Akureyri looked as good a place as any to stay for a few days. When planning the trip I discovered that every hostel was booked up solid that week so at the last minute I managed to get hold of a sleeping bag and a tent.
It had been 11 years since I had last slept in a tent, I had to have a practice run at home in setting the thing up. The wind, rain and cold were the things I was not looking forward to but they were hardly noticed in 3 nights. The campsite itself while being a good place to sleep was an hours walk down a very dull road to get to the town. I went into the tourist office and booked a trip for the following day.
It was just as well as I did, back at the campsite they had a kitchen/dining/common area. The handful of people who were there seemed to take all their effort to reply when I said hello. Hardly the best situation when your a solo traveller!!!!!!!!!!
There were only 4 of us on the trip round Lake Myvatn the following day which was good. Even better was the fact that everywhere we stopped was not full of people unlike the golden circle trip a few days earlier.
Godafoss waterfall was the first stop but a bit too cold and windy at that time in the morning. By the time we got to a lake area called Stakholstjorn it was a lot better..
Reykjahlid was the small tourist town near the lake where were stopped for food. If I had more time it would have been worth stopping there a night.
Dimmuborgir was an area of strange rock formations, our driver/guide insisted on taking us round due the fact previous tourists had got lost there....
The hole in the rocks (above) instantly reminded me of a previous trip. It took a search through my pictures to find out it was Yangshou China (below)
Grjotagja was another part of the country where the Europe / North America plates are slowly pulling apart. There was an underground cave full of hot water but the pictures didn't turn out very well. After a quick look at a crater lake we stopped at an area full of bubbling hot mud pools and steaming vents. Everyone else was having a "warm your hands over the steam" picture so I thought why not.
The final stop of the day was at the baths which I wasn't interested in so I went for a walk round the area for about half an hour. Overall it had been a good (if a bit costly) day out. Back to town and to the very long drag back to the campsite which I had got fairly sick of by that point.
Due to the unsocial nature of the campsite common area I headed into town in the evening to checkout the local bars. I heard that alcohol cost a small fortune in that part of the world but it was not a massive amount more than back home. 4 pounds a pint compaired to 3-3.20 in England so I couldn't complain that much.
Within a few minutes I got talking to locals and other travelers who were there. I noticed a middle aged couple being pestered by two younger men, they were all obviously English and the conversation was about football. Later in the evening I got talking to this couple and they told me their son was playing for England under 17s in a competition that was being held there (explains why I couldn't find any accommodation) and the two younger men who were pestering them were football agents. It was hardly a wild night out but great to meet a few locals and other travelers.
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