Kálfshamarvík was well worth the effort but unfortunately, due to the  time we lost and the fact that we had booked a cabin for that night, we  had far too little time here.

We both found lots of interst her and without that booking to consider we would  have stayed the night for certain.

We have barely scratched the surface of this  very interesting location.

We met the same drift on the way back and hit it at a reasonable speed this time. Sure enough, no problem.

We passed  through Siglufjörður on the way to Ólafsfjörður where the cabin was.

The  cabin was far bigger than we needed but I booked it for two reasons.

The fact that it had a geothermal hot tub right on the veranda.

And the view from that hot tub.

A plan with almost no drawbacks. 

Unfortunately, it was  on the edge of a small community, so when the Northern Lights made  an appearance while we were enjoying a good duty free wine in the tub,  it was slightly degraded by light pollution from the street lighting  behind us.

You can't have everything can you?

Tuesday 8th April.

Next day we visited Akureyri. mainly for supplies but also to visit a  mobile phone outlet. I had bought a SIM card on the plane for my mobile  WiFi but they sold me an ordinary phone and data SIM instead of the Data SIM I needed.

It seemed convenient at the time but I shouldn't have  assumed that the trolley dollies knew anything about SIM cards. My mistake.  This meant that we had been at the mercy of the weather and the brief  reports we could get at garages. With internet access things were at  least, a little more predictable. 

So far, the snow had only  interrupted our plans on the way to Kálfshamarvik, at Goðafoss there  are normally two sides that the falls can be approached from but it was  clear on this day that the side I wanted to be on would be not be safe  on this occasion. That left me with the light, which was quite strong,  coming from the wrong side as well. Not ideal.

We took a few  pictures and advanced our plans by heading Eastwards earlier than intended.

The road  to Dettifoss was still showing as impassible on the road authority  website so we desired to take a look at the Myvatn area which we had  meant to bypass.

Myvatn is a popular spot in the Summer by all accounts  but didn't seem to offer much out of season it appeared.

The area around Krafla seemed much more interesting.

Wednesday 9th April.

We stopped  not far from another geothermal area I was keen to see, Hveraröndor Hverir.

This  was our coldest night. At dawn the temperatures were -5°c on an open  plain with no shelter but the van itself.

Not uncomfortable but a little cool.

Hveraröndor Hverir turned out to be  one of our highlights.

Powerful fumaroles and smelly steaming mud holes.

Everything a good geothermal area should be and no more than a few essential  fences to get in the way.

I must say that the Icelandic approach to  health and safety is refreshing.

There were a few signs to say “This is dangerous.” but by and large the attitude seemed to be “We have warned you, so if you are stupid enough to put your hand into a superheated fumarole or a pool of boiling water, then that is your own problem.”

I can live with that, it seems perfectly in keeping with Darwinian theory as well but I suspect such an attitude would soon attract a festering swarm of ambulance chasers in the UK.

By this time the status of the road to Dettifoss had been upgraded to  "difficult" and with the warming conditions we decided to give it a try.

There were a few small drifts but they were fresh, thawing and already rutted by heavier vehicles. No problem with careful driving.

 Dettifoss  itself was not safe to approach. Deep sloping ice covered snow, with  uncertain cornices overhanging a precipitous drop into churning water.  Again, no signs or fences, but the Darwin Awards awaited anyone  foolhardy enough to push their luck.