The wind last night was something else. Never experienced or seen anything like it before. My tent shook all night long (like that Led Zeppelin song) and I woke up multiple times wondering if the thing would tear.
I hung out in Husavik during the day. The town smells like fish. I like fish and I couldn’t handle it after a while.
Husavik is the centre of whale-watching in Iceland. I walked around a few of the tour shops, and buying into the hype, was going to take an afternoon tour.
While waiting in line to buy a ticket, I saw a video of people on a boat looking at whales and it really didn’t seem that exciting to me. I thought about it and realized, I didn’t actually care to see a whale. It seemed like the thing to do, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do.
Just as well I guess. The storm clouds moved in and all the tours were cancelled for the rest of the day.
I left around noon and drove to the Myvatn area which is a hotbed of volcanic activity.
The Hverir Geothermal Area has a strong smell of sulphur, that permeates your whole being. Your car, clothes start smelling like rotten eggs.
The wind had really picked up at this point, and walking around was getting difficult.
The terrain around the volcano looks like another planet. The ground is hot, there is steam rising up through the cracks, and boiling mud pots that look downright scary.
The wind was getting to me at this point. But I decided to power on and drove to Krafla, where you can walk right on the rim of a volcanic crater.
While walking up the crater, I saw a girl get lifted off her feet for a second by the wind. She started screaming and crying and had to be held down and carried back to the parking lot. Yep, the wind was getting that bad.
I got to the top, and hadto lean into the wind to stop myself from falling over. I walked around a bit, got this picture of the crater lake from up top.
Pebbles started flying around. A small pebble (or maybe ice) hit me right in the face. That was it, I called the whole thing off. I walked back to my car, barely making it one piece. A few more pebbles hit me, I lost my footing a couple of times from the wind and had to spider crawl down the ridge to make it to my car.
Sitting in the car, it took me about 10 minutes to recover. My car was shaking like a leaf and I decided I was done for the day. I didn’t want to do anything more.
It was only 4pm though. I drove back back down off the volcano and to the local natural geothermal bathhouse, Jarðböðin which is supposed to be the Blue Lagoon of the north. It was closed due to high winds.
Not to be deterred (and maybe having forgotten how bad the wind is), I decided to grab one more sight in before retiring for the day. I drove to Godafoss, the God of Waterfalls.
It was alright, nothing great. Kinda interesting I guess. The wind was still too much to walk around, so I retreated yet again back to the car.
I drove to the campsite, which was near Myvatn. Nice facilities, and goats to keep you company. I met a couple of guys from Bangalore at the camp kitchen. We hung out till pretty late into the night.
I pitched my tent right next to my car, strategically placed, hoping to shelter it from the wind tonight. If not, there might not be a tent tomorrow.
My stuff 