Mission Completed - Dettifoss

Since planning our trip, for me Dettifoss has been up at the top of my list. Featured in Ridley Scott's Prometheus and other movies, it is an impressive waterfall, the 2nd most powerful in Europe. However access to it can be from 2 different roads, both of which have no road winter service and have shown as impassible for months. Deciding when and how to attempt a visit has been complex, but today was the day.

After passing the gate that advises getting towed out from the road can be expensive, haha, the road had a few icy patches on the way. A 4x4 was coming the other way and stopped to say they could not get through some snow, but we carried on to check it out. We took it gingerly, in low gear 4x4 snow mode, and with a couple of stop and reverses to retry, the car coped ok. It was never really deep, and often a bare bit of tarmac to put 2 tyres on. It continued like this for about 10km until we were just reaching the car park - ahead looked deep so we stopped there to walk the rest. The car that had turned around also appeared, having changed their mind. A super jeep with big tyres went past and into the snow to the car park with some tourists.

It was about 1 km to hike through the snow to Dettifoss, but finally our efforts were rewarded and I was glad to see a fully flowing waterfall, if not as fierce as the summer. We met the other driver who had turned around, he had visited the other side in 2018, so was clearly desperate to visit this side.

The hike back to the car was a bit quicker, we passed the super jeep who had become stuck in the snow, obviously too confident of its abilities. That driver was busy digging snow out to get going while the tourists were at the waterfall. As we drove to the end of the car park road, there was a snow plough and tracter with snow chains, clearing the road haha, It seems they begin summer service ont he roads on 1st April, no joke :-)

On we went, to Grjótagjá lava cave with a spring that locals used to bathe in until 1975 when the Krafla volcano (we were around it yeterday) erupted 9 times until 1984 when the water became too hot.

Back on the road around Lake Myvatn looking wonderful in the sun and ice, to Godafoss which is maybe half the height, but gorgeous. We've seen a fair few impressive waterfalls now and we keep discussing our favourites, and now have categories for our favourites, so we can have more than one. Godafoss is probably the prettiest, with Gullfoss close 2nd, and Dettifoss, the most impressive, how about that? On our way back to the car, we saw 2 rock ptarmigans busy pecking about in the snow.

Finally a drive up to Husavik on the north coast, we walked about and had dinner before driving home and a quick dip in the outdoor hot tubs OMG the wind was cold, so we tried to get every bit of skin under the water.

Right busy day tomorrow again... extras added as usual.