Icelandic Adventure

Iceland is one of the most unique places on the planet in almost every way and a spectacular place of natural beauty! I had the privilege of visiting the Lands of Ice and Fire.

The first thing I noticed about Iceland, as I was staring out of the airplane window, was that the landscape wasn't green and brown like any other place I'd ever been, instead, it was black and white. Black being the volcanic rock and white being the pristine snow. The name 'Iceland' always seemed a bit of a boring name to me, but upon arriving, it was clear that Iceland was the only suitable name!

I was only in Iceland for 4 days but we made sure that our time spent was packed full of things to do and see.

We landed at Keflavik airport mid-morning, and immediately set off on our first day of exploring Iceland, before even stopping at the hotel in Reykjavik. The first stop was the nearby Vikingaheimar museum which is the home of the Viking ship Islendigur - which is a replica of the famous Gokstad ship, that was excavated in Norway in 1882. The Islendigur ship sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 2000 to the Newfoundland Islands for the millennium celebrations. Iceland was one of the last places on earth to be discovered, only discovered in the 9th century by the Vikings, therefore they hold their Viking heritage very close to their hearts.

After having lunch at the Vikingaheimar museum, we continued our journey for an hour until we reached the 'Bridge between two continents'. If you're a geography nerd like me, then this will seem like a big deal to you. The bridge crosses a 15m fissure, which lies above the fault line between the North American Plate and the European Plate, showing how far they have moved apart. The plates are being pulled apart at a rate of 1cm a year. It is even possible to climb down into the fissure and essentially, walk to Europe from North America, or vice versa (or even have a snowball fight in the middle, as we did...) The fault line extends for hundreds of miles, splitting Iceland into two parts. It even extends deep into the ocean, as part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

The next stop was at a small beach only 20 minutes away, near Reyjanesbaer. There, stood a statue of a Great Auk, which was a type of penguin which became extinct in the mid 19th century, due to overhunting. The Great Auk was 75-85cm tall and weighed 5kg. The beach itself wasn't accessible due to the powerful waves and rocky ground (this didn't stop one brave photographer!) but standing on the cliff above was good enough for us and gave us a great view of the coastline.

After piling back onto the coach we continued until reaching some hot springs near Gnndavikurbaer - a hot spring is formed by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater that rises from the Earth's crust. The smell of egg hit us immediately as we stepped off the bus - the smell comes from the high sulphur content in the hot springs. The ground near the hot springs reached temperatures of 80 degrees Celsius and the hot springs themselves were between 290-320 degrees Celsius. The hot springs weren't only smelly, they were also very noisy!

Our final stop of the day was at the world-famous Blue Lagoon, where we bathed in the geothermally heated water. The lagoon itself sits between the two tectonic plates and is used to power a geothermal power plant, which contributes to Iceland's 100%% clean energy. The Blue Lagoon staff also offer free silica mud face masks which are supposed to help to cleanse your skin. The minerals and algae in the lagoon's waters are also good for detoxifying the body and relaxing your muscles, but it did give it an awful salty taste. The temperature of the lagoon ranges from 37-39 degrees Celsius, which sounds delightful in comparison to the cold air of Iceland, however, it took a few attempts to get into the lagoon, as the water felt too hot initially - but then it seemed impossible to get out of afterwards! The floor and walls of the Blue Lagoon are made out of a mineral rock, which did seem a bit rough to touch, however, it's much nicer to be stood on the rough ground than on squishy algae, which are found in some areas of the lagoon (gross!). It is recommended for girls (and some guys) to keep their hair tied up to avoid it getting wet as the minerals can strip the hair of its natural oils which makes it feel like plastic (like Barbie's hair!)

We began our day at Þingvellir National Park (pronounced Thingvellir). It was founded by law in 1930 and added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004. We walked through the Almannagja Gorge to Oxarafoss. During the walk, we experienced amazing views of Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland. Oxarafoss is 13m high and is one of the most popular attractions in the Þingvellir National Park.

Our next stop was at Laugarva, where we were able to eat bread which had been cooked under the ground, on top of a hot spring overnight! It surprisingly tasted really good despite the unusual cooking technique. It didn't smell of egg either which was pleasantly surprising.

After our snack, we continued on the bus until we reached the Gulfoss Waterfall. Gulfoss is known as being one of Iceland's most beautiful waterfalls, and for being Iceland's second-highest waterfall. Gulfoss is 32m high with two drops and a flow of 140m3/s. The waterfall hadn't always been a tourist icon, in the 20th century, many investors speculated the idea of using the energy from the waterfall to provide power. The Tómasson family were dedicated to preserving the waterfall, and the daughter even threatened to throw herself down it. Fortunately, the plans to exploit the waterfall were scrapped due to a lack of funds. Eventually, the waterfall was sold to the State of Iceland and is now protected.

We drove on until reaching the Geysir Geothermal Area. Geysir is Iceland's largest geyser, but it's eruptions are infrequent, with years between them. The eruptions can send boiling water up to 70m into the air. It has been active for 10,000 years. Only 50m from Geysir, you will find Strokkur which is a much smaller geyser which erupts reliably every 6-10 minutes. It can send boiling water 40m into the air but most of the eruptions are between 15 and 20 meters high. Strokkur and Geysir were discovered in 1789. During the 20th century, an earthquake occurred which blocked the conduit, this prevented Strokkur from erupting. The locals worked together to unblock the conduit through the bottom of the basin which enabled the geyser to erupt once again. Crowds of people surrounded Strokkur, waiting for an eruption when it did there was a collective "ooh, wow", before an inevitable run to escape the water being shot out of the geyser. Other than the noise of the amazed crowd and camera clicking, the eruption itself, was almost silent.

Reykholt was our next destination where we went to a tomato farm with a cafe selling tomato flavoured food (including tomato flavoured ice cream... yuck!) They also had Icelandic Horses (Ponies) - it is considered offensive to refer to them as ponies in Iceland, despite them being the size of a pony, rather than a horse. They are the only species of horse in Iceland and once they leave Iceland, they aren't allowed to return, this prevents the spread of disease. There are 98,000 Icelandic Horses in Iceland, that's enough for almost one for every three people!

Our final stop of the day was at the Hellisheidi Power Station, which is one of Iceland's Geothermal Power Plants. Providing 99.9% of Reykjavik with heated water. It is also the 3rd largest Geothermal Power Plant in the world, with 50 wells, the deepest reaching 2,200m underground.

Later on in the evening, we set off on our journey to look for the Northern Lights. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see them. We travelled for hours into the mountains, away from the city, in hopes of seeing the majestic Northern Lights. After stopping at various locations, dragging ourselves off the coach into the freezing midnight air, then being inevitably disappointed, we eventually headed back to Reykjavik...

Despite returning from our Northern Lights hunt at 2:30 am, we still had to get up at 5 am to set off on our long drive to the Solheimajokull glacier. It is a huge glacier between the volcanoes of Eyjafjallajokull and Hekla. The glacier sticks out of the larger Mýrdalsjökull glacier which is located on top of the Katla caldera, an active yet fierce volcano which has the potential of being a fearful natural disaster (fortunately it kept quiet whilst we were there). We spent two hours hiking up Solheimajokull, which gave us some pretty spectacular views! The Solheimajokull glacier is also known as the shrinking glacier, retreating over 1km in a decade due to global warming...

Hekla is 1,488m high and is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes, with the last eruption occurring in 2000. The volcano has a story behind it too:

A woman called Hekla had magical dungarees which controlled the sheep. The shepherd once asked her if he could borrow it but she refused. She left one night, so the shepherd took the dungarees to bring all the sheep in, then put the dungarees back before going to bed. When Hekla returned, she noticed that they had been used, so she killed the shepherd in his sleep! She soon realised what she had done, so she hid the body in a soup barrel. Eventually, the soup stock was running low, she knew she would soon be caught, as the body would be discovered! So she ran away up to the crater, and jumped in... Two days later... The volcano erupted!

After having lunch below the glacier, we continued to the Dyrholaey coast, which had black sand due to the volcanic ash mixing in with it. However, this beautiful beach is one of the most dangerous places in Iceland due to its strong tide, which drags people out to sea if they get too close. Needless to say, we kept our distance.

On our way back to the hotel, we visited Iceland's tallest waterfall, Skogafoss! It is 60m high and 25m wide. We were able to walk up some stairs to the top of the waterfall, which gave us a brilliant panoramic view of Iceland's Southern Coastline. A local legend says that there is treasure buried in a cave beneath Skogafoss, but we weren't willing to get our toes wet in search for it!

Our next stop was only a short drive away; The Eyjafjallajokull Visitor Centre. It was a volcano very few people had heard of before it erupted in April 2010, scattering fine ash across northern Europe and bringing air travel to a grinding halt. We watched a short documentary about the local farmers in the region below Eyjafjallajokull, whose lives were changed when the volcano erupted, demolishing their houses and killing their livestock. It also showed the recovery of the local area and how they adapted, rather than looking at the whole European impact, it was very interesting! Eyjafjallajokull is a stratovolcano and is 1,666m high, despite its confusing spelling, it is pronounced like; 'I don't like my yogurt'.

The final stop of the day was at the Seljalandsfoss, which is a 60m tall waterfall (not quite as tall as Skogafoss though). The origin of Seljalandsfoss is within the Eyjafjallajokull volcano glacier.  The waterfall does have a small cave which visitors can access behind it, however, it wasn't accessible when we visited due to ice - who'd have thought of that, in Iceland!

Our final day was spent in Reykjavik, exploring the city, tasting the food and embracing the culture. Reykjavik has a population of roughly 120,000 people which makes it Europe's smallest capital, but it has all of the fun of a big capital city. Despite the black and white landscape of Iceland, Reykjavik provides a nice contrast with its colourful architecture. It is also one of the world's safest cities, with as few as 2 murders a year throughout the whole country. The police don't even carry weapons! This safeness is clear as everyone is friendly and open to helping tourists, this is unusual for a capital city.

We visited the tallest building in Reykjavik, Hallgrimskirkja. Standing at 74.2m tall, it gives an incredible view of the entire city, even on a foggy day! 

Unfortunately, this marked the end of our trip, we had packed in so many visits and activities that we were all quite glad to be on a plane for a few hours to catch up on some well-deserved sleep (and glad to be heading somewhere a little bit warmer...!)