Adventures for the aged? Hardly, we plan on many vibrant activities this time: Snaefelsnes Peninsular

May 18 – Snaefellsness here we come. We headed to the north coast of the peninsular, through the now familiar but always welcome spectacular twisted mountain scenery on both sides. At the top we headed left around the coast, firstly to a fishing village called Grundarfjordur. The main attraction here was a “layer cake” peak, broad base and peaking at the top. It was in site of a really pretty waterfall, and I think we have captured both in one photo. We pressed on, rounding the corner to the western end of the peninsular, stopping at one of the few white sand beaches in Iceland – most of the beaches are black sand, black pebbles, or volcanic rock. To us the sand wasn’t white, but more like black sand trying to look white with pale sand mixed in. The locals are so proud of it that we didn’t make any derogatory comments. This was closely followed by a visit to another beach, tiny black pebbles and strange contorted rock structures leading down to another beach. There were four large boulders on the beach, varying from 27 kilograms through to over 100. Decades ago they were used to test the strength of fishermen who wanted to be oarsmen on the boats. You had to able to lift at least the 54 kg one. It was a really interesting beach with some very attractive lakes in depressions in the surrounding rocks. Continuing on, we visited very small settlement of Arnstappi to wonder at some impressive rock stacks in the ocean just offshore, Iceland’s only (last) completely black church at a tiny place called Budir, and hectares of lava fields along the plains between the mountain range and the sea. We passed another large icecap (with obligatory volcano beneath) called Snaefelsjokull. We were told at the National Parks office that it was still active, but it was so carefully monitored that they would have around two years notice to prepare for any threatening eruption. The only unknown would probably be whether it intended to blow vertically or out sideways. Not a very comforting choice. We retired to our hotel to prepare for the next day, our last in Iceland.

The waterfall/peak combination outside Grundarfjordur

From the top of that last crater

Another scree mountain slope

The black church at Budir

Howard on top of the Eldborg crater

Lava and a bit of green foliage showing

More Icelandic horses

The 'strength' stones

Snaefelsjokull

Did it! Happy now.

May 19 – Our last full day to soak up Icelandic treasures. We have enjoyed driving past field after field with small herds of long-maned, hardy looking Icelandic horses. We wondered why there were so many, and were told that they were owned for any or all of riding for pleasure or business, breeding, sale locally or overseas, or to be eaten. We have enjoyed the thousands of waterfalls, from small to very big and everything in between. All the locals have been very friendly and courteous, and nothing has been too difficult for them. The best has been the variety of volcanic activity landscapes, which is what we came to see. We had one more crater to climb on our last day – it is called Eldborg, and is on a farm between our last hotel and the capital Reykjavik. It was a one hour walk on a rocky track through a lava field, followed by a 30 metre climb up the side of the crater. It was a really good view over the surrounding landscape, including the remnants of two smaller craters nearby. It must have been a turbulent time when they all went off. We continued on into Reykjavik for our last night. We spent a couple of hours walking around the centre of the old township, trawling through bookshops, laughing at the window display for The Phallological Museum with its many variants on how to use the good old penis shape for useful household and sartorially inclined items. We had a walk back along the waterfront, a relaxing Happy Hour in our hotel, and finishing off with our first television for a week.