Category: Iceland

The meaning of the Icelandic word ‘vök‘ is ‘a place with open water in between an otherwise frozen sea or lake‘. In the old days, people used to wash their clothes in Urriðavatn (Lake Trout), because there was always open water, no matter how severe the winter was. The locals thought it was a sea monster, ‘Tuska’, that melted or broke the ice. Tusk means rag, i.e. Tuska was a Nixie with a shabby appearance. The cracks in the ice were called ‘Tuskuvakir’, and Tuska could come up there in winter. However, what kept the water open in winter turned out to be jarðhiti – ground heat. Lake Urriðavatn has its own hot spring inside itself!

The very special bath called Vök is located 6 km from Egilsstaðir and was completed in 2019. Here they have built a beautiful facility based on the hot spring inside Urriðavatn. 76 degree Celsius water from the bottom of the lake is mixed with cold water from the lake to just the right temperature. On shore, there are changing rooms, hot and cold (!) steam baths, two larger pools with warm water and a submerged bar by the pool.

Two hexagonal pools of warm water float (!) in the cold water. The floating pools are made by the Finnish company ‘Bluet Floating Solutions’. If you want, you can enter the lake for a cold scalding, as there are ladders leading to the lake. Hot and cold alternately – that’s the very best. Try it!

We have visited Vök several times, including Easter 2021 – in the middle of the corona. All public baths in Iceland were closed and we really wondered what to do. How could we perform the daily bath when everything was either closed or frozen? It turned out to become a secret bath of the cold type. In Urriðavatn, it’s easy to swim even in the middle of winter – as there is always open water in between the ice! We changed onshore, jumped in for a dip and then returned to the car. As we were leaving the parking lot, a car drove in to check on unauthorized guests. Good then, that we just had a short bath next to the pools and didn’t try to get in for a longer session!

Egilsstaðir, with almost 3,000 inhabitants, is a natural starting point for several spectacular hiking and swimming experiences in the north-east of Iceland.

One of the biggest ‘wow factors’ you can get is Stuðlagil. You drive through a long, gravelly valley, Jökulsdalur. This is a wasteland with a few farms and some sheep.

It takes an hour to walk up to the gorge, a nice hike with a pedagocically well placed waterfall, Stuðlafoss, to enjoy about mid-way. Well, that’s if you keep to the east side of the river.

Alternatively, you can drive up to a stair access (239 steps) on the west side of Jökulsá, but we would not recommend that if you are fit enough for the east side, because:

• From the vantage point on the west side, you cannot see the most beautiful basalt columns.

• You can’t go down to the water.

After the waterfall, basalt columns begin to appear by Jökulsá. The river is (large parts of the year) bright green! Here we are talking about glacial rivers with lots of particles in the water. The basalt columns are first brown, gradually gray. Most of them stand vertically, but in some places a bunch of them are twisted around and you can see the cross section of them instead.

Stuðlagil is one of the newest tourist attractions in Iceland. The gorge came to light when the water level in the river Jökulsá á Brú was lowered following the very controversial construction of the Kárahnjúkavirkjun hydroelectric plant in 2009. The plant was supposed to ensure power supply to the aluminum plant in Reyðarfjörður.

Stuðlagil itself is like a cathedral with tall, beautiful columns. A wonder of Mother Nature! If you are careful, you can climb down to the river bank and sit on the basalt columns and just enjoy. We didn’t dare to do this on our first visit, it was in March; snow and ice everywhere. The second visit, however!

Stuðlagil is an absolutely magical place. However, be aware that the water level may rise if they let more water through from the power plant further up the valley. Because of this – and strong currents – we do not recommend swimming in Stuðlagil!

We (as you might have guessed) couldn’t resist in the long run. But we think we did a thorough risk assessment, had secured ourselves with a tow rope and only swam in a backwater without current. But this is not the place to try ice bathing for the first time!

After the ravine visit, a bath is just right. At Egilsstaðir there are two obvious options for open-air swimming: the river Lagarfljót and Urriðavatn lake. Lagarfljót basically looked a bit dirty and unappealing. The sad white-grey color comes from the particles in the water. Urriðavatn, on the other hand, is fresh and blue and cold – except it’s hot spring interior. But that’s another story – Vök Bad.

Of lengi í örbirgð stóð
einangruð, stjórnlaus þjóð,
kúguð og köld.
Einokun opni hramm.
Iðnaður, verslun fram!
Fram! Temdu fossins gamm,
framfara öld.
(E. Benediktsson, made for the opening of the power plant)

Despite all the other things Iceland has to deal with in form of geysirs, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and bad weather, it is avalanches that take the most lives. The first record of an avalanche is from the year 1118! In the ‘Sturlunga Saga’, it is mentioned that five people died in an avalanche, and thereafter more than 680 lives have been lost.

From ‘Torgils and Havlide’s saga’ (a part of ‘Sturlunga Saga’):

‘Måg-Snorre was a wealthy man, who had a house in Svinadal, at the place which is now called Snorrastad; he drowned in Sælingsdalså, at the place now called Snorravad. His brother-in-law Sighvat Ulvsson went out with four other men to search for the body, but they were buried under an avalanche and all perished.‘ (References)

‘Here one can safely say that ‘misfortunes never come singly‘.

There has been a major investment in avalanche protection the recent years, and many settlements are secured with ‘fences’ high up in the mountainside. Other places, moraine-like ramparts have been built to lead the avalanches away from the city. One of the biggest avalanche accidents in recent times occurred in Neskaupstaður the December 20^th 1974, when 12 people died. On this day there were actually 8 avalanches here, two of them fatal. In addition, there were 13 people that were swept away by the slides, who survived after all. This was a terrible blow to the small settlement.

Neskaupstaður has approximately 1,500 inhabitants. The village runs along the fjord, actually it covers a length of 6 km in a width of only approximately 100 meters. What else is there to say about Neskaupstaður? Impressively, they have their own heavy metal festival, ‘Eistnaflug’ (in July). And one nearly extinct species of lichen: ‘Seltulauf’.

We were in Neskaupstaður at Easter 2021, but we didn’t see a trace of neither lichen nor heavy rockers. It was winter, there was snow, there was a full moon and it was beautiful still weather. No avalanches in sight. It was just peaceful and wonderful, and we had a cold, but meditative bath below the road ‘Hafnarbraut’. Meditative because, when you step into freezing water, nothing else matters. It’s just you and the water and Mother Nature (and maybe a fellow bather). All worries disappear in seconds. Marvelous!

One of the most stunning tourist attractions in Iceland is Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. The lake is situated – and made by – the glacier Breiðamerkurjökull, a branch from the enormous Vatnajökull. If you can imagine a threshold fjord that never reached the sea, then you have the concept. Jökulsárlón is Iceland’s deepest lake (300 m), and it covers an area of 25 km². The glaciers in Iceland are in rapid decline, including Vatnajökull. As the glaciers retreat, a lake may form where the glacier has dug deep – before the end moraine. When icebergs break off the glacier to a glacier lagoon, the icebergs become trapped in the lake. This is a beautiful sight.

Jökulsárlón is a young lake, formed after the glacier Breiðamerkurjökul began to retreat after 1933. The depth comes from the erosion by the glacier during the ‘Little Ice Age’, which had it’s maximum around 1740. The unique thing about Jökulsárlón is that it is connected to the sea via a river/channel (Jökulsá á Breiðamerkursandi), which is deep enough for the water to go both out and in. Seawater enters the lake when it flows, and out again together with melt water when approaching low tide. In this seawater seals are swimming, which give birth to their cubs here. The seals experience visitors every day, and you can see them quite close, they are both charming and curious. Do not go close to the cubs, they are used to lying alone while mother is searching for food.

At Jökulsárlón, a bath is NOT right. There are danger signs all over the place and they have some good points there.

One is the danger of being caught by the current. Since the water goes both out and in, the current can be treacherous, that’s probably right. The other issue is the icebergs. The relatively warm sea water makes the ice melt faster under water than above. Only 10% of icebergs stick up in the air, and you can’t tell when they have melted so much below water that they might capsize. This is very dangerous, don’t even consider swimming out to climb icebergs! It is perfectly fine, in fact absolutely wonderful, just to stand on the beach and enjoy the sight of icebergs, seals and water!

But then there were these urges and dreams. And the defiance. And ‘we are so careful‘. And the problem with always following the rules. And… well, you know what happened, right? We drove over the bridge to the other side of the lake. There we found no seals, (almost) no people, (almost) no current, (almost) no icebergs and (almost) no prohibition signs. There it’s (almost) right with a bath.

A bath in Jökulsárlón is (almost) right.

But then came these urges and dreams again. This bath was so far away from the icebergs that there was almost no point. And how forbidden is it really to swim in Jökulsárlón? After following countless discussions around the great Internet, we have come to the (possibly wrong) conclusion that there is no legal background to initiate processes against those who break the swimming prohibitions announced with signs à la those we find at Jökulsárlón. So they are not legally binding prohibitions, only warnings. Drone bans, however, are legally based and also strictly followed up with fines. Be as it may, we decided to try a bath again the following year. This time while raining cats and dogs.

The advantage of rainy weather is that there will be no visitors, you might think. But at Jökulsárlón there are always people! We went back and forth a bit. Should … shouldn’t. There was also quite a bit of wind and a rather harsh bathing weather. Suddenly a boat came, it was going to cruise around with tourists. We changed our minds – almost – but decided to give it a try anyway as the boat quickly turned around. It was great! The rain stopped just before we finished changing clothes. Most of the tourists around us disappeared and we had our swim in Jökulsárlón. Without bothering anyone. No seals were disturbed, no guards came running with prohibition signs. We didn’t go further out than we could stand, no big icebergs nearby and there is no stream in this part of the bay. A great bath, slightly cold, but not dangerous, as we see it!

Swimming in Jökulsárlón was a “just right” – for us. But of course, we would NEVER have recommended it to anyone!

Road no. 939 over Öxi (the Axe) is a 20 km long gravel road that runs between Berufjörður and Skríðdal. This is a splendid shortcut, which shortens the distance between Djúpivogur and Egilsstaðir by 71 km.

Axarvegur zigzags from the shore over the 532 m high Öxi pass, with a hight gradient of up to 20%, so you should not drive this road unless it is summer and the weather is good.

The initiator of this mountain road was Hjálmar Guðmundsson, born in 1897 in Berufjörður. Hjálmar has received a memorial plaque for his efforts.

A good reason to choose this route (in good weather) is Folaldafoss (The Foal Waterfall), which is located 4-5 km northwest of the exit from Ringvei 1 at Berufjörður.

Knut found himself a throne and was very pleased with that.

Folalda Waterfall has a fantastic pool beneath it, which just calls all bathing lovers. On road 939, you are slightly off the standard route, and it wasn’t long before we were alone by the pool.

The 3 car loads of Japanese people never left the car park, to our benefit.

A bath in Folaldafoss was absolutely right! But be aware, it was slippery on the bottom, so please take care.

The Nixie (Old English ‘Nicor’) was a water spirit in Germanic mythology and folk tales. The word originates from the Indo-European ‘neig’ = to wash. The Icelandic sagas have little content related to Nixie (Nykr) , but the Icelandic tradition has nevertheless been rich, as the high number of place names including ‘Nykr’ indicate. In Iceland, the Nixie was always a horse – with hooves pointing backwards!

The dramatic stories about the Nixie were splendid educational tools – to prevent children from going too close to the water and drown. The Nixie was connected to rivers and lakes. If anyone dared to ride the Nixie, they would drown. The sounds that occur in wintertime from the ice on lakes were explained as Nixie’s mournful cries.

In Fossardalur (the Waterfall Valley) northwest of Djúpivogur (the Deep Inlet) there are vast opportunities for bathing. It is said that you can find 30 waterfalls in the valley! We planned a bath in Nykurhylsfossen, which is the lowest one, but that was easier said than done. The waterfall wasn’t easily accessible.

Below Nykurhylsfossen, on the other hand, there is a large and beautiful pool where you can both bathe and swim. The depth is 9 meters. So why not just jump in instead of slowly wading out into it?

Unfortunately without a waterfall shower, and without the view of the waterfall.

According to tradition, a Nixie lived in this river. After being frightened and tormented by Nixie for a long time, the village people took action, and the pond under the waterfall was Christianized with holy water. The holy water made the pool uninhabitable for Nixie, and it ran screaming into the fjord and disappeared, never to return again. However, history says nothing about how the fjord Berufjörður turned out after this. Strange.

Geothermal energy can be defined as geothermal heat (jarðhiti) that reaches the earth’s surface. Where volcanic activity is high, porous rocks are formed, which allow water to flow in and heat.

Geothermal energy can be utilized directly by heating, or for electricity production or both.

A distinction is made between hot springs, mud springs and sulfur springs. Iceland has hot springs almost everywhere – the fewest in the east and northwest – the oldest parts of the country. Highest geothermal activity is found between the continental plates, in the fissures that run over Iceland from southwest to northeast.

A Google search shows that Iceland has more than 200 baths. Divided by 350,000 inhabitants, you get the highest density of bathing facilities in the world. This is not only good for hygiene and exercise. For Icelanders, bathing is an essential part of the culture, and the baths are important meeting places.

For the traveling tourist – just let yourself get carried away! You can find hot springs almost anywhere. One hot pot we were really fascinated by was the ‘Sink at Djúpivogur’. Drive south of the city, and just off Highway 1 you will find ‘Djúpavogskörin’, a hot pot that looks like a sink.

There is no fancy spa equipment out there, but you can actually find hooks for the clothes. The water is wonderful (quite warm), and the panorama is absolutely fantastic. This is a marvelous experience! NB, there are no signs, look for the steam!

After a not very successful mud bath in front of Hoffellsjökull, it was time to step up the glacier baths a little. If the lake in front of the glacier is deep enough, the probability is high that icebergs will break off from the glacier and start floating in the glacier lagoon. We wanted to swim with icebergs! One possibility is Fjallsárlón. Drive north from Vik i Mýrdal for just over 2 hours (or 15 km southwards from Jökulsárlón).

Fjallsárlón, is named after a glacier from Vatnajökull called Fjallsjökull (the Mountain Glacier). The lake is approximately 4 km² and 160 meters deep. Above the lake you can see the famous snow-covered volcano Öræfajökull. The name today means wasteland. The volcano has had two eruptions after the settlement of Iceland. The first and largest of these occurred in 1362, when more than 400 people were either killed (by floods) or were forced to move (by ash fall). It took many years before people settled in the area again.

One thing about volcanic eruptions is lava flow or ash rain, and the damage to houses and land because of this. Another issue is when the volcano is under ice, which melts during the eruption. The melt water creates a large flood that washes away everything in its path. In this case, four parishes! Floods from glaciers have been given a specific word in Icelandic: Jökulhlaup (Glacier Run).

Various activities are offered at Fjallsárlón, including kayaking, sailing and boat trips. We haven’t done that! But we have tried swimming in Fjallsárlón twice. Bathing in March was impossible, as the lake was frozen.

In September, however, we took a bath, all alone (due to covid19). Cold yes, but nice! It was wonderful to see the beautiful blue ice floating in the lake.

Earthquakes have been recorded below Öræfajökull in both 2017 and 2018, so there may be an eruption here before too long. North of the glacier is Iceland’s highest mountain Hvannadalshnjúkur, 2110 m.

After a very successful bath in front of Haukafellsjökull, we wanted to repeat the success. So we studied the map again, and found that the glacier in the valley next to it, Hoffellsjökull, (Hof was the Norse temple; i.e the Temple Mountain Glacier) was also marked with a lake at the glacier front. So then it was just a matter of taking another trip the next evening. What could possibly go wrong? We had studied the map, right?

Also at Hoffell, the marked hiking trail goes all the way to the glacier, and again we had a nice evening walk in absolutely brilliant weather, and we envisioned a nice bath at the glacial front.

Once at the glacier, a bath was a good…no – this time it was actually not right to bathe in the glacier lagoon. Hoffellsjökull has not dug deep enough. Yes, we found water, but it was so very shallow, brown water and mud all the way. How stupid wouldn’t it be to drown in quicksand here?

The solution was a puddle up by the moraine. Mud bath at sunset…

Well, well, it was kind of fun, and our bathing friend ‘Eddie’ always helps to lift the spirits. But this bath is simply not recommended.

PS: At Hoffell there are actually a couple of hot tubs to visit. However, those were closed during the corona, and we haven’t tested them. But curious, yes we are! The feedback online ranges from very enthusiastic to completely slaughtering. We will very likely come back with more about this some day.

In the spring of 2021, we were in quarantine on the east coast of Iceland, at Rauðaberg, not far from Höfn. This is Vatnajökull’s realm. Vatnajökull (8100 km²) is Europe’s largest glacier after Austfonna at Svalbard/Spitsbergen. The ice thickness is up to 1 km (!), with an average of 400 metres. The glacier outlets from Vatnajökull descend into each valley with its own name, mile after mile. It’s really huge!

Geologically speaking, fjords are seen as underwater valleys, formed by glacial erosion of the bedrock. The fjords in Norway and Iceland are carved out of glaciers, all the way into the sea. The word fjord comes from Indo-European, the verb ‘fara’, ie where one travels (to the other side). Because of the weight, the glaciers can also dig below sea level. They often have a threshold (ra) at the outlet, where it is much shallower than further into the fjord. The threshold is formed by sediments in front of the ice end. If you imagine a threshold fjord that never reached the sea, then you have the concept of a glacier lagoon. As the glacier retreats, a lake is often formed where the glacier has dug deep – before the end moraine. We wanted to swim in front of a glacier!

We checked the map and found a potential spot at Haukafell – Haukafellsjökull (the Hawk Mountain Glacier) seemed to have a lake in front of it. Even though we were in quarantine, we felt a tour here would be OK. At least no one could complain about the distance, we didn’t see another soul the whole evening…

There is a marked hiking trail all the way to the glacier. On the way, we saw many wonderful stones, where beautiful crystals had grown inside the gray or brown rock. You can read more about special Icelandic stones and mineral types at ‘Perlan’ in Reykjavík.

Once at the glacier, a bath was a good idea. Haukafellsjökull is an offspring from Vatnajökull and in decline. We therefore saw little danger in swimming in the glacier lagoon, since the lowermost ice was on dry land.

But of course we kept a good distance, and there were no signs of movement in the glacier. A splendid bath in a fantastic landscape, and a beautiful weather!

A (sun) bath in Haukafellsárlón is just right!