Goðafoss is the waterfall of the gods, and its name comes from a story. In the year 1000, when the Icelandic parliament decided that the country should adopt Christianity, the lawspeaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði is said to have thrown his statues of the old Norse gods into the falls on his way home, and the name has stuck ever since. Whether or not it happened exactly that way, the story fits the place, where the river Skjálfandafljót drops in a wide, curving horseshoe over a basalt ledge, about twelve metres high and thirty metres across.
The falls sit right beside the Ring Road, a short way from the Mývatn area, and are among the easiest to reach in the north of Iceland, with a car park and short paths on both banks. The water is milky grey-blue with glacial silt, and the noise of the falls fills the air, with spray drifting across the viewing paths on windy days. The surrounding country is open, with low lava fields, moss and rounded hills, and in summer the evening light lasts long into the night, turning the water gold. In winter the falls partly freeze, and the landscape is pure white.
For riders, Goðafoss is often the end of the long highland crossing of Sprengisandur, the great empty route through the centre of the island. The last part of the track descends the Bárðardalur valley, with gravel, river crossings and sheep, and when you reach the falls, the tarmac of the Ring Road seems like a luxury. The route is open only in summer, usually from late June to September, depending on snow, and requires care, with fast-changing weather and deep fords.
Fuel is the thing to plan. There are no stations on Sprengisandur itself, so you must fill up before the crossing and carry spare if the range is tight. At Goðafoss, there is a small shop and cafe by the car park, but the nearest proper fuel and supermarket are in Akureyri, about twenty-five kilometres to the west, a lively town of seventeen thousand people. Most Icelandic pumps take cards with a PIN, so make sure you know yours.