Kleifarvatn's black shore

Kleifarvatn fills a fault trough in the middle of the peninsula: about ten square kilometres of water up to 97 metres deep, with no visible river feeding it or draining it, held between the serrated Sveifluháls ridge on one side and lava on the other. Road 42 runs right along the eastern shore, so you can park and be at the water in a minute.

The photographic asset here is quiet. Black sand and small gravel beaches run down to water that goes glass-still on a calm day, and the ridge doubles in it — the exact opposite of the noisy geothermal fields at the tip. Put a couple small in a wide frame and let the scale do the work; or come close for feet in black sand and the pale water behind.

Light is gentlest in the evening, when the sun drops behind Sveifluháls and rims the ridge line. Winter turns the whole basin monochrome, with pale ice at the edges and snow in the gullies; September and October bring the first auroras over a lake that reflects them. A grey day is not a lost day here — flat light suits the palette.

Practical notes: it is thirty-five minutes from Reykjavík on Road 42, which is paved but narrow and winding, and there are no facilities at the lake. Ten minutes further south, the Seltún geothermal field adds boiling springs and orange ground on boardwalks. The lake is cold and deep with steep shelves in places — this is a shoreline location, not a swimming one.