Day 6: 19 July

10:00am

The road to the Jökulsárgljúfur National Park was very bumpy; Thomas the driver was shaking with fear!

We woke up to a cloudy day. We had run out of good weather; the clouds would follow us for the rest of our trip. Still, we should consider ourselves very fortunate, since in average there were only two sunny days in Iceland through the month of July (and we already had five).

The first destination of the day was the Jökulsárgljúfur National Park, also known as the Grand Canyon of Iceland, famous for its mighty waterfalls.

1:00pm The first stop was small (by Iceland standard) Selfoss, and Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe. Dettifoss was not as photogenic as, say, the Niagara (the gloomy weather might be a factor); instead it was an expression of raw intimidating power, with dark muddy water roaring furiously over the falls and plummeted thunderously for 44m into the black canyon. The splashing waterdrops showered like a heavy rain.

Selfoss cut across the gorge at an angle, making a Very board waterfall, though not that high (only 10m). Looking downstream from Selfoss. The mist in the background was Dettifoss. Don't approach Dettifoss without raingear; it is always wet here.

Next stop was Hafragilsfoss and Rettarfoss, which was unfortunately veiled with mist.

A sapphire blue lagoon next to Hafragilsfoss. Hafragilsfoss Rugged rocks near Hafragilsfoss Click on the picture, and you can see Rettarfoss through the mist.

4:00pm
We left Jökulsárgljúfur National Park in a hurry as we wanted to catch a 5pm whale-watching boat ride at Húsavík. On our way to Húsavík, we passed the northernmost point of our trip (about only 30 km south of the Arctic circle).

The whale watching boat, Nattfari

We reached Húsavík (House Bay) at 4:59pm -- just in time to get the tickets and leap on the boat.

Hot chocalate never tasted better. All four of us on the boat.
We did manage to see some minke whales from afar, when they came to the surface and showed their dorsal fin. They only appeared momentarily, however, and we failed to take any picture of them.

It was pretty cold on the boat, especially after more than two hours in the Arctic winds,

We could never get tired of fresh seafood.
and we had to take advantage of the woollen caps and mittens provided on the boat. We were very happy to be served hot chocolates and cinnamon rolls; it felt great to be warm again.

In great mood we unboarded at 8pm and headed straight to Gaumli Baukur, a wooden panelled restaurant right at the harbor. After dinner, we returned to the guesthouse at Akureyri for the night.