Iceland: SNÆFELLNES PENINSULA - ARNARSTAPI

We are taking a detour from the ring road, heading to another on Iceland's peninsulas. Snaefellsness

The Google Translate helps us to understand the name:

snæ = snow, 

fells = mountain

jökull = glacier

And below is the mountain (or rather a part of it) that gave the entire peninsula its name.

It is a volcano - some 1450m in height - crowned by a glacier.





It is also a site of the famous "Journey To The Centre Of  The Earth" written by the French Sci-Fi writer Jules Verne in 1864. 

What is interesting is that Verne's characters enter the Earth here at Snaefells but exit at Stromboli - another volcano located of the coast of Sicily (Italy).

One hot journey indeed.

Photo Stan Sykora

Conveniently located Cafe Arnarstapi is more than a welcome sight on a day like this. It was built in 1985 in an old style with turf roofs and stone edgings.

A Tatra truck built by the Czech company Tatra - the 3rd oldest car maker in the world and a pride of the Czech nationals the world over! It is so nice for us - the long time expats - to see it here, working for a travel company of the 2014 rather than being used for a military mission of the old Soviet Union of the past century. We are not sure if the bunch of young people travelling with it would understand our feelings. After all the Berlin Wall collapsed 25 years ago.

The entire world is piling into the shelter as the heavy clouds obscure our surroundings. 

The wind is howling and the cold rain is punishing us just for being here

What can be better than a cup of hearty soup (lamb stock and veggies - and oh, so good) and a cup of strong coffee?
















A bit of colour on a dreary day makes everything look better.

A miniature statue at the Cafe waves us good-bye as we leave for the nearby cliffs.









In between stands a rather large structure dedicated to the local deity Bardur, the giant. It is also a memorial to a 10-year old, who perished on the mountain in 1928.

Atlantic ocean, not too far away, is being whipped into a foam and its angry roar can be heard in the distance.

Here is the place where a large volcano emerged from the ocean, leaving the coastline scarred with many kilometers of basalt columns and other formations.

It is a wild, eerily beautiful place. 

Iceland: Driving the WEST COAST

 Of Swans, Geese, Horses, Sheep and Eldborg.

(Eld....what?)

Leaving Akranes behind we are making our way up along the west coast to Snaefellness peninsula.

A family of Whooper Swans, Cygnus cygnus,, is peacefully foraging by the edges of a long, seemingly shallow fjord.
It is raining but we stop to observe and photograph anyway.

The swan parents immediately turn back and paddle away.

But the youngster seems to have decided otherwise. Ignoring both, the parents and their warning signals, it made a hundred-and-eighty turn and graciously swims towards us rapidly increasing the distance between its parents and self.


It made its mind! No signals or body language shall lure it back!

What can the parents do about such disobedience?

Turning back to catch up with the young they somehow manage to make it clear: 
Enough is enough!

The strategy works and the cygnet, having decided that we are not worth the trouble, turns its back on us and glides away.

Oh, those children!

Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator

Whooper Swans are large birds - they are the Old World counterparts to the large Trumpeter Swan,  Cygnus buccinator, of North America
The Trumpeter Swan can be identified by the red on its beak.

The photo had been taken in Montana, USA.

Whooper Swan, Cygnus cygnus

And the one with a really large patch of yellow on the beak is the whooper swan. 
(There are other species of swans with yellow on the beak but this one sports the largest amount of yellow of them all.)









Because of their size and morphology, the whooper swans need very large spaces for taking off to the air. they "run" on water for quite a distance before they can lift their heavy bodies up and fly away.
Therefore they need vast bodies of water that offer not only the submerged vegetation but also the space for take-offs.
Iceland's coastal lines offer just that - vast fjords and swamps. 

That's why we are starting to see them everywhere. What a treat. 

After the grey lava fields of Reykjanes, these green pastoral scenes of the west coast are creating an illusion of having traveled hundreds of kilometers to some other, far-away country. 

In fact we are only about 70 km north from Reykjanes.

A flock of noisy geese has landed in a field half a kilometer away. More wildlife!!!! 
Not sure if I am ever going to able to identify them (so far they are) I am shooting a couple of frames anyway. 

Well, long live the marvels of  the digital photography - they are the Greylag geese, Anser anser, the European species and the great-Grand-Daddys of all domesticated geese.

A waterfall, a waterfall!

Little do we know at this point of our trip that this is only one of a million or so waterfalls that we are going to see! 
With all the rain coming from the ocean, water seems to be abundant in this place.

Beautiful Icelandic horses make up for the lack of other large wildlife

All are special - a very old breed hardly changed over the course of the last millenium.
Their legs are a bit shorter than those of "normal" horses (who wants to be tall in all this wind?). Their genes are actually carefully guarded by the breeders. Also, they are protected from the import of diseases by strict rules and regulations regarding the travel in or out of the country.

It is windy - VERY windy! And it rains 80% of the time (it is september).
But some brave hearts, admirably, travel by bicycle anyhow. All we can do at our advanced ages is to admire their stamina - and their physical condition.

This is a picturesque part of the country (But what in Iceland isn't?).

Ahh, those icelandic sheep! They are cute in their rich, soft coats. The strands of their wool are fluffed up by the never ceasing wind. They are not too keen on close contact with people (at least that was our case) and as soon as we stop to photograph them they move to a safer distance.

Past the city of Borgarnes, is a volcanic rift that hosts a neat crater with a neat name. 
It is Eldborg - translated as Fire Castle. It is a perfectly rounded crater that had been formed some 5 to 8 thousand years ago.
We are stopping to explore the area for a while - there is no need to repeat that the wind is knocking us over, so powerful it is. But the area is astonishingly beautiful (unlike the much younger Reykjanes, this one is already dressed in vegetation). 

There is no need to repeat what a photo of a sign tells the visitors:

Unfortunately we do not have an extra hour in the itinerary for the day therefore we must continue without the hike. 

Here one can rent horses and enjoy the country on the horseback. Those who, like I, admire any horse but view it with some primeval fear and respect can simply walk to the crater by foot. 

I simply admire the colours of the lonesome farm.

A couple more photos and we are off to the main destination of the day - the Snaefellness Peninsula.

Iceland: From Reykjavik to Snaefellnes Peninsula - AKRANES

West coast of Iceland is much different from the lava mountains of Reykjanes peninsula. Surely, there are still the rocky shores so unfriendly to the marine traffic. Yet, the mountains seem to have stepped back giving space to green pastures and even some farmland. 

But to get there we have to endure a 5.3 km tunnel under a fjord. It is a kind of interesting drive as long as one does not suffer from claustrophobia. What better way to take the mind off than to shoot some photos from the moving car? 
Great fun and before one knows it ....there is the exit and a toll booth on the other side.

The fee isn't steep at all.

For reasons unknown - just because - we chose Akranes as our overnight destination.  

Never been there, that's why!

And there it is! Our home away from home - the B&B that Stan booked online. 
The Little Guesthouse by the Ocean 
(Litla gistihúsið við sjóinn)

Not only that - thanks to his diligent planning and to the Google maps we easily found the place. 
Did they expect us? You bet!


We get 2 rooms, a kitchenette and a bathroom.  
And a warning: "Watch out, water is VERY hot! " Geothermal of course.

Also: "This is a fishing town and if you smell fish, it is the smell of money." 

And that is that. 

Later on we shall learn that there is also an aluminum smelting plant nearby and that the town will probably keep on growing because of the industry. Fishing, however is number one.

The town skirts the ocean - or is it the other way? 

A high, man-made wall of hefty stones spans from here to the end of town to protect it from the hungry waves. It is hard to imagine the amount of work that had to be done - not only here but in every town we've seen so far. 

The ocean and the humanity; trying to outdo each other in a never ending struggle.

Having bought some food on the way to Akranes we are opting for a "home made" dinner and a subsequent stroll through the town. 

As always, everything is clean and spacious. 

But save for our friendly hostess and a few people leaving the local church we might begin to believe that Akranes is an alien-marked town. 

Where are the 6,500 people supposedly inhabiting this place?

Well, it is dinner time and everyone who is not at sea is probably at home preparing a meal. Or they went to Reykjavik, only 45 km south from here.

There are not very many gardens here, and this bunch of lupines, with their backdrop of colorful houses is a definite eye catcher.

"Hey,Sis, a bird!!!" 

Even in my retirement age I get teased by Stan!  

All right Bro - this one is for you!

Though sure that the bird will not leave any time soon, I hastily photograph the species of a migratory owl (Owlus plasticus) that got here just before the winter - all the way from China.

We love Icelandic windows, for anywhere we go they are anything but boring.

A display after a display, most accompanied by the strands of tiny Christmas lights. 

They must look great at night - we wonder what it would be like to spend the entire year here; to experience the white nights of the summer and the darkness of the winter. 

Do the people stay or do they travel south?
So many things to ask.

The cat is also behind the window pane. Just staring as if, it too, like the birds above, were made out of porcelain. 








Of course they travel, they always have!

The morning at our B&B is very good. Ham, cheese, eggs, tomatoes along with a pile of special pancakes and dark Icelandic bread, butter and jam - all designed to keep us going well into the afternoon ours. 

Add juice, coffee and milk and we are good to go.

 





We are leaving Akranes with memories that will last a long, long while:

The old, long abandoned boat on the wild rocky shore.

The lighthouses on the outskirts of the bay.

And a collection of handbags on the wall of the Litla gistihúsið við sjóinn


Touch and go....touch and go. 

Such are the ways of life.