Ali's Incredible World of travel in Iceland 2006

Island - Iceland - Islande

To get an idea of Iceland, the Scottish Widows advert from 2006 is all filmed in Iceland. http://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/tv/index.html

Day 1 - Monday 4th September 2006

Start location: Heathrow, London, Uk
End location: Reykjavik, Iceland

Route travelled: 2 hours & 35 minutes
36,000 feet over Glasgow & Stornaway
11 degrees Celsius

Distance travelled: 1,178 miles (approx)

Accommodation: Icelandair Hotel Loftleidir

Sites visited: Via Keflavik airport

Trip notes: 10.30 Checked into Heathrow, Terminal 2
13.00 Depart Icelandair flight F1451
15.00 Arrive Keflavik (UK time -1)
16.00 Transfer to hotel

Day 2 - Tuesday 5th September 2006

Start location: Reykjavik, (Reykjanes Peninsula)
End location: Stykkisholmur (Snaefellsnes & the West)

Route travelled:
North on Road 1, right at junction with Road 47 around base of Mt Esja. Scenic route around Hvalfjordur rather than through the tunnel. Followed signs for Reykholt, turned right onto Road 520 & then Road 50 for Deildartunguhver. After Deildartunguhver, took Road 519 into Reykholt village.

East out of Reykholt on Road 518 for Hraunfossar & Barnafoss waterfalls in the Husafell area (a popular holiday camp for Icelanders set in birch woodland). Road 523 at the crossroads & followed the north bank of Hvita & then left on Road 522. Turned right on Road 50 & then eventually back onto Road 1 on the West coast near Borgarnes. Took a right onto Road 54 & headed north towards Stykkisholmur.

Right onto Road 56 to cross the mountainous backbone of the Snaefellsnes peninsula over Kerlingarskard. Right back onto Road 54 then left on Road 58 to arrive in Stykkisholmur village.

Distance travelled: 353.2 km

Accommodation: Hotel Stykkisholmur

Sites visited:
Hvalfjordur area - translates to ‘Whale Fjord’ & is at the base of Mt Esja (909m) sites of old whaling stations.
Deildartunguhver - Iceland’s (Europe’s) largest hot spring, which produces 180 litres per second of 97 degree water to heat the local area since 1981 by the Akranes (34km) & Borgarfjordur (64km) District Heating Company
Reykholt - home of Iceland’s most famous poet, Snorri Sturlusson. Murdered in
1241 on orders of the King of Norway. Most famous works Heimskringla (History of the Norwegian Kings).
Hraunfossar Waterfall - 1km stretch with a multitude of tiny cascades tumbling out of the lava.
Barnafoss waterfall - translates to ‘Children’s Waterfall’ with the glacial river, Hvita flowing through the chasm that appears in the lava field

The story of Barnafoss
There used to be a stone arch that bridged the river. One Christmas day, a local household went to attend mass, with the exception of two children who stayed home ill. When the household returned, the children had vanished but their tracks led to the river. The children had fallen off the arch and drowned. Their mother then had the arch destroyed to prevent such a recurrence of such a tragedy.

Eldborg - a 367ft crater created by a volcanic eruption 5-8,000 years ago.
Gerduberg - the longest row of basalt columns in Iceland
Kerlingarskard - translates to ‘Troll wife’s Pass’ & reaches 1,020ft above sea level & claimed many lives. I got was the most eerie, cold feeling ever driving through the pass & I didn’t read my guide books until after I’d driven through which state the pass is rumoured to be haunted. There are tales of ghostly apparitions & even today, stories
are told of travellers who sense the presence of an ‘extra passenger’ as they cross the pass.
Stykkisholmur - the principle town of Snaefellsnes peninsula & the starting point for those going to the West Fjords by ferry. There are several hundred individual islands in the bay.

Trip notes: 9.00 car delivered to hotel - 2.5 litre automatic Subaru Legacy AWD

Photo notes: Photos 1 - 35

1. View from Road 1, north of Reykjavik - Mt Esja area

2. View from Road 47 - along Hvalfjordur (at the start of fjord)

3. My car on Road 47 (whilst it was still clean & on tarmac)

4. View from Road 47 - along Hvalfjordur (¼ way round)

5. View from Road 47 - along Hvalfjordur (¼ way round)

6. View from Road 47 - around Hvalfjordur (½ way round)

7. Church of Saurbaer - around Hvalfjordur (¾ way round)

8. View from Road 520 towards Reykholt (heading East) & my first off road experience

9. View from Road 520 towards Reykholt

10. View from Road 520 towards Reykholt

11. Deildartunguhver (Hot spring) Road 50 near Reykholt

12. Deildartunguhver

13. Deildartunguhver

14. Deildartunguhver

15. Church in Reykholt village on Road 519

16. Interior of Church in Reykholt

17. Modern church at Reykholt

18. Snorri Sturlusson statue at Reykholt

19. Arch & sculpture in old church graveyard at Reykholt

20. Hraunfossar Waterfall & Hvita glacial river

21. Hraunfossar Waterfall

22. Hraunfossar Waterfall & Hvita glacial river

23. Barnafoss Waterfall & lava field

24. Barnafoss Waterfall & lava field

25. View from Road 522, heading towards Borgarnes (West coast)

26. Hvita from Road 523

27. Eldborg crater as seen from Road 54

28. My car after 4 hours off roading

29. Gerduberg - the longest row of basalt columns in Iceland

30. Junction with Road 54 & Road 58 (10km from Stykkisholmur) - Berserkjahraun lava

31. Hotel Stykkisholmur

32. View of Stykkisholmur

33. View of Stykkisholmur

34. Harbour

35. Modern church in Stykkisholmur opposite hotel

Day 3 - Wednesday 6th September 2006

Start location: Stykkisholmur (Snaefellsnes & the West)
End location: Stykkisholmur (Snaefellsnes & the West)

Route travelled: Roads 54, 558 & 574 around the Snaefellsnes peninsula. Anti clockwise around coastal roads.

Distance travelled: 319 km

Accommodation: Hotel Stykkisholmur

Sites visited:
Berserkjahraun lava field - area of scoria lava originating from four craters & three different eruptions around 4,000 years ago.
Snaefellsjokull National Park - 4 to 5 hour walk to the summit but best to go on escorted walks during the summer due to large crevasses that open up on the glacier.
Snaefellsjokull - 4,743ft active strato volcano, capped in ice that has built up over the last 70,000 years. Largest & last eruption 1,750 years ago. First climbed in 1754. Iceland’s second most famous volcano (after Hekla) & was used as a scene in Jules Verne’s in ‘Journey to the centre of the earth’.
Memorial to Laugarbrekka (Laugarbakki) - Birthplace of Gudridur Porbjarnardottir, one of the heroines of the Norse discovery of Greenland (AD1000).
Hellnar - small fishing village beneath the Snaefellsjokull glacier & famed for its strange rock formations.
Helgafell - translates to ‘Holy Mountain’. A 240ft hill. According to local folklore, those who climb Helgafell for the first time will have three wishes come true. This is if the following conditions are observed:- Climb in silence, don’t look back, make the wishes facing east, make benevolent wishes & don’t tell anyone what they are.

Trip notes: Discovered that at petrol stations not only do you fill up with petrol, you wash your car for free so you can see out of the windows.

Photo notes: 36 - 69

36. Sunrise

37. Road 54 & Road 58 junction

38. Inside Berserkjahraun lava field - Road 558

39. Inside Berserkjahraun lava field

40. Inside Berserkjahraun lava field

41. Road 54 going towards Grundarfjordur

42. Road 54 going towards Grundarfjordur

43. Road 54 looking back at Grundarfjordur

44. Steeple shaped mountain Kirkjufell
If you want to see what this area of coast looks like in the snow, see http://www.youngsfish.co.uk/web/tv.asp & view the TV advert. The Icelandic part of the advert is filmed from the sea on this coast.