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This part of the country is among the youngest
(1477) and wildest pearls of the central highlands. It includes about 50
lakes of various sizes, many of which are crater lakes. The craters and
lakes lie in two rows. Most of the lakes are fed and discharged underground
because of the lava fields and porous scoria. To get into the area, you must
ford the small river between the two Fossvotn lakes. The northernmost lakes
are called Hraunvotn. On some of the lakes, you can find small, beautiful,
sensitive and variegated oases. You can catch two-to-six-pound Brown Trout
in most of these lakes. Some people have caught ten-pounders!
Farmers, who hold the fishing
rights, net some of them regularly late in summer to
increase the average size of the fish and for commercial purposes.
They released Lake Char fries into some of the lakes
in the past and soon it started popping up all over and its number is
constantly increasing.
In 1918 the volcano Katla devastated the area with its ashes.
There was hardly any vegetation left and the catch diminished abruptly for years on end.
Nature recovered amazingly quickly. The road to the area lies to the east from the
Sprengisandur route and ends by the tourist huts in Jokulheimar at the western edge of
the icecap Vatnajökull. There is another hut on one of the lakes,
Tjaldvatn, where the
vegetation is lush. On the whole, the lake area is among the most beautiful in the
country.
Sigalda
36 km <Veidivotn>
Jokulheimar 40 km. |