I called it the Golden Diamond in yesterday’s posting, but I was mixing two circles: The Golden Circle, which is Route 1, the Ring Road, goes all the way around Iceland. The Diamond Circle, which we did today, is a much shorter loop around the northern portion of Iceland. It’s main city is Húsavík on the west side. Lake Myvatn is on the southern side. There is a longer route in northern Iceland called the Arctic Coast Way, which travels the coast line from which the Arctic Circle is a stone throw’s to the north.

For us, there were three main attractions on the Diamond Circle: the Dettifoss Falls, the canyon at Asbyrgi, and the town of Húsavík itself. It took us all day – 9 AM until 9 PM – to do the loop, including stops.

We actually bypassed two attractions technically on the Circle: the nearby geothermal power plant and the hot springs at Heverir. We’ll catch those tomorrow on our way out of town.

The Dettifoss Falls stop entailed a one-mile hike in to the falls over reasonable, if a bit rocky, terrain. The falls are big. Everyone wants bragging rights, and Dettifoss’s case it measures as the biggest waterfall in Europe, by water flow: 500 cubic meters of water per second. It is an impressive sight. There may be taller or wider falls elsewhere but this baby pumps more water.

The drive from Dettifoss to Asbyrgi is only 35 Km or so, but I never cease to be amazed and dumbfounded by the change in terrain. Today we saw:

–              Volcanic deposits in jagged piles of debris. Our Airbnb is in a pile of the stuff. As it gets older, moss begins to grow on it, which leads to plants, which leads to trees over millennia in some cases.

–              There are relatively flat sections of terrain with some form of vegetation for the omnipresent sheep to graze on. Sometimes it’s pretty rough scruff; sometimes it is pristine pure pasture land.

–              There are surrounding mountains, all with snow. We drove up and through several today.

–              We stopped briefly at a section of a totally smooth lava flow, more like what I expected a lava flow to look like, not the jagged type we see everywhere else. It’s the only such formation we’ve seen.

–              The canyon at Asbyrgi had a dense growth of birch trees without signs of lava.

I wish I was more of a geologist to explain it all (or I wish Thor was along to give the lowdown).

Asbyrgi, if I have the story right, was an area of volcanic activity just after the last ice age – 20,000 years ago, say. Then, 8 to 10,000 years ago, and again 3,000 years ago, a series to tremendous floods cut a canyon roughly 20 miles long and more than a half mile wide. The canyon walls are 330 feet tall. It’s a big canyon, hard to grasp because of the trees that grow within it. You can’t see the whole thing from one spot to appreciate its size. But we did hike in to a couple of viewing spots to get an idea.

Apparently, large quantities of water built up in moraines and lakes high in the volcanic mountains surrounding Asbyrgi. Eventually, the water pressure built up so that the pools of water burst, creating a cataclysmic flood. Possibly volcanic action under a glacier triggered a similar flood. The result was that the canyon was cut in a matter of hours, not centuries or millennia as is the case for normal erosion.

The town of Húsavík is a small fishing village that serves as a port for ferry service to nearby islands, as a cruise boat anchorage and for certain raw materials – we’re guessing gravel and other construction materials. And of course it’s a tourist destination. Whale watching tours are offered there.

We ended up doing some shopping, which didn’t take long, given the small number of stores available. Judy did score her prized souvenir: a two-foot long shoe horn, which she’s enjoyed using at several hotels on this trip. She’s happy and so am I.

The really enjoyable thing was our visit to the Geosea spa on the outskirts of town. It’s a mini Blue Lagoon but much nicer. It heats sea water with geothermal energy, rather than blue water. It’s less crowded and cleaner than the Blue Lagoon. It’s all outdoors and there is a great view of the snowcapped mountains across the bay. A very relaxing experience.

The other nice thing was dinner at the Salka restaurant, another Sage recommendation that proved to be a winner. Judy had fish and chips and I had the wolffish catch of the day special plus a flatbread mushroom appetizer recommended by our waiter. Everything was great.

Earlier, we stopped at the Salka to make a reservation and who did we find but Colleen and Richard from our trip last week. They had just ordered so we chatted only briefly. They’re heading back to Reykjavik tomorrow and then on home.

One thing we’re lacking on this trip are pictures of sunrise and sunset. There’s really no excuse. Sunset tonight is at 12:35 AM and we’d only have to wait 1:46 AM for sunrise. Just time enough for a cup of coffee. If, that is, we drank coffee at that hour and if we stayed up that late in the first place. Don’t hold your breath.

Tomorrow we pull up stakes and move to Akureyri where we’ll spend our last three nights in Iceland.