Hofsá — the shrine-river — runs some eighty-five kilometres down Hofsárdalur and Vesturárdalur to Vopnafjörður on Iceland's north-east coast, its valleys farmed far into the interior. The upper beats are canyon water: the river thunders through a confined basalt gorge over a string of challenging pools to a dramatic impassable falls that marks the head of the salmon's range, around thirty kilometres from the tide. Below the canyon the river changes character entirely, settling into an almost endless succession of long, slow, fly-perfect glides, each pool seeming more inviting than the last. The bed is the dark volcanic rock and gravel of the eastern fjords, cut by ice and held in a broad green dale. Wading is generally comfortable on firm gravel; the canyon pools demand respect for fast water against bedrock.

Wading: Fast water against bedrock in the upper canyon