Whilst on an entirely different adventure with some free time, I’ve decided that it’s about time (or rather four months late) that I blogged a bit more about Iceland.
The Golden Circle Tour is a tour that encompasses at least three different sites that are prime examples of what Iceland has to offer over a relatively small area. These sites are Þingvellir national park, the waterfall Gullfoss and the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Some tours only go to these three sites, and others, like Iceland Horizon, which was the company we decided to use for the tour, went to other places along the way.
Our guide, David, was a very friendly and informative native English speaker that picked us up on a wet and windy boxing day morning. The rain lashed at the bus and as we drove higher into the mountains, a hush fell over the bus as we contemplated what lay ahead of us on that wild day. Once we got a reasonable distance out of Reykjavik, we could see that David was anxious, and a couple of telephone calls later, we turned around because the wind, rain and ice that lay on the road ahead would have made the journey too dangerous. We were all disappointed, but I think we were all a bit relieved too, not least of all because we wouldn’t have been soaked to the skin every time we got out at one of the attractions.
The weather was much better the next day, and we breezed up and down the mountains with the horrific weather of the day before a distant memory. Just as dawn broke (about 10.30am), we reached the first stop of the day. It was Katla, a small volcanic crater which is 6000 years old and not much higher than the surrounding territory around it, and a real surprise to find just by the roadside.
The next stop was a set of beautiful low-level waterfalls, gently cascading over the landscape, and complete with a salmon ladder. It was hard to believe that salmon could swim this far upstream from the ocean, and still have the energy to writhe up waterfalls! It was a stunning sight, and although I was promised that the next set of waterfalls that I’d see would be much more breathtaking, it was hard to believe.
I also got to meet and stroke some wild Icelandic ponies, whom were incredibly friendly and trusting as well as very fluffy and squat. The ponies are cousins of the breeds found in mainland Europe, but are so valued that all other horses are banned in Iceland, and that has been the case since the early settlers first arrived, so as not to pollute the breed. Icelandic ponies are highly sought after all over the world.
The first stop of the big three sights on the tour was Hakaudalur valley, an area of intense geothermal activity where Strokkur and Geysir are found. Strokkur and Geysir are fountain geysers (where ground water meets magma and a huge buildup of pressure forces the water up and out of the ground in a jet of boiling water and steam) and two of the most famous in the world. The most famous is Geysir, which rarely erupts these days as the continuously shifting ground means that the gulleys and chambers which the water flows through often become blocked (sometimes this is done by humans putting various objects and solutions into the mouth of the geyser hoping to try and make it erupt). The oldest account of this geyser erupting dates back to 1924, and there have been reports of the jets of water reaching up to seventy metres in the air. Strokkur on the other hand is much smaller than this, and also much more reliable. It will erupt between every 4- 8 minutes, and you can see it erupt from several miles away as the steam rises much higher than the water.
Haukadalur is a very strange terrain, very frosty and icy as the steam condenses and freezes again, but you can be walking on a frozen path next to a stream of boiling water. There are patches of bubbling mud where little vents of steam are blowing through it, and there is a strong smell of sulphur in the air, as the water is very mineral rich which also gives it an incredibly blue colour. The larger pools of boiling water have simple ropes around them reminding you to watch where you step, but it’s a continuously changing landscape where streams regularly change their paths and there are many horror stories of people being burned whilst not paying attention.
The next stop was just a few miles down the road, and it was the Gulfoss waterfalls- and everyone was right to say that they were much more stunning than the ones I’d encountered previously. They were bigger and taller and wider and louder and so much more powerful than any other waterfall I’d encountered, and thanks to the sketchy-at-best Icelandic health and safety laws, I was able to walk along the steep icy path, scramble over the icy rocks and look over the steep icy drop into the gushing water below. The waterfalls do not begin much higher than ground level, but falls into a fissure in the ground instead, gouging it’s path through solid rock. Clinging to the edges of the waterfalls are huge clumps of icicles formed from the spray of the water in the air- it was a truly breathtaking sight. We also had our lunch here- forget your packed lunch and forgo lunch at the Haukadalur fast food inspired canteen and walk up the steps to the plain, go into the wooden building and have a bowlful of the beautiful lamb stew there.
Our last stop of the day was perhaps the most intriguing to me. It was the national park of Þingvellir (Thingvellir), where the world’s first parliament was settled and also where the European and American tectonic plates are slowly drawing apart, creating incredibly dramatic scenery. We arrived there just as the long sunset was beginning, creating incredible hues across the sky, and we were the only people in the vast expanse of land. There are several telltale signs that this is the area where the plates are drawing apart, great cracks in the landscape, cliffs suddenly emerging from otherwise flat landscape, mountains in the distance, all of which add to the vista. There is no actual parliament building in the area, because it’s where the notion of democracy and parliament first came into fruition. Tribes from all over Iceland would meet in this area every summer and spend weeks there buying and selling crops and materials, providing the circumstances for men and women to arrange to marry and also becoming the place where fair judgements could be passed on people that had committed cats of wrongdoing, such as stealing. This lead to laws being created, laws that were created by the people and that were then adhered to, or a reasonable punishment was metered out. The daily news and laws were read out from atop a cliff which overlooks the entire camp. Today the only buildings to be seen are the church and the house of the Icelandic prime minister. Excursions can be taken in the summer to the nearby lake where you can swim, snorkel or scuba dive into the fissure between the two continental plates- a bit too cold me for in the winter, but just another reason to go back in the summer!
From Þingvellir, it was just a short bus ride back to Rekjavik, passing along the way the worlds only hydrogen refuelling station. It was a very long day, but every moment spent in the bus was worth it, as the Golden Circle Tour exceeded all my expectations and make me even more eager to explore the Iceland more thoroughly.
A Penny For Them 