Day 21 - The Snaefellsnes Peninsula

I actually slept in until after 7:30, and between that and delay getting my blog up to date meant that it was after 10:00am before I was packed up and on the road.


The first stop (apart from a few scenic photo opportunities) was in Borgarnes where I visited the very good Settlers Museum. This gives a very good account of the settlement of Iceland as well as an account of the major Sagas, or historical legends, about some of the early settlers. I can also vouch for the thoroughly yummy comestibles available from the restaurant upstairs!

Thereafter the plan was to do a clockwise circuit of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula to the north west, so I continued in that direction. My progress was hampered by the need for frequent stops to take photos of the beautiful vistas that continued to appear in front of me. Stopping was not always easy given the apparent preference of Iceland’s road builders for creating built up carriageways with steep narrow shoulders. I should also mention that the general speed limit is 90kms/hr and with the narrow and usually winding roads, that is often about all you can do anyway. I was interested to find when walking on volcanic outcrops in some places that the moss is a couple of inches thick, which gives you the feeling that you are walking on an old mattress.

Rock formations at Arnarstapi

I continued in this stop-start fashion until I reached Arnarstapi a little before 4:00pm. There I did a short walk from the small harbour along the coast line to the large statue of a troll. (This is actually part of a longer 2.5 km walk that goes all the way to Hellinar). The coast here is particularly dramatic with steep cliffs, rock towers, blow holes, and hexagonal rock formations. And a refreshing lack of barricades to stop you getting as close as you dare! The walk was probably no more than one kilometre but still took a good 45 minutes because of all the views on offer.

By the time I had completed the walk and taken in the next photo opportunity up the road it was already 5:15pm and although there was still plenty of daylight remaining (sunset is at about 8:35pm here now), it was clear that I was not going to complete my circuit of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula today. Therefore I rang ahead to book a bed at the hostel in Grundarfjorour, which is not even half way back on the northern shore of the peninsula.

The Snaefellsnes Volcano

I continued on with a couple of stops to climb small volcanic outcrops or cones. These were no doubt the handy work of the huge Snaefellsjokull volcano (currently inactive), which together with the Snaefells Glacier dominates the western end of the peninsula. (This is actually a pretty famous volcano as it featured in Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", as the point where they started their journey). And so via Hellissandur, Rif and Olafsvik I reached the hostel in Grundarfjorour about 7:20pm.

So not a lot of happenings to report for today; most of it was a visual experience, or more accurately, a visual treat.