The Snaefellsnes Peninsula is breathtakingly beautiful - oh dear I think I’m starting to repeat myself. I would be very happy living there - for a time! That stunning little piece of Iceland is over 14 million years old which in earth terms is fairly young but remember this is a continually emerging land mass. In fact the peninsular region, together with the Westfjords in the NW and the SE region, are the oldest parts of Iceland with chunks of the edges of the tectonic plates still evident.
The Peninsula once saw massive amounts of volcanic activity - it has 56 craters and the massive Snæfellsjökull volcano is still active - but relax, the latest eruption occurred some 1700 years ago! Across Iceland, there’s an eruption every four years (on average). And we all remember Eyjafjallajökull the one that shut down airlines inn 2010 - and no I can’t pronounce it. Icelandic is a very old language dating back to old Norse.
Snæfellsjökull is rather special, apart from its haunting beauty. Remember the movie ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’? ‘They’ found the entrance to a passage that led to the center of the earth on the Snæfellsjökull glacier! It’s actually a very challenging and rather dangerous volcano to climb. This unique place is also believed to be one of the seven main energy centres of the earth. Many Icelanders will recount stories of the mystic energy of this ancient glacier and any doubt cast on this is frowned upon. They say that one simply has to experience it to understand it.
The whole peninsula is a breathtaking place with dramatic vistas. I tried to keep the number of pix down but .......... I’ll leave you to browse.
This and the majority of these pix are taken from a moving vehicle so there could be some fuzziness but you’ll get the picture I’m sure!!
Drainage trenches were dug around and through most of the fields we passed in mid 1900s to drain the very boggy land. This is apparently causing problems with greenhouse gas so the government is taking action to fill in some of them.
The communities are remote and there are few villages on the peninsula, and elsewhere in Iceland. So churches are scattered around on private property. They even broadcast the services locally for people who can’t get there - due to weather etc
This looks brown but the field is covered in gorgeous pink flowers - fireweed.
Poor pic through window but this is to show you lava covered with moss. The lava fields are extensive and are all covered with moss but other plant species are starting take root.
One of my favourite flowers - the Sea campion, Geldingahnappur in Icelandic. I saw them in Greenland and Newfoundland and also in Ireland and Scotland last year - makes sense I guess.
We stopped in a tiny village with an extraordinary restaurant ‘Sker’. The chef is a local but trained and worked in a 3 Michelin star restaurant. The cod was fresh caught and served with hollandaise sauce and a warm salad. Yum. Cod is the big fish here - last night we had cod tongues as an appetiser. Not bad!
Lava lava everywhere
These are the Lifting Stones. Fishermen were paid according to how much they could lift. Lindsay would go broke!
We walked through jagged lava rocks to a black beach.
Near the waters edge I came across this rock face which looked like it had stone roses embedded. Or maybe that's just my overactive imagination.
I can imagine living here!
Lindsay scared himself peering over into this deep sea cave. Yes of course there were birds down there he wanted to see !!
Basalt columns
We drove through this 6km tunnel under a fjord. Cut hours off the journey.
Thank you Nice Travel for two marvellous days of sightseeing.
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