Iceland Road Trip 2016, Day 2 — from Kerlingarfjöll to Mývatn

Morning in Kerlingarfjöll is busy, people are everywhere — moving, eating, etc. We woke up quite late but still in time for our free breakfast. It was the usual Icelandic affair: cereal, bread, ham, cheese, some tomatoes and cucumbers and coffee. We had a long day ahead, so we ate the breakfast without counting calories.

Alex was still sick, fever and all. He had some Tylenol, but it was not very effective.

Today, we had to make the trip from Kerlingarfjöll to Mývatn. It is about 337km or 5 hours without stops. With all the stops, it took us only 8.5 hours.

Hveravellir

Our first stop was at Hveravellir geothermal area, located just off F35 (Kjölur route), about an hour’s drive north from Kerlingarfjöll.

It is a nice, colorful hot spring area surrounded by green fields. No wonder that it is called an oasis, compared to bleak, stony landscapes around the Kjölur route. However, to my taste, it is not the prettiest geothermal area in Iceland. I prefer Námafjall near lake Mývatn, Krýsuvík and Gunnuhver on the Reykjanes peninsula, and of course Kerlingarfjöll.

Víðimýrarkirkja

On our way to Mývatn, we stopped at the turf church near Varmahlíð called Víðimýrarkirkja. We have already been there in 2014 but that time we have not been inside. So we needed to fix that and stopped for a quick tour. The church is very small and cozy. It looks like a house from Russian fairy tales called The Hut On Chicken Legs, minus the chicken legs, of course.

Öxnadalur valley and Goðafoss waterfall

During our 2014 Iceland road trip we were driving on the same road but in the other direction. So our pictures kind of look the same as last time, and we have posted just a couple of them here.

Hverfjall volcano

We arrived to Mývatn fairly early (around 6pm) and still had plenty of time for a hike or two. We decided to hike up the Hverfjall volcano and go around the rim. The way up is short but steep, but the hike around the rim is very easy. The views from the top are pretty good too.

As the after-hike reward we had an amazingly tasty pizza at Daddi’s Pizza. We ate at that place two years ago and were delighted to eat the smoked-trout-and-pine-nuts pizza once again.

Námafjall Mountain

When we left Daddi’s Pizza, we immediately realized that the magic hour had just started. Of course we could not pass that and go to sleep. But we had to find a place nearby to photograph and find it quickly before the sun set. The good thing is that there are a lot of very picturesque places around Mývatn. We took a risk and decided to go to Námafjall mountain. We have not been there yet so we did not know what the views from there would be like. Fortunately, the views turned out to be otherworldly.