Continential drift, a Foss and Geysers

Our first day saw us heading to one of Iceland's touristic honey pots - the Golden Circle national park Þingvellir, the Gullfoss waterfall (meaning "golden falls"), and the thermally active valley of Haukadalur, which contains the geysers (locally pronounced gaysers).

Almannagjá

As we headed out of town it became clear that the city was relatively modern, with many recent building separated by wide roads an green spaces - although we were told that they were running out of space for new developments and, as a result, land was becoming expensive.

Our first major stop was at Þingvellir (Thingvellir), ie the “Parliament Plains” which had been the site of Iceland’s first National Assembly in the year 930 and it had remained there until 1798.  It was chosen as a place that was easily accessible on horse back from all parts of the island.

It lies in a rift valley, about 5km wide with Lake Thingvallavatn (whose depths are below sea level) bordering on the south side and a mountain range to the north. The river Oxara, which flows past the site of the Parliament, supplied its participants with ample fresh water, and flows over the edge of a 9,000 year old lava field, originating in a nearby volcano, into the rift valley.

The continental drift between the North American and Eurasian Plates can be clearly seen in various cracks or faults - the biggest one, Almannagjá, being a veritable canyon.  You used to be able to stand on the American plate and see the edge of the other but now days what used to be Europe is though just to be a floating plate in the rift between the two. 

This also causes the often-measurable earthquakes in the area.Some of the rifts are full of surprisingly clear water. One, Nikulásargjá, is better known as Peningagjá (lit. "coin fissure"), as it is littered with coins at its bottom. After being bridged in 1907 for the arrival of King Frederick VIII of Denmark, visitors began to throw coins in the water as a substitute for a wishing well.  There was a unique sign asking people not to throw coins in the water but it seemed to be largely ignored.

Strokkur

Our next stop was a geo-termal area where the most famous - the Geysir - started spouting in the 13th century and suddenly stopped spouting naturally in 1916. Geysir was the first spouting spring which became known to Europeans and therefore all spouting springs were named ‘Geysir’, after the one in Iceland. There were a number of small bubbling springs in the area which only spout one foot high, but Strokkur, meaning ‘The Butter Churn’, spouts every 3-5 minutes up to 100 feet high.  It is the main attraction of the area and is it is one of very few natural geysers to erupt frequently and reliably..  It was indeed impressive but it was surprising that by the time the water reached the ground it was cold.

Our final visit was to Gullfoss (a foss is a waterfall) which is formed when the Hvítá  flows down into a wide curved three-step "staircase" and then abruptly plunges in two stages (11 m and 21 m) into a crevice 32 m deep. The crevice, about 20 m wide, and 2.5 km in length. It is estimated that the  average amount of water running over this waterfall is 140 m³/s in the summertime and 80 m³/s in the wintertime. It was certainly an impressive introduction to the various fosses we were to see over the next few days.

Backtracking through Reykjavik - at  64°08' N, the world's northernmost capital, we continued to Hella for our night's stop in a guesthouse close to the river.  A few of us took a stroll up the riverbank for a bit of exercise (others were a bit more energetic and went for a swim in the local thermal pool).  We had been promised some bird life but instead were treated to a breath-stopping aerobatic display over the nearby airfield.  The town was hosting a 'festival' at which all Island's best bands were reputed to be playing - none of us had the energy to go but it was reported that it was still going strong at 0300.

We speculated that "Iron Maiden", whose plane we had seen on arrival, might be playing but evidently Iceland Express were leasing the strikingly liveried plane for its commercial flights ! !

Off to Iceland

Gatwick airport is an experience I've not sampled since we used to use it to go sailing in Greece.  However, I was pleasantly surprised - I walked straight from the train station into the check-in hall, there was only one person in the check-in queue and very small ones through passport control & security.  Perhaps if BAA sold off Heathrow it might be a similar good experience !

There was a slight downturn in the happiness quotient when I boarded the Iceland Express's airplane - a leased 10 year old Boeing 737.  It wasn't the best airplane, I could only just get my legs into the seat - it was a good job the seats didn't recline as I would have suffered broken bones, the in flight entertainment was a small screen in the ceiling every few rows showing a dark Icelandic film with English sub-titles, we weren't offered headsets, so I don't know if there was a soundtrack or other entertainment and there was a hefty charge for all food & drink (including water).

Thank goodness that it was only a 2.5 hour flight !  I was hoping to watch the British countryside flow beneath us on the way North but all we saw was a brief glimpse of Stornway and Benbeculla as we headed into the North Atlantic.

Our approach to Iceland was along the coast and into Keflavik Airport which still showed it's military heritage as bomb proof plane shelters zoomed past the window - it's 10,000 foot runway is still able to accommodate the world's largest aircraft (and the Space Shuttle).  The striking feature that it seemed to be covered in a Blue/Purple carpet - we were later told that this was caused by Alaskan Lupins.

These were introduced to add richness to the soil - as member of the pea family  it is able to fix atmospheric nitrogen into organic nitrogen by using specialized bacteria living symbiotically in their roots. An ideal property for a country where the soil is volcanic and has little nutrient - if you see just a small Birch bush in a lava field it means that the eruption was at least 2,000 years ago.

There were six of us on the flight from Gatwick and we soon cleared the formalities and met Steffie who was to be our guide for our exploration of her island - the locals spell their country as Island : so I've decided to adopt it also.  There we also two couples on her list but when they didn't show up, we headed the 30+ miles into Reykjavik and our guesthouse : Borgartún.

It was some way out of the City centre but close to the seafront - my room was large, had two single beds, TV and on-suite facilities : what more could I need ?  A meal had been booked next door at the Hotel Cabin which was a buffet - exactly what we needed and excellent.  Little did we know that it was to be almost the last evening meal when we would have a choice as to what to eat.  Before heading for bed, some of us went for a stroll along the sea front and found a sculpture museum

To London

Originally the flight out was from Gatwick at an early hour of Friday morning - so I decided to stay tonight in London at the Easy Hotel in Earls Court and perhaps see if I could get a good theatre ticket for the evening.

Then they moved the flight to the afternoon - rather than loose money on the hotel, I decided to stay with the original plan.

On arrival central London around Trafalgar Square was utter mayhem as the young & young at heart gathered for the premier of the last Harry Potter book.  Streets were close, long fences had been erected to prevent the population at large getting a glimse of the stars and police & security were everywhere.

There weren't any decent tickets for shows I fancied seeing, so I had a wander down the South Bank and across into the City before heading back for a meal by the hotel and an early night.

Summary

This covers ten days in Iceland - again with Explore : their "Land of Ice and Fire" trip.

Situated just south of the Arctic Circle, Iceland is the habitat for an extraordinarily high population of seabirds, including some 15 million Puffins. In summer it is ablaze with mosses, lichens and colourful alpine flowers. Geologically, it is unique. A place of spectacular scenery with volcanic fires unleashed from beneath great glaciers, where the Earth’s crust is still a blistering commotion of boiling mud pools, steaming geysers and fiery lava. In the mountainous and uninhabited interior are deserts every bit as barren and beautiful as the Central Sahara.

The trip seems to cover much of the island - certainly the more accessible bits - and should allow us a good insight into this spectacular outpost of civilisation.  It will definitely be a contrast to the warmer places that I have visited over more recent years.