Enjoying the North of Iceland: Grjótagjá and Mývatn Nature Baths :)

After short visit to Egilsstaðir, a small town in eastern Iceland, we drove directly to Mývatn lake, arriving after 3 am at the camping 'Bjarg' that I remembered from July last year. Japanese guys and Polish girl from Copenhagen, our couchsurfers, were sleeping all the way through the East Fjords at the back seat.. stormy weather and strong wind, visibility wasn't good but we followed until the fabulous lake. Italian photographer is a very good driver so I wasn't afraid at all to continue our journey in the quite thick fog..

Mývatn camping was in the middle of the storm when we arrived there and of course couldn't put up a tent in this crazy weather, even didn't want to try. Just looking for some dry shelter around.. After strange negotiation (almost quarrelling) with the owner that was reminding us one famous character called 'Scrooge', he allowed us to pay for staying in the car or in the bathrooms area.. so it was the way how our 'camping' adventure looked like there. CS guys were sleeping just next to the showers or even inside shower and closet cabins. No complaints in the morning as it was warm and clean there.. warmer then in the car, for sure.

Very cold and windy white night changed into quite warm and cloudy day with a drizzle, just right time to shelter in the nicely hot silica water of Mývatn Nature Baths.  Kind of smaller 'Blue lagoon', blue geothermal water in natural lava surrounding.
This time water seemed to be colder then I remembered it from my previous trip, probably because of the wind and stormy weather. Still there were some currents that were burning us with very hot water.. Great pleasure and very relaxing moment.. One of my favourite places in Iceland although becoming more and more touristic nowadays.



Mývatn Nature Baths opened in 2004, but people had been taking baths and steam baths in the area for centuries.

'The inhabitants of  the Mývatn region have been enjoying healthy bathing in the hot geothermal springs ever since Iceland was settled by the Vikings. There is heat in the earth, hot springs sizzle in the fissures all around and nowhere else in Iceland does such pure steam rise from the earth, free from sulphur vapours or any other pollution. Many historic remains and folk tales tell us about shelters built to use the steam in this area for bathing. In 1940, a new shelter was built above a steam hole already blessed by the good bishop Gudmundur as early as the 13th century which has been used for steam bathing (also called dry bathing) for centuries.'

After ca. 2 hours of dehidration in silica water and relaxing in the baths restaurant area I proposed to go to Grjótagjá cave first before seeing some more attraction of the area.
Grjótagjá is a small lava cave near lake Mývatn with a thermal spring inside.
Until the 1970s Grjótagjá was a popular bathing site. But during the eruptions from 1975 to 1984 the temperature of the water rose to more than 50 °C, though the temperature is slowly decreasing and has fallen below 50 °C again.

It was raining again and in the cave we spotted 2 guys bathing there even the water could be around 44-46 °C. Amazing scenery.

I really insisted to visit that cave as Grjótagjá was used as a location for filming famous love scene between Jon Snow and Ygritte. Yes, they shot there the fifth episode of the third season of Game of Thrones, called 'Kissed by Fire'. My favourite fantasy film. Remember this scene? :)


My travel photo-story will be continued soon :)