Saturday 31st August
This was to be our last driving day of
the tour. We had by now entered the west of Iceland and were heading
for our hotel drop-offs later in the day in Reykjavik.
Our standard early morning departure
was followed by a visit to Grábrók, a volcano crater surrounded by
a lava-flow landscape. The climb up to the crater rim from the car
park was helped by the installation of a wooden walkway and steps,
with some very well-placed stopping points along the way. We didn’t
stay overly long, and it was windy up there.
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| Crater and surrounds |
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| Stone sheep pens |
A brief stop at
the Gianni waterfall was followed by Deildartunguhver
Thermal Spring, the most powerful hot spring in Europe. The water
from this spring is used to heat houses up to 60 kilometres away.
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| Gianni waterfall |
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| Thermal spring |
The
Hraunfossar cascade and Barnafoss waterfall were next but by this
time we were starting to get more than a little jaded with
waterfalls. Even the tragic story behind the naming of these as the
“Children's Falls” didn't really help
And
were really waiting for the next stop, which was the former home of
Snorri Sturluson, who lived in this region some 850 years ago. Robyn
and I had both gained a liking for Snorri from the stories about him
told in Sagaland. He certainly seemed to have had a huge impact on
Icelandic history, being a historian, poet and politician. He has
been credited with being the author of the Prose Edda, and a number
of other works which are considered to be the basis for most of the
Icelandic sagas. He was also involved in setting up the original
Icelandic parliament, becoming the lawspeaker of the Althing,
possibly the most important public position in all of Iceland. But he
was really his own worst enemy, being more than a little arrogant. He
met his end in 1241 when, during a siege of his property, he left his
inner enclave to visit his hot spring pool for a bath. For whatever
reason he hadn't extended his fort's walls to surround his spot and
his enemies were waiting for him there.
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| Snorri |
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| His hot pool |
Our
final official stop of the tour was at Sturlureykir Horse Farm. Here
we got a chance to get up close to some Icelandic horses and learnt a
bit about the history of the breed. No horses have been imported into
Iceland in a thousand years, so the Icelandic variety has become a
very weird strain all of its own. They can't mix readily with any
other breeds as they have no immunity to even minor equine viruses,
hence the ban. This farm told us the story of one of their favourite
stallions who was taken to Germany for an exhibition and was then not
allowed to return.
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| Robyn finds a new friend |
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| The tour group |
The
drive back to Reykjavik had us passing around Nhvalfjörður
(Whale Fjord), a very scenic spot. We made it back to our
hotel around 6pm that evening and were rather sad that the tour had
come to an end. On the other hand we needed a rest.
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