For once we are up reasonably early. The campsite is crammed and we are in our favoured spot in the cornerhowever its a bit tight extracting ourselves. Ian manages a several point turn and we are out.
We reach Godafoss Falls around 9.30am and its reasonably quiet. Fortunately the rain has eased off but we don full waterproofs anyway as the spray is bound to be fierce.
Godafoss - the ‘waterfall of the gods is semicircular in shape and the ice blue glacial water which has travelled 48km from the highlands thunders over the 12m high edge creating upsurge mist and swirling patterns.
Legend has it that the local chief, Thorgeir Thorkellson, returned from a meeting of parliament in 1000AD to announce the decision that the entire nation would convert to Christianity. In a grand gesture, he took all his own pagan idols to the falls and chucked them in. The gods were so angry that the waterfall split in two.
The decree was not taken lightly and the country was on the point of civil war. Thorkelsson had a rethink and after three days was reached. It was decreed that the pagan gods could still be worshipped within the confines of home but that Christianity would still the recognised public religion. This apparently suited all parties so peace reigned again.
A convenient footbridge means that the falls can be viewed from both sides - certainly worth doing as the split in the rock is far more visible from one side than the other.
We are now on our way to Akureyri - a large town with less inhabitants than Wokinghambut it seems large after all the small villages we have been passing through. We take a very short detour around and across the mountain in order to avoid the very pricey toll tunnel. It only adds 15 minutes to the journey and us quite scenicwere it not for the rain which is now hammering!
We stop in Akureyri to fill up with fuel and to restock the ice box. Then we continue on to Dalvik campsite arriving early afternoon.
miserable but we have gone for a warm up and lunch in the camp kitchen and here we meet Florin and Fiona. They are two sociable Berliners who are working over here on a conservation project. They are meeting local farmers to discuss the effect of mink on their livestock in order to assess whether a cull is necessary. They are travelling the ring road in a clockwise direction whilst we are driving anti clockwise. We exchange info on the routeI must admit some of the driving in the west fjords sounds like it might be more challenging and theyve also warned us about some single lane tunnels that we are likely to encounter in a day or so.
The kitchen starts to get very busy around 7pm so we vacate to allow others to cook and eat. Its still raining hard and the camp field is starting to look a bit like a swimming pool!
