I had forgotten that the trail from the Eldgjá parking to the first view of the falls is about 1 km long.  Once we were there, we forded the stream, only to discover that there is a dry path!

The Nyðri-Órfæra falls are a beautiful double falls where water cascades down into the fissure created during the ~935-8 eruption.  More than 14 km2 of lava were extruded, making it the largest historical eruption.  A natural bridge used to span the lower fall but it collapsed in 1994.  The walls of the falls are composed of two sequences of palagonite ash covered by lava.  The falls carved out the ashes and left the basalt natural bridge.  Farther to the north in the fissure, some of the Laki flows partially filled in the gorge.  We took a group photo at the falls and then watched Brian and Garrett attempt more Darwin Award-winning feats on the rocks in the stream between the falls.

We ate lunch back at the bus and then headed out to Landmannalauger.  Other tourists photographed our bus as we forded the relatively deep stream. The drive across the bright green grassy slopes was particularly pretty because of all of the incised streams.  The road eventually follows a streambed right to the Landmannalauger.  We could see the steam rising high up on the obsidian flow.

We set up camp quickly on the hard, rocky ground, before the rain came.  We broke out the smoked salmon and pickled herring for appetizers and cooked a veggie chili meal.  Harðfiskur, a fish (cod) jerky, has become a favorite of many in the group while others are revolted by it.  Siggi is very happy that we have taken to these traditional Icelandic foods.

After dinner, most of us went down to the hot spring pool and lounged in water that was the temperature of our choice.  The water is heated by the still cooling obsidian flow that is more than 1200 years old. Cheryl and I started talking with two Dutch students.  When one of them said they were high school students, I asked them in their leaders were Esther Van Assen and Jan Willem De Blok, two of the 1996 Dutch students who I knew were leading a trip at the same time as ours.  Esther had told me our groups might overlap at Landmannalauger. 

I asked the student to take me to their tent, since he had said they were not planning to come to the pool.  He opened their tent door and said, “I’ve got a surprise for you!”  I walked in, crashing into their stacked pots and pans, surprising them. Tthe reunion was merry.  I talked them into coming down to the pool.  We sat there for about an hour with Garrett, Lori and Annelia.  It was fun to talk of our trip together and find out what they and the others are doing now.  I was sorry that Elise was not there to meet them but she had apparently fallen asleep in her tent.

It was after midnight when I finally crawled into my tent.  The ground was hard and lumpy but I fell asleep right away.

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