The sixth was a day that involved a lot of driving: east from near the north-middle of the island, to the eastern fjords. Along the way we saw a lot of open country, with mostly low scrub or tundra grasses, or lunar grey rock fields. We also saw some beautiful waterfalls. Some had names, but some didn’t seem to: they were just there, visible from the road. Some were a little hidden, known primarily to sheep.
Hengifoss came up fairly late in the day, and required a good hour of hiking up the escarpment we had just driven down, to get to the main falls, which were essentially right off the top of the higher ground level (the road and parking lot were down below, at fjord level.) They claim the spot as the longest fall of an Icelandic waterfall, and were properly spectacular, but for me the lower fall, with a fountainhead composed of pure columnar bassalt was the pick of the falls for spectacular beauty. Of course then we had to climb all the way back down.
It was a bit overcast by the time we came to our cabin accommodation, so we were a bit worried about the prospects for aurora viewing, but by nine-thirty or so the sky above the fjord had cleared, and we had quite a decent display until a bit after midnight.
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