Myvatn » Traverse Earth

Rickety Bridge, Myvatn Iceland

Nov 292012

I liked this bridge a lot. So much so that when I saw it from the road I decided I had to photograph it, despite the fact that we had to continue on the road about a quarter-mile more before we could pull in. I began walking back to the bridge, thinking my travel partner would follow. Unfortunately, she didn’t. She took off in the other direction. Come to think of it I still don’t know what she’d spotted there.

The problem was that I’d taken the car keys with me. After setting up to take today’s photo I broke down my gear and debated whether to cross the bridge or not. In the end I did, very gingerly. I took two more pictures there before returning and making the walk back to the car, interrupted by a photo of a farm. When I returned I found my travel buddy huddled next to the car, shivering. I felt pretty bad. Amazingly, she didn’t complain, but from that point on she was in charge of the car key every time we got out. This typically resulted in me returning to the car to find it heated to the temperature of the surface of the sun.

Route 1, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel No Responses »

Oct 082012

Taking this photo was a bit tricky. I was struck by the gentle curve and calm lake beneath the overcast sky. Initially, I set my tripod up on the road, but I wasn’t happy with it. I needed to be higher. So, I hopped up onto the Jeep’s hood. My thinking was, it’s a jeep, it should be sturdy. It wasn’t. That hood buckled easier than your average car would! I decided I could get up on the roof, if I stayed over the jeep’s roll cage. This worked at first, but after taking a few shots I realized that my presence on the roof was causing the jeep to move pretty much constantly. I tried jumping off after setting the timer and hoping the jeep would calm down. It didn’t. So, I climbed back up again and stuck in my remote shutter switch. I jumped off and waited for a while before pressing the button. Then, I got the below image.

Bridge to Somewhere, Myvatn, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 1 Response »

Oct 032012

I’ve written about this bridge before (Rickety Bridge, Iceland), but I wanted to show you this view because it raises a couple of questions:

Question 1: It looks pretty old and rickety, is it safe?

Answer 1: Yes, I crossed it a couple of times. I wasn’t thrilled about having to go across it the first time but an error that resulted in my bag staying in frame for the photo posted previously meant I had to nervously tip-toe back and forth an extra time.

Question 2: Why is there a bridge here?

Answer 2 (kind of): I have no idea. The volcano is a long way off, you certainly wouldn’t want to walk it. On top of that, there’s no path on the other side. It appeared to be an island in the middle of the river with nothing but overgrown brush covering it. I doubt the bridge was built for no reason, so it must be a bridge to somewhere, but where? It makes me wonder if the scene takes some completely different appearance in another season.

Is it farmed at some point?

Does it turn into a carpet of wild flowers?

Could it be a great place to watch birds?

Who knows?

I don’t.

Rickety Bridge, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 1 Response »

Aug 112012

I’ve been pretty bad about posting regularly lately. I’m blaming the fact that we’ve just come through Cupmatch in Bermuda. I’ll be getting back on track again now. Although, I’m flying out to Italy today and haven’t prepared any photos in advance! I’m counting on my hotel having a good internet connection. I’m headed up North to the Piedmont region. It’s within range of the Cinque Terre, Portofino and the Alps. So you can expect some Italy photos shortly.

For today, we’re back to Iceland. I spotted this bridge from the road and decided I had to find somewhere to pull over and stop. I found it about a half mile down the road and had to walk back. It was further back than I’d realized. I got here and shot a load of photos from the other side but wasn’t happy with them and couldn’t quite figure out why. Then it dawned on me that there was probably a better view from the other side. So, I had to walk across this bridge. It was a nerve racking experience. I set up and took a photo. In checking the results I noticed a strange black spot on the opposite side. I zoomed in and realized it was my camera bag! So, I had to walk across the bridge two more times than I should have as I had to move my bag!

Godafoss, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall 4 Responses »

Jul 212012

Our first attempt to find this waterfall did not go well. We decided not to use the GPS because it looked really straightforward on the map. Unfortunately, we promptly forgot that we were looking for a turning. When we realized we’d probably gone past it, we got out the gps and discovered we passed the turn about an hour earlier. So, we decided to continue on to Myvatn and visit the waterfall the next day.

Visiting in daytime hours meant that we got to experience the tour bus crew for the first time. To the right of the falls it was very crowded with a number of buses parked up and people rushing around to see the falls and hop back on their buses. On the other side, however, was a small path with very few people on it. I went that way.

In taking this photo I decided not to crop out a tourist taking photos atop the cliff to the right because I thought that would provide a good scaling factor to show the size of these falls. Unfortunately, the tourist is so dwarfed by the falls it’s difficult to notice that he’s there!

Beneath the Basalt, Myvatn, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 2 Responses »

Jul 102012

“Warning, rocks have fallen from the ceiling before and they will fall again”, the sign read.

Could this small hole in the side of this immense lava flow, near Lake Myvatn, really be the entrance to the underground hot springs we’d been hearing about. If it wasn’t, and we were brained by falling rocks that really wouldn’t have felt worth it. Venturing further in we saw water. Then we recognized the familiar sulfur smell of a hot spring. Venturing inside we found a small cavern, beneath the basalt, housing a pool of hot water. Upon shining a light on it we discovered that it was crystal blue, much like the water in the caves here in Bermuda, but it was steaming.

At this point I wanted to tell you what it’s called but can’t find the name (I did find this video showing the entrance though, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8Fu-si19Q )! I really need to start carrying a notebook. What I do know is that there were two caves. one is used by men, the other by women. We didn’t know which one we were in. In summer, the men’s is too hot to swim in. As we didn’t know which one we were in, we decided not to risk it.

*** Edit: Check out the comments, Charlotte has found the name for me! ***