Today we came down out of the highlands. After a few days on the Kjölur road, in the geothermal country and the glaciers, we were heading back toward the lowlands, and we had one stop in mind on the way, a waterfall called Brúarfoss.

We left the campground under a clear sky, with sun and no wind. We drove back down the dirt stretch of Route 35, the 89 miles we had come up, with the same wide views the whole way. Seems we cant get tire of this scenery.

Then we turned off toward Brúarfoss. Brúarfoss is not a big waterfall. It is short, and it is not powerful, and after the scale of the highlands it looks almost small. The reason to go is the colour. The water is an intense blue, brighter than seems natural, and it runs through a narrow gap in the black basalt in a fan of channels rather than one drop.

The blue comes from the river Brúará, which is fed by meltwater off Langjökull, the same glacier we had been driving past for two days. The water filters down through the lava rock, comes out clear, and takes on that colour in the fall. We had seen the top of that glacier from a distance all week. Here we were looking at its meltwater up close.

From there we drove back to our campground on Route 35, between Geysir and Gullfoss, and stopped for the day.