It is raining on my tent as I write this, there has been drizzle from the dark clouds for much of the day, which did not show the landscape in its best light, a pity. The walk started well, among low birch and willow trees along the top of the cliffs that enclosed Ásbyrgi. Then, confused by a misleading sign, I took an unintended, longer path, which led me more directly to the gorge of the river Jökulsá á Fjöllum. I was following the Jökulsárhlaup trail, along which an annual "marathon" is run, the best time was 2 hours 3 minutes, it took me 10 hours 30 minutes! A large amount of turbulent, dirty water was flowing down the deep, wide gorge, in general the trail followed the rim giving a good view of the rocks and rapids below. I walked through areas of heathland with low creeping birch and willow, some heather and what looked like blueberry bushes; at other times the path was through rocks and ash. Near Vesturdalur there were some startling rock formations of twisted lava, before a parking area and campsite. On a sunny day I might have stopped for the night there and completed a few local hikes in the afternoon, but the site was almost closed and gloomy in the dull weather, a sign said you could camp if you paid the fee at Ásbyrgi visitor centre, 5 hours walk back down the trail! So continuing, there were further unusual rock formations, two rock towers in particular called "Karl og Kerling" were signposted. There were some wooden bridges but one river had to be waded across. Unlike a runner that passed me, I removed my boots to avoid wet feet for the next few days, although with the rain gradually seeping in they were pretty wet anyway.
Nearer Dettifoss a sign suggested you avoid the riverside path, especially if you had a rucksack, as it was steep and dangerous. Heeding the advice, somewhat reluctantly I followed a safer route away from the river beside a dry gorge, looking like a large "gash" in the land. The Dettifoss campsite, for hikers only, had no sign, just some plastic containers of drinking water and a visitors book. No-one was there so before pitching I continued to the car park thinking there might be an information office or sign, given the popularity of the site, but although there were plenty of cars, there were few facilities, just some long drop latrines. I followed the people walking from their vehicles down to the Dettifoss waterfall. I had seen a few waterfalls on my way up the gorge, but this was certainly the biggest, creating clouds of spray which merged with the rain, as vast volumes of water crashed over a lip of rock into the gorge below. A little higher up river there was another waterfall, Selfoss, more artistic with some of its flow diverted into smaller waterfalls on one side. With the visit to the waterfalls and some other diversions I covered 40 kilometres today with a 870 metre total ascent, a bit on the high side, but it is not much fun to sit around in the rain, you might as well walk.
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