Húsavík to Ólafsfjörður, 21 Aug 2026
After leaving Húsavík, we walked in the Dimmuborgir lava fields, saw the Goðafoss waterfall from many different angles, and visited Iceland’s second-largest city.
The morning was back to the normal routine of eating breakfast and loading up the vans. The weather was cool but still nice. We’ve been extremely lucky with avoiding rain, with only a few sprinkles since our two days of constant rain in Reykjavik.
Dimmuborgir Lava Fields
The first stop was to the Dimmuborgir Lava Fields. We were planning on doing a loop which was just about the amount of time before we were planning on leaving the parking lot, so we made sure to not dally when we started. When we had pulled up, we noticed clouds of midges near the van, so we quickly put on our head nets before opening the door (or quickly after getting out of the van). After following the paved path for a little bit, we got to a dir and rock trail that started going uphill through volcanic pillars, arches, and hollow chambers. There was one arch that the trail went through, so of course we did that.
When we got to the far end of the loop, we decided we had time to take a slight detour to Kirkjr, or the church. It was a very large stone arch that was slightly pointed at the top, as well as lighter rock near the opening, making it look like a church arch. With a bit of down and then back up, we made it through the arch, then looped back to our original loop. We figured we had time to make it to the van in time if we made sure to go quickly. We saw one small cave in the wall that had some things in it, and it looked like it was set up as a small troll room with chairs, a hammock, and even a window against the wall.
As it ended up, we made it back a bit early, so we moved around a bit to avoid the midges before the other people from our van returned.
Goðafoss Waterfall
After leaving Dimmuborgir, we noticed that we were transporting some midges with us, but they seemed more interested in hanging out against the windows instead of bothering us. When we got to Goðafoss, we let as many of them out of the van as we could, then made a plan. We had parked on the south side of the river, which was also the busy side since a tour bus had just let off dozens of people who were going to the viewpoint there. Melody and I were going to walk downriver, cross the pedestrian bridge, then walk all the way back on the north side to view the waterfall, then come back to the south side to view it. With that plan, we set out.
The path to the pedestrian bridge bypassed the majority of the people who were going to the platform on the south side, so we quickly got across then started taking the path near the river along the north side of the river. We got great views all the way to the top of the falls and beyond. We could see a lot of people on the viewing platform on the other side, but the crowd seemed to be thinning out. As we went back towards the pedestrian bridge, we saw people loading onto the tour bus before it left.
We went along the south side of the river, once again making our way to the falls. On the way back, we decided we had time to go down the stairs which took us to the river which gave us yet another view of the falls.
Rest of the day
Once we were done with the waterfall, our next stop was Akureyri, which is Iceland’s second largest city. Along the way was Vaðlaheiðargöng, a 4.5-mile toll tunnel. Fortunately, the group leader had prepaid the tolls, so we were quick to get through.
Once in Akureyri, one thing we noticed was that the red lights in the traffic signals were shaped like hearts. Cute. Several of us went to a small café, but we were arriving with several other people (both from our group and not) that the line to order was pretty long and there were few tables. We did get our order placed and sat with another couple at a table upstairs. After a while, we were noticing it was taking quite a while to get our food. The table behind us was also waiting for a long time, and the owner brought a plate of bread and other items for free. We figured they were from one of the large cruise ships.
It ended up being almost an hour before we got our food, but even so, it was quite good. Unfortunately, that had taken up a lot of the free time we had before leaving, so we made a beeline to the church, Akureyrarkirkja, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, who also designed Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik. The nave was more of a square shape rather than a long rectangle, and the organ loft was quite impressive. There was a whimsical touch of a model ship hanging above some of the pews.
We then stopped by a café for some dessert, then did a bit of wandering around before making our way back to the van. We drove across town a bit to do some grocery shopping for dinner and breakfast. After that, it was a relatively short drive to Dalvik, a small town where we were scheduled for a quick 45-minute stop. Melody had found a 48-minute loop around town, so we figured we could go at a quick pace, and there were places where we could do a shortcut if we needed to make up time.
The walk started out along a road, but about a third of the way turned into a path which gave us views of the fjord, hills, and fields. We did end up making a shortcut but got back to the van with a bit of time to spare.
After leaving Dalvik, we came to another tunnel, Múlagöng. This one was about 2 miles long, but was a one-lane, two-way tunnel. There were pullouts in our direction, so we figured that the other direction had the right-of-way. We did need to sit in one pull-out for quite a while to let a lot of cars by, but after that, we were able to go the rest of the way.
We arrived in Ólafsfjörður to a series of cabins. While other people wandered around, we decided to head into the cabin and stay there to avoid the midges. We had our dinner and settled into our evening routine of settling down.
