taychellewis 
April 14, 2016
Since we smelled like morning glories after our hot bath minus the soap last night, we decided to put on fresh shirts and socks. It was destined to be a good day.
We planned to drive a good bit today up the East coast, seeing a couple of sights here and there and relax after our long hike yesterday. We came across some Icelandic horses close enough to the road that we could take photos of! Taylor’s not usually a horse person, but these are shorter and thicker than our horses back home, and their shaggy heads of hair are so endearing. He wanted to pet them.
The East coast is full of white-capped mountains and dark, beautiful blue water, so every time we turned a new corner we’d want to take more photos that ended up looking the same. Here are some of our favorites. It was such a nice morning drive, and stop for lunch.
More driving after lunch until we stopped at Hengifoss waterfall and were engulfed in a short but strong gust of wind and snow. There wasn’t much water going down the falls yet, but I’m sure in the summer it would be grander.
Taylor is a Big Brother in the Greenville Big Brothers and Big Sisters program, and the grandmother of the little boy he hangs out with is from a town called Seydisfjordur, so we decided to stop in and take some photos for her. However, on our way over the mountain to get there, we were suddenly in a complete tundra. There were several feet of snow on each side and snow being blown across the road so bad you couldn’t see, and the road was icy too. I don’t get carsick, but imagining all the ways we could die made me want to puke, so Taylor turned around and likely saved our lives. No Seydisfjordur for us.
Instead, we decided to turn around and head towards Dettifoss and then to the town of Myvatn for the night. Driving to Dettifoss was through another tundra, but a lot less life threatening, so we could actually admire the landscape.
Once we got to the parking area for Dettifoss, we bundled up and had to search a bit for the path to the actual falls. Once we found it we were already numb because it was -5 degrees Celsius with an extra wind chill, which made it easily below 0 Farenheit. It was the coldest weather I’ve ever been in. BUT, the falls made it so worth it! They were absolutely incredible.
We thawed in the car, saw a sunset over the lake in Myvatn, and decided to drive on a little further before we settled down for the night. We ended up near Akureyri in front of a frozen lake, the perfect spot to have some more Ramen and edit photos from the past few days. Advice: when going camping in cold weather with a way to heat water, Ramen, hot chocolate, and oatmeal (which we didn’t bring) are great choices. You’ll get tired of granola bars and crackers.
Tonight’s going to be a cold night!
Love,
Michelle & Taylor
