The Golden Circle (Part 2) - Geysir, Heavy Weather and Soup

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1:00 PM

Geysir, as the name suggests, is the original geyser, where the name comes from (despite a slight change in the spelling in the English version), although there are several geysers within a few feet of each other, so how we know that this particular one is the original I’m not sure. Anyway, Geysir itself doesn’t erupt all that often anymore, but when it does, it tends to be a big one, and it tends to go sideways, according to Herman, so unless you enjoy a face full of boiling water it’s probably best that it doesn’t go off after all.

Herman pulled up as close as he could to Geysir, let us all jump off the minibus, and then said he’d meet us at the cafe just down the road. It may be that he decided not to join us while we walked around the site because he has seen the place hundreds of times before, and it no longer excites him, but I suspect it was more to do with the weather; the wind on top of Haukadalur valley was strong and cold, while the air was filled with rain, hail and snow, changing every couple of minutes. The area looked like something from another world; all around us was Icelandic countryside and snowy mountains, but right here, for no more than a few hundred yards square there was orangey-brown sand that steamed in various places, small pools dotted here and there with a bright blue colour caused by the algae living in there, and hot bubbling pools that exploded in a vent of steam every now and then. Geysir itself didn’t go off while we were there, but, as luck would have it, there is another geyser, called Strokkur, that is famed for being regular in its eruptions, on average about once every five minutes or so. It went off three times while we were there, giving us plenty of time to see how the process works. Essentially, the water is very hot a long way below the surface due to the activity along the faultline. So hot in fact that the water should be boiling and steam pouring up towards the sky. The problem is, it’s a long way down and the pressure from the cold water above keeps it where it is. For a while, the cold and hot water have a bit of a fight, but eventually the hot always wins and it starts to rise. This is where the theory ends and we get to see what’s going on. The little puddle starts to bubble as the hot water starts coming through, and as the pressure below drops when the hot water gets close to the surface, the steam and water finally burst through spewing steam straight in the air and whichever way the wind is blowing, which was straight at us on the first eruption, but we soon learned to stand the other side. Though it was cold and wet out here, the sight (as well as the need to get a good photo) was enough to keep us out for a while longer. After a few more minutes, Lyndsey managed to get a decent video, I got photos before and after but not during, and John got nowhere with his advances on Tina, so the four of us headed for the cafe.

Not knowing Icelandic food before I came here, I was a little bit worried that we might spend the whole holiday eating fish, which I don’t mind but after a few days you soon start to get sick of Captain Birdseye. As it turned out though, the Icelandic people seem to love their soup, and it always seems to be fantastic soup as well. The cafe at Geysir had a big soup bowl ready and waiting, and, needing something warm enough to return the feeling in our hands, we gratefully accepted it. This particular soup was lamb, which looked a bit greasy but tasted amazing, so we greedily guzzled as we sat by a window and watched the snow. Tina comes from a particularly hot part of Australia (Brisbane I think she said, though I can’t be sure), and had never seen snow in her life until yesterday. She was still clearly mesmerised by the stuff today, and I have to admit that I still enjoy watching the snow fall, even if we do see it in England at least once a year (albeit in a particularly wet, slushy way rather than the good proper stuff we always hope for). I got the impression that Herman was more than happy to spend the afternoon watching the snow and eating soup, but once the allotted hour was up, he gathered the tour together and we were on our way again.

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