thrones!
Ending our day, we made a quick visit to Godafoss, a lovely waterfall just west of the lake. Last time we got here, it was golden hour, so I have a stunning sunset photo of it. No sunset today – but it was still beautiful.
Monday was our planned day for whale watching, but fate had other ideas for us.
I woke up with a bad case of Horse Legs, which I’m sure will only get worse tomorrow. We got about 3/4 the way to Husvaik from Akureyri when the Chocolate the Other Rental Car (never in my life have I encountered a brown rental car) just….slowly….stopped going faster when Joe pressed the gas. It dinged and a very alarming red zig zag showed up on the dash.
Well this was great. We are in the middle of two valleys by some farm with a gorgeous waterfall where a murderer may or may not live, based on how run-down the farm buildings looked.
And we had perfect cellular reception in the middle of absolute freaking nowhere! Great. Thank you excellent Icelandic infrastructure.
Based on the internet, the red zig zag line was for a “serious electrical failure” which means the car thinks its malfunctioning too hard to carry on. Chocolate, no! And today was a national holiday in Iceland, double no!
Fortunately, a few calls to and fro with the rental car company, they lined us up with a tow truck driver, who showed up about an hour later. He spoke very, very limited English, and through a series of gestures and well-meaning smiles, we worked out that the car needed to go back to Akureyri.
And whale watching is still salvageable as we had left ourselves with a free day in our schedule. The whale-watching company had openings at the same time tomorrow, so they moved our booking over. Phew! And double luckily, in the town truck we got to go through the toll tunnel that we’ve been detouring around for free (it’s like 15 bucks one way). Yeehaw.
Back in town, we learned that Chocolate has a problem with the fuel pump or some sensor or something (the guy explained it in pleb terms and I have already forgotten). We had to keep it above a half tank or the car would think it was out of gas. Someone had taken the car up into the highlands and dinged the tank with a big rock so it didn’t sit properly. I don’t know. They gave us a 10L gas canister in case it happened again and sent us on our way. And Chocolate’s new name is Chocolate Zombie.
But we were still going to go to Geo Sea, dang it! Over to Husavik with us. Geo Sea is a hot spring on a cliffside with an infinity pool that runs pretty close to the edge of the cliff. Sometimes, you can see whales. With my hot spring-driven brain, I have no idea HOW I missed this place last time we were up here. It wasn’t new.
We had no whales to see from our clifftop perch, but the hourlong soak was enjoyable as we watched the cruise ships, fishing boats, and mist float over the fjord. The bar sold smoothies from the shop up the road, as well as beer and other things. Heavenly.
Next up, puffin cliffs. We set out 20 minutes east of Husavik to some bird cliffs. It’s nesting seasons, so we ought to be able to see puffins up close, in the cliffs.
Wrong.
They were floating in the waters below the cliffs.
Rude, but cute. I still managed to get their pictures from way up high. They’re not good pictures, but I will have the puffins in my heart. And maybe we will do a puffin boat tour when we get back to Reykjavik in a few days.
Our final stop is Dettifoss, Europe’s most powerful waterfall. We were driving from the north, across lunar landscapes and a somewhat decent unsealed road for a good long ways. Not many sheep out here! Cjardis is now covered in fine brown dust.
Last time at Dettifoss, we got absolutely soaked. This time, we were on the non-wet side (thank you, wind gods), and got to enjoy it without becoming soaked to our bones.
Tomorrow, we’ll be attempting whales part 2. With the luck we’ve been having, I hope the boat doesn’t sink! Chocolate Zombie has been doing a good job the rest of the day, so with more luck and gas, it will hopefully be a faithful steed.