Half-Term Holiday: Iceland Day 6

16^th February 2018

We got up early this morning and had a quick breakfast so we could get on the road early. We were headed to the Snaefellsness peninsula for the day. We drove down the 54 highway to the peninsula. We drove past the Eldborg Crater, but the weather looked like it was coming in and it was a 2.5km hike to the crater. So we passed on by with just a photo. Then, on the side of the road, I noticed a sign for some mineral water. So we stopped, and there was this little tap sticking out of the snow with an information sign. We emptied our regular Icelandic water (still delicious compared to London( and filled up with tasty natural sparkling mineral water! It actually tasted okay, too.

Not long after that we made a call, given the ‘slippery’ and ‘difficult’ roads ahead, and did a u-turn in order to cross the peninsula to the north side.

There we went to the most photographed mountain in Iceland, Kirkjufell. It is deceptive thought -  it looks really skinny in photos, but it turns out that the mountain is actually quite fat as you approach it, but amny of the photos are taken where the carpark is, which is the mountains most flattering angle! So funny. We also visited Kirkjufellsfoss while we were there – it’s only just across the road.

We stopped for fuel (human and car) in the nearest town (Grundarfjordur) – we had read that in winter it can be hard to find open cafes on the peninsula, and they were right!

The weather was improving but still not great so next we went to the Bjarnarhofn Shark Museum. It was a small family-run museum filled with curiosities like a polar bear skim from inside a sharks belly, old sewing machines and taxidermy animals. They also shows us how they make the delicacy of fermented shark. The fishing boats into Reykjavik catch the Greenland shark by accident, then this family comes to collect it. They cut up the shark, then leave it in a wooden boc in the cold to ferment for ages, Then, the urea and natural antifreeze in the body turn into ammonia  -ew! But turns out if you hang it to dry, the water and ammonia evaporate and it’s safe to eat. It was quite tasty actually, even though it was still pretty smelly.

After that, we headed around the peninsula. The weather had cleared even more and the road service was only ‘spots of ice’ now. We drove past Dritvik Beach on our way to the bottom of the peninsula for the lava cave tour We were very early, so we went to have a quick look at the Lonsdrangar visitor centre and lighthouse.

We headed back for the lava cave tour, which was very cool. The cave was made 8000 years ago, and they tell stories about the volcano, the glacier and the trolls that live inside it! I realy enjoyed it. There were even some things which looked like stalagmites, but were actually formed by lava in about 8 hours when the cave was formed. Very cool.

After the cave tour we drove through a cute town called Arnarstapi, which had a troll statue, beach lookout and a lookout to Gatklettur Arch, a natural rock arch.

On the way back to the hotel, we had a quick roadside cookie stop and a drive through the town of Borganes on the way. We had another hotel dinner (they are very good, and not much else is open in winter), then settled in to wait… Because the chances of Northern Lights were good. And in the end we got the call around 10.30pm! We grabbed as many clothes as we could (coat, scarf, etc), but I didn’t have time to change, so I was in a dress – oops! The Northern Lights started off quite faint, but grew in strength for about 45 minutes. It was so beautiful, although freezing! We watched it until you could barely see it any more. Got lots of photos to remember it by though.