We stayed two nights at a hotel close to the peninsula so had one full day to wander around. Some of the ideas of where to go came from the people who organized the tour and some from the hotel owner. Some ideas were great and some didn’t pan out that well. For example, the first place we stopped was the Ölkelduvatn Mineral Spring. Basically it consists of pipe sticking out of the ground in a farmers field.
The water coming out of the pipe looked pretty clean despite the colourful (and somewhat stinky) water around it. I did like the colours so took a picture but we didn’t experiment by taking a sip of the water.
Next stop was Ytri Tunga which is a seal colony on the coast but there were not seals to be found. It wasn’t that picturesque either – so was definitely a wash.
Another spot recommended was the Rauðfeldsgjá Gorge. Google took us there and we got out in the pouring rain to look at the non-existent gorge. Maybe google made a mistake but there were clearly other google followers there. In any case the picture below does not give justice to the quantity of rain that was coming down. Even my camera had a raincoat on. The picture shows Julie trudging for some distance to try to find the “gorge” while I waited patiently to get this picture.
Another suggestion was to stop at a cosy little cafe in the little town of Hellnar. Sure enough, google pin-pointed a cafe and off we went. When we arrived at the location specified, there was no cafe to be found – not even a sign or other indication that there had ever been a cafe. Since we were in dire need of a pit stop, there were a few tenses moments until we managed to flag down a postman who pointed us to another town (Arnarstapi) nearby. There, at the cafe, the waitress suggested going to the following viewpoint which had not been previously suggested by anyone.
and close by …
I’ll only include some additional text to explain a couple of the photos and will then leave you with the rest. The picture below at Djúpalónssandur beach shows the remains of a trawler (the Espine) that was wrecked here in 1948. Locals managed to save 5 of the 19 crew.
Then there were the fishermen who used to pick up these stones to test their strength. Some of the tourists tried to do the same. Having nothing to prove (other than that I could ruin the rest of my holiday with a bad back), I resisted the temptation.
The remaining pictures are at: SNAEFELLSNESS PENINSULA.
WR Foster 