Puffins in Durholæy. Easy to observe...

At the other side of the bay: nice basaltformation with caves made by the tides.

To remember the last lavastream which destroyed several farms,
those passing by are supposed to make their own pile in remembrance...

After many years, the lava starts to be covered with moss, after that slowly with grass and small plants.

The Fjadragljufur kleft was formed by a sudden flood of meltwater through an ice barrier after the last ice age.

The Fjadragljufur kleft, view from the mountain side.

The start of a real dirt "road" F206 to Laki: 3.5 hours driving for 38 km

8 streams to pass: we where already turned back, as we didn't want to take the risk, but at that moment
another 4x4 passed with Icelanders aboard, so we followed them in quite deep waters!

At last, we are at Laki... The start of a steep climb to the top of the Volcano.

Beautiful view of the row of about 100 volcanoes, which via a fault in the earth's crust
each on its turn has caused a lot of deaths and damage in the far neighbourhood a few centuries ago.

In this volcano one can walk into the crater.

You may wonder how these can survive here!

The foult with volcanoes goes further North, with an icefield in the background.

Enormous lavafields, as far as one can see.

Waterfall in the national park Skaftafell.

Glaciertongue in the national park Skaftafell.

Here a flood caused by a recent volcanic eruption under the Vatnajokull has erased everything:
the only road (N1), bridges and high tension pilars. Lucky, the area was not inhabited.

That is what remains of a bridge after the flood of househigh ice cubes.

 
Icebergs in the Jökulsarlon lake, broken from a glacier tongue of the Vatnajokull.

Also seals on search for fish. In the background the highest mountain of Iceland midst of the glacier.

Beuatiful, crystal clear ice...

   
Going on the Jökulsarlon lake with a bus/boat.

Part of the Vatnajökull with sheep in the foreground: not for long...

On the way to the Hengifoss waterfall, South of Egilstadir, halfway the path, the Litlanesfoss in a basaltbasin.

The Hengifoss waterfall.

Near the Hengifoss one can see that the soil is made from layers of lava, with in between layers of (red) soil.

The N1 goimg through the lavafield in Eastern Iceland, completely empty, no humans or animals, only a little moss...

There are only 2 bridges over the Jökulsa, because of the enormous flow, here the one for the N1.

The Dettifoss waterfall with the gray, basalt dust loaded water of the Jökulsa.

Dettifoss from nearby.

The Selfoss, some kilometer upstream of the Dettifoss. Not many come here, but it is impressively wide...

Downstreams the Jökulsa canyon, the Hafragilsfoss.

The start of a hike in the national park Jökulsagljúfur.

Het valley has a horseshoe form, with in the centre an "island", as high as the surrounding heights.
Then it started to rain...

The end of the "horseshoe": perpendicular sides end the valley.


How to find a picknickplace near the Jökulsa canyon in the rain...

The way back along the Jökulsa canyon, it is raining harder and harder...

The next day: a hike to the Hljódaklettar (echorock), again near the Jökulsa.
Strangly formed lavablocks...

The lava is solified as basaltcolumns in all directions.

Basaltblocks everywhere.

A good climb to have a look at the Raudhólar (red mountain)...

...and there it is!

View to the ocean in Northern Iceland. Here one can spot whales.

The harbourtown Húsavík. Base for whale safaris.

The little church of Húsavík.

The mountains along the fjord where Húsavík is.

In the neighbourhood of the Mývatn: overview of the thermic field Námafjall.

Steamspots and...

...boiling mudholes everywhere....

The nearby Viti crater in panorama.

A new lavafield (1984), still with steamplumes and sulfur vapors...

Through the lavafield, along steaming (and stinking) crevasses.

Sometimes you are in the middle of the steamclouds.

Partly overview of the lavafield.

The steam gives some gosthy pictures...

The underground heat is used for power generation.

After the hikes: a relaxing bath in one of the local warm water sources.
Less commercial (until now) than the more renown "Blue Lagoon" near Reykyavik

Next day: the Stóragjá kleft.

After that the steep hike to the top of the Hverfjall ashvolcano...

...with a splendid view around.

The inside of the volcano, about 1 km diameter!

The steep descend in the direction of Dummiborgir.

Through the eye of the needle (but a little bigger), Dummiborgir.

Lava with the strangest forms in Dummiborgir.

Kirkja, the "church" formed in lava.

A part of the Mývatn, again with strange lavaforms...

...can be reached via a path with clouds of (non-biting!) mosquitos.

Overview of (a part) of the Mývatn.

Sunset over the pseudocraters near Mývatn.

The start of the sideway to the Askja volcano.

On the road, crossing of a few rivers...

...like this one here.

We can see the winter shelter of a fugitive prisoner...

...who survived thanks to the roots of the angelica plant (family of celery).

Nowadays a camping and picknikplace.

We drive along the wild Jökulsa.

Craters, ash and lava everywhere.

 The "devilskleft", a sidekleft of the Askja volcano.

The start of a path to the Askja crater...

...unfortunately completely in the fog, nothing to see!

Further to the West, along the N1, the Godafoss, the waterfall of the (false) gods...

The mountain range of the fjord where the town Akureyri can be found.

Near Akureyri, old grass roof houses

View of Akureyri from the other side of the fjord.

The church of Akureyri

The old town centre of Akureyri.

The botanic garden of Akureyri (free entrance!) is worth a visit.

Statue of Jón Sveinsson, the writer of children's books.

At the start of the road through the inland (F35),
a road singn which tells everything: every house is on the map!
In general, the road signs (even for hikes) are excellent.

Glaciertongues of the Langjökul along the F35 inland road.

Something of earlier days: a monument for convicted people who were banned to the inland
If they survived that 20 years, their punishment was over. Only a few returned...

Again a thermic field, near the F35 inland road.

But we go on to the North-West of Iceland. Here the very modern church of Blönduós.

Sunset in the neighbourhood of Drangsnes.

The only glacier of the West fjords, the Drangajökull.

The "main" raod in the West fjords, mainly not asphalted, narrow, lots of curbes,...

Seals let them dry in a meager sunshine.

Statue for the fishermen in Ísafjörður.

Through the mountain, via a kilometers long tunnel from Suðureyri to Ísafjörður.

View to the other side of the icefjord: a large natural preserve without access roads.

  The West fjords enter deeply in the inland.

Deep valleys carved by glaciers in the ice ages.

Dynjandi, Icelands nicest waterfal.

The "main" road through the moon landscape of the West fjords.

  The hotel of Ólafsvik

Nearby the most Western bird rock of Europe, Látrabjarg.
The previous day, two attempts to reach the rock, but impossible by a severe storm.

The last puffin of the season poses for the photographers.

The most Western pizza sales of Europe, the commercials were destroyed by the storm of yesterday.

With the ferry over the Breiðafjörður.

Here it goes.

The modern church of Stykkishólmur.

Statue of fisherfamily in the harbour of Stykkishólmur.

At the soutside of Snæfellsnes, lava blocks which serve as bird rocks.

A nice hike through a lava labyrinth.

Those who wanted to sail with the fisherships were tested for their force:
the stone they could lift determined how much they would be paid.

The road to the Snæfellsjökull is not really smooth.

But the view on the glacier is worth the shaking.

And the view towards the whole Snæfellsnes peninsula is beuatiful.

Monument in Borgarnes.

The Icelandic horses are brought to the stables for winter.

The largest hot water source of Iceland near Reykholt...

...makes for the central heating of the whole town of Reykjavik.

Here in bath of the saga writer Snorri Sturluson in Reykholt they talked about politics.

The waters of the Hraunfossar flows 46 kilometer under the lava until the Hvítá river.

Upstreams the "childrens" waterfals.

Further South, in the "golden triangel", the impressive, fantastic Gullfoss, the "golden" waterfall.

Incredible natural forces...

The Stokkur erupts steam and water, according to the bochures, every 15 minutes,
but especially for us, it does it every 2-3 minutes...

...while its neighbour Geysir (which name is used for all geysers) only erupts after an earthquake.

Until the incredible happens: we have seen the eruption of the Geysir on 4 September 2009, 09:10 AM!
It happened unexpected, so that we hadn't our camera's ready, too late to have the best picture of the happening.

On the road to Landmannalaugar we pass the Hekla, one of the most active volcano's of Europe...

...and we need to pass a few rivers.

The desolate landscape on the road to Landmannalaugar.

Green, near fluorescent moss on the basaltmountains. Unique!

The last crossing to reach Landmannalaugar.

The coloured mountains at Landmannalaugar.

Via a kleft, we go higher and higher...

The view on the coloured mountains gets nicer and nicer.

Higher and higher, you are rewarded with a splendid panorama.

It still is ascending to the top (525 m above the valley floor).

But the reward is the splendid panorama, more than worth the effort!

One can't have enough of it... That view!

Again a crater, on the road to the endpoint: Reykjavik.

But first, we made a visit to the separation line between the European and the American tectonic plate, near þingvellir.

þingvellir was the place where the first Icelandic parliament gathered.

The old houses and church of þingvellir.

The flight of the wild goose near þingvellir.

The cathedral of Reykjavik.

Statues in a park of Reykjavik...

...at the house of sculpturer Ásmundur Sveinsson.

Perlan (de perl), the waterstorage of Reykjavik, with panorama terrasse and (expensive) rotating restaurant.

Panoramic view of the town from the Perlan.

Statues besides the Perlan.

 The "viking ship" besides the bay.

  The Höfdi house, where Reagan and Gorbatchov had a meeting to end the cold war.

Interesting statues in Reykjavik.

If you don't know how to knot your tie...

The last evening in Iceland we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.