For our second day we split up because Kristen wanted to go diving in glacier melt and I thought that that didn’t sound like a whole lotta fun. So I slept in a little bit, navigated the free breakfast buffet which had some pretty tasty pastries and croissants, and then hopped on my little tour bus for a trip to Snæfellsness . Pickup was between 8:30 and 9:00 and I was one of the last people but I snagged a solo seat. The bus was pretty comfortable and our guide and driver were up front. I don’t know how to spell or say either of their names though…
The Snæfellsness peninsula is about a two hour drive north of Reykjavik, so off we went. It was a little overcast in the morning, but the views from the bus were pretty awesome. After a little bit we actually took a tunnel under a fjord which was really cool. The walls of the tunnel were just natural stone for some parts. The most prevalent wildlife encountered was sheep though. Sheep with lots of wool, black sheep, sheep huddled together, sheep with horns, sheep without horns. Whatever type of sheep you want. The further along we got the worse the weather became until it actually started to rain. I then discovered why the fields all had giant parallel ditches in them – to act as channels for the runoff! Another cool thing happens during the rain – waterfalls down the sides of the mountains. The mountains near the coast of Iceland rise up sharply and dramatically to the areas of higher elevation (I’ll pretend they’re old volcanoes). The rainwater has to go somewhere so the mountainsides are covered in small waterfalls and grooves where water has eroded through.
Our first stop was at Ytri-Tunga to see some seals. Except seals don’t really like the rain. The location was pretty cool looking though, even with the light fog and rain. Eventually I did see three seals swimming in the water and one goofball who managed to balance on a rock like half his size. Overall a cool stop, but would’ve been cooler with if the seals didn’t mind getting wet.
Our next stop was at Arnarstapi – a small fishing village with some cool views. Here we saw a statue of Baldur – a half troll/half man who protects this area and sleeps in a cave. A little bit past the statue of Baldur is a series of overlooks that of the ocean. I was wrong about the ocean being calm yesterday, it gets pretty rough! My guide said that it’s even calm now. Anyway, this location has a great view of where some old lava flows met the sea and began to form basalt columns. The columns form when the top layer of the basalt begins to cool rapidly which then proceeds through the rest of the liquid in a hexagonal shape. The columns aren’t all parallel and you can see the ends of some next to the length of others.
We kept walking a bit to see the super awesome rock bridges and blowholes (although the ocean was too calm for the blowhole). A little bit on one of my tour-mates showed me a group of harlequin ducks, but they were in winter plumage so they didn’t look super special. Arnarstapi itself is a cute little village, and there’s supposed to be a giant mountain and glacier behind it but it was too foggy. Still looked cool. Lunch was some soup from the local restaurant… it was okay. Definitely tourist food though.
Next stop was to see some basalt pillars/columns out in the ocean. But once again it was too foggy (like zero visibility). Our guide told me he’s never seen it this foggy before! So I guess that means I’m actually lucky in my trip selection. Score. So we looked quick then went to our next stop – black sand beach. The ground leading up to the beach is a fairly recent (geologically speaking) lava flow. So far the only thing that can grow on it is moss/lichen so it has a cool contrast between the soft greens of the moss and the harsh black on the aa like lava. The beach itself somehow used to serve as a staging point for fishing crews… I say somehow because the waves were pretty rough. Not exactly boat friendly. Here we also saw the wreckage of an old fishing boat and an elf church! No elves so far yet though. They only reveal themselves to the certain people. Must be why I didn’t see any.
Next we drove to Kirkjufel – the church mountain. Here it started to get crazy windy. Like blow your socks off windy. Unfortunately it didn’t blow the clouds off of Kirkjufel so we weren’t able to see the whole mountain. We did get to see Kirkjufellsfoss with a crap ton of water in it though! It was seriously raging – our guide said it was the most water he’s ever seen in it. The wind was also crazy intense. Some of the gusts were strong enough to actually move me, luckily my coat is waterproof. My jeans not so much though. A couple of people insisted on taking pictures next to it with no coats on and minimal safety, I couldn’t watch them. Selfies must be important. We then began the long drive back to Reykjavik after a day of sightseeing! I’ll have to come back so I can actually see Snæfellsjökull though. Throughout the trip I learned some interesting things about the US from one of my group mates (who is from Toronto). One is that we have very different cultures from Canada (fair). Another was that if you want to visit the US you should probably visit either the east coast or west coast because they’re the most educated. I’m not sure if Lancaster falls under the “East Coast” designation.
But while I was learning these things and seeing great sights, Kristen was diving at Silfra. Silfra is a dive site located in the Thingvellir national park about an hour northeast of Reykjavik. Here the water is filtered for about 30 years through the lava fields from the glaciers and about 3-6 months if it’s rainwater. This means it’s exceptionally clear! Like you can see right through it without any type of polarization from the outside and you have about 300 ft of visibility from the inside. There was a little hike to the dive site across the street and a longer hike after the dive back to the changing area. What makes the dive so crazy though is the temperature of the water! 2 degrees Celsius or about 34/35 Fahrenheit!
Well she got back before me and then we met at the hotel bar. Here we made friends with Michael from Australia – he’s on his “honeymoon” and decided to grab a drink at the bar. After about three hours he decided he should go back up to his room. We also made friends with Anna the bartender. She’s from Iceland and answered some questions about Icelandic life that I had been wondering about. She also introduced us to the first Icelandic liquor after their Prohibition was lifted… she said it was like gin but weird. Not sure if she’s ever had gin if she doesn’t think it’s already weird. It was good but had a little bit of an aftertaste that just hung out in the back of your throat.
