Grim, cloudy day today. I was very pleased with my first wild camping experience however, as it was a far more tranquil setting than the various campsites I had visited. With nice views and clean water readily available, I could see myself staying here for many days, or at least until I ran out of power. I had to press on though, the waterfall Ayderjarfoss awaited me 20km down a rough gravel road.
The road was filled with potholes, loose gravel and corrugation. Also the occasional sheep. They would dart out of the way but for the rest I just had to ride it out.
In the distance I could see the green fields give way to the ugly mix of gray rocks and black sand that is common around the interior. As the green vanished behind me I entered the F26, one of Iceland’s mountain roads.
I’ve mentioned these before but feel I owe a bit of an explanation as to what these are. Mountain roads are specially designated roads which close down for parts of the year and are situated around the interior. They are 4wd only, may contain river crossings, and are generally quite rough. From what I’ve seen, they are no worse than any true 4wd trail in WA, and significantly shorter and less remote.
I had to traverse 5km of the F26 to get to the remote carpark above Ardeyjarfoss. There was no one there, and aside from the horrifyingly disgusting drop toilet’s there was little sign of civilization.
I wandered down to the waterfall itself, bit before I had made the first bend my jaw dropped at the sight of the gigantic snake canyon the river had carved out of the mountainside. It was obscured from view on the ride up, but from the path here it was entirely exposed and the scale was massive.
Farther down I witnessed the falls themselves. They werent the biggest I had seen in Iceland, but they were flanked on both sides by massive stacks of basalt columns, as if the waterfall was a man made fountain and the columns were sculpted around it.
The weather wasn’t ideal so I hung around for a few hours. Some tourist turned up and so I went over to have a chat. They were Canadians, and they shared some very interesting information with me. I was planning to travel to Lake Myvatn next, heading back up the gravel path to Godafoss and heading east. But the Canadians had just arrived from Myvatn by way of a small 4wd trail not marked on Google Maps. I made plans to take this shortcut instead, although I didn’t quite know where it was.
As the day drew on the clouds darkened so I settled and took my photos before heading back out. I stopped a number of locals for directions and was eventually going in the right direction. It was quite late at this point, and as I rolled over the last hill before the shortcut turn off, the entire valley before me was clouded in fog. I didn’t particularly want to get lost and die in the middle of nowhere, so I found a quiet spot on the side of the road and camped for the night.
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