The Snaefellsnes Peninsula

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Saturday

We saw so much on Saturday, driving all the way from Keflavik (the airport) to our guest-house Langaholt on the golden sand beaches of the Snaefellsnes peninsula. We made a few stops worth mentioning – Geirabakeri (next to the Hauckaup & Bonus) in Borgarnes – and Eldborg, a beautiful crater. In my mind “eld” means “elf”, so it’s an elf crater; but it really means “lava ring” in Icelandic. The crater was created when the volcano blew its top off. It’s gorgeous – appearing alternatingly black, green, or brown depending on the light. We didn’t have the chance to hike up to it – as it would have taken two hours round-trip. The brief stop however was our first geological wonder in Iceland.

Next, we drove all the way to Langaholt to check in. We left my mom to nap, S. to take the second car and take pictures, and we rode onto the park. From there on, it was all about Snaefell. Bárðar Snaefell. imagine “Bárðar” is pronounced “Bawr-ther”. He is the guardian spirit of the area. Legend has it – or as his saga tells – he was a half-troll/half-man. He had two beautiful daughters and his brother had two sons. One day, his brother’s sons pushed his daughter Helga onto the sea. She floated on a iceberg all the way to Greenland, but luckily was unharmed. (I am not sure if Greenland had even been discovered yet by Eirik the Red at the point in time all of this was meant to take place.) Anyway, in his rage over this, he killed both the sons – one over a cliff, and the other into a canyon. Then later he walked into the glacier – Snaefellsjokull – and disappeared into it – and some people believe he protects the area to this day.

Wikipedia Entry

The first place we learned about him was when we saw all these cars stopped at a roadside cut-out, which led up a hill to a crack in the mountain. It turned out to be Rauðfeldsgjá, the canyon where Bárðar pushed his nephew. It’s hard to see from the road, but when you reach the top, the waterfall spills out of the crack, which you enter by fording the water on rocks, while holding both sides of the canyon. Inside, it is a mossy wonderland, a fairy cave, with more waterfalls cascading inside. You can apparently go quite deep but we didn’t have proper equipment and didn’t risk it. It took K. some time but he eventually overcame his fear and went in. Yay K.! A. came up with the idea of finding “troll-heads” in rocks, trolls petrified in rock-shape, and he got into that and we were finding them everywhere, and also a frozen dragon on ridgeline.

Next, we drove to the black rock beaches at Djúpalón. There is an old shipwreck here – rusty pieces of a British trawler sprawled across the black sands. Like the Dyrhoaley in the South of Iceland, there are black sea stacks. The beauty here is to watch the water dash itself onto the seastacks and roll across the black pebbles. I always find I could spend hours in places like these, but unfortunately we must tend to needs like hunger/thirst and head back.

On the coast of the Snaefellsnes peninsula #MyStopover #Iceland

A photo posted by Nepenthe (@nepenthedancer) onAug 19, 2015 at 5:24am PDT




On the way back, we stopped at one more place and made K. go on one last hike, to Bárðar’s bathing pool. It’s another old crater, a short hike from the road. You stop at the grave of Iceland’s most famous and gruesome serial killer (Axlar-Bjorn), who killed scores of people from his nearby farm, and was executed and buried here.

Dinner at Langaholt was divine. I have never had fish stew such as this – tender cod, onions, and even cheese. You can’t imagine how good it tasted because it can’t be described properly. True Icelandic comfort food. I really enjoyed our stay at Langaholt, with the friendly people (both the staff and the other guests), and the homey feel, the gorgeous views of Snaefellsjokul.

We did walk down to the beach, pelted by rain and small black flies. It’s a beautiful expanse of golden sand and littered with colorful rocks. You wouldn’t go swimming there, I think, but if the flies hadn’t been there, it’d be great for a stroll.

K.’s thoughts on Iceland:

“Iceland was freezing even though it was worth it, for doing like a cave. You can walk on rocks with water, and we saw troll heads that froze in the rock. We saw lots of sheep, and horses, and some cows. My least favorite thing is Iceland was being in the car.”

Sunday

We checked out of Langaholt, together. It was a cloudy, rainy day with poor visibility. Our caravan – two SUVs – started up again. We drove to Arnastapi to stop, check for puffins or other birds, and ran across a big stone statue of Bárðar. Yes, the very same.

We managed to arrive at Vatsnhellir cave just in time for the first cave tour of the day, and with the pounding rain, getting inside a cave seemed like a great idea. I am really glad we did this! My mom joined us in the grand adventure, and we got equipped with hard hats and flashlights. It was actually a lava tube rather than a traditional cave, whereas most caves I’ve visited were limestone caves. We went quite deep, into several chambers, and even to a chamber called “Bárðar’s Meeting Room” where he allegedly would meet with his fellow trolls large & small. I enjoyed our tour guide, who had quite a bit of knowledge about the geology and creation of the cave, and emphasized how important it is to take care of the natural environment.

It was still raining, so we hopped back in the car and drove up to Hellisandur to buy gas, but rather than going right, we decided to take the left to Öndverðarnes. This is the most northwest part of the Snaefellsnes peninsula. It was a bumpy gravel road to get there, where we had to drive very slow through a volcanic landscape. Just before the road turned to gravel, there was a lovely beach with caves and rocks. It stopped raining enough for us to visit. At our final destination, there is the ruins of an old fishing village, an ancient well (you step down into a grassy mound, beneath the ground, and find the well), and what I thought might have been a stone foundation for a small Viking dwelling. We also had the chance to see a seal off the rocks, but to get there you had to walk through the nesting area of the Arctic Tern and they didn’t seem too happy to see us.

Overall, it was a very fun stop. But there were no bathrooms at such a remote location, so we did eventually have to leave and head back to Hellissandur, where we were able to meet all of our civilization needs.

Then we went on to Rif, another small fishing village. At Rif, the oldest house in town is a café called Gamla Rif. The only thing on the menu is fish stew, and it was spicy and delicious, as good as the night before, but different. They also had amazing cakes.

Grundarfjörður was our next stop, primarily for the famous mountain Kirkjufell. However, the clouds were hiding it in its entirety, to the point where we could only be sure where it was due to the fact I had seen so many pictures of it (the most photographed mountain in Iceland). The falls next to it were still glorious, and we spent about an hour there taking photographs and running around.

We ended our day at Borgarnes – at the Icelandair Hotel Hamar. K. and I set out for the hot tubs, overlooking the Borgarfjordur. We enjoyed that – ended up with one all to ourselves.

For dinner, we heard the Settlement Centre was good, but no tables were available until 8PM. So, some of us decided to visit the museum there. I learned a lot about the history of the settlement, that I hadn’t learned from the sagas. Then, I revisited the story of Egil, my favorite Viking, who turned out to be a real antisocial a-hole, but I had forgotten that. I guess – if you read enough Icelandic sagas, you run into enough cruelty and death that you become a bit inured to it. K., however, found the re-creation rather frightening (or, perhaps boring). Dinner at the Settlement Centre was fantastic and I fell in love with Icelandic beer – Einstok!

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