Ring Road Iceland - Hella

Hella is another reasonably new community and a great base to slow down, rejuvenate and visit the surrounding area. It started in 1927 with a store being built near the bridge that crosses the Ytri-Rangá River. A decade later the store was bought by a co-op society and moved into other businesses and by the 1950s it was a flourishing little town that continued to grow and develop bringing more services such as schools, community centre, sports centre and an administrative building. Today the town's economy is dependent on service and tourism.

A short easy hike away from the bridge, I came across Ægissiðufoss waterfall. Nothing like what I've seen throughout Iceland so far, a tall, menacing, powerful falls, but it is wide and cascades over a couple of layers into Ytri-Rangá River that flows onwards into the Atlantic. The river itself is popular for salmon fishing and a great foreground for photographic composition with Mount Hekla in the background.

Hekla is a very busy volcanic mountain. At a height of 1,491m (4,892ft) it has erupted more than 20 times in the past 1,100 years and during the Middle Ages it was called "Gateway to Hell". Due to its frequent eruptions, the tephra layers that covered about 10% of the land are now used to date other volcanoes in the country.

Hiking is a popular pass time on Hekla especially since the path leads up to the summit. The first ascent was in 1750 completed by two students. Although the path is marked up to the halfway point the rest of it is on a broad ridge walk with half of that on snow. The hike passes three craters along with some steaming sulphur.

Hekla also has a pastry named after it. It's an upside-down cinnamon roll with icing sugar drizzled over the top to look like the snow-topped volcano. Much as I'd like to have one the nearest bakery for this specialty is Boston, Massachusetts.

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