Iceland in Autumn: At the End of the Rainbow

Iceland in Autumn

Part 2:

At the End of the Rainbow

Our first hotel was near one of Iceland’s most well-known and largest waterfalls, Gullfoss, the golden waterfall along the river Hvítá. Allegedly named the Golden Falls as the brown glacial water appears to turn to gold during the periods of sunrise and sunset.

Gullfoss sits at the end of a road into the interior of the country at this point the road stops completely so it truly sits in a backdrop of wilderness. There are two steep drops to the waterfall, the first an 11 metre cascade and the second a 21 metre plummet into the sheer-sided canyon below, the bottom obscured from view. 

Gulfoss is awesome, in the traditional sense of the word. Its power and presence leaves you feeling small and vulnerable, a tiny figure at its edge. Spray billows up like steam reaching the top of the falls as the brown water poured into the hidden depths of the canyon.

On the way to our second hotel near Skaftafell we visited another two picturesque waterfalls.

The first was Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall you could walk behind on what stuck me as a rather perilous narrow path. Here fulmars wheeled across the cliff face perching precariously on small ledges and rock doves would occasionally flit across the rock face.

Under the waterfall

We then stopped at Skogarfoss, a beautiful waterfall which reflected in the calm pools around the mountains. 

Its spray illuminated two rainbows in the sunlight which touched the pebbly shores. Sadly no pots of gold though. A trial of steep steps and gappy railings lead up to a platform over the falls form where you can look down to the river below. I managed to snap a photograph of a raven in a backdrop of rainbow spray before the cloud rolled over and the bird decided to fly off.

We finally reached Skaftafell and visited the forests of the National Park. 

What to do if you are lost in an Icelandic forest? 

Stand up - The trees are all very stunted here in fact we'd recognise it more as scrub when compared with British woodland. Birch dominates the woodland accompanied by rowan and shrubs of tealeaf willow and blaeberry. We visited the black waterfall, Svartifoss. It pours over the angular columns of black basalt which were the inspiration in the design of the Hallgrímskirkja church in Reykjavik which we later visited. 

Next week I will be talking about the volcanic side of Iceland, the land of Fire and Ice.

Iceland in Autumn - Meeting Iceland

Hello I thought I would share with you some of my Iceland trip, especially the wonderful landscape but also a little bit about the wildlife and history too. I have quite a few photos to share with you.

The tour I went on was subtitled 'Icebergs, Glaciers, & Waterfalls' so if going to use that roughly to divide my blog posts. It will be in fact: 

-Meeting Iceland (first impressions and sights, this blog post)
-At the End of the Rainbow (Waterfalls, waterfalls, waterfalls!)
-Land of Fire.. (Geysers, mudpots and vast lava fields)
-..and Ice (Glaciers and Icebergs)

I also have ' What's that blur' for a little bird id quiz. Some photos were just quick snaps just to see what the birds were, so it'll make for a more challenging quiz and I think that can be more helpful for identification skills than close detailed shots. I will also enclose a list of the widlife we saw on the trip at the end. This will be the last of the Iceland blogs though.

The blog itself isn't in exact order of what I did as I've grouped similar subject matter and though I've checked some of the information I might have gotten some it wrong but it is what I heard at the time. Anyway to Iceland!

Part 1

Meeting Iceland

On first reaching Iceland it was clear the landscape was completely different to what we have in the southeast of England. It was largely treeless with only a few stunted trees and shrubs in places as the land still hasn't recovered from being heavily deforested and grazed from the time of the Vikings. The ground was black and rocky as if someone had crumpled it up and scattered some extra rocks from the sky for a little extra topping.

The roads were quiet, the landscape empty.  A few low-rise summer houses and farms were scattered and isolated in the landscape but they were few and far between. Some were wrapped in a cardigan of turf to help keep them warm. The sparse vegetation was grazed by sheep and the Icelandic horses, still retaining their historical bloodline from the time of the Vikings making them prized across the world. They have a unique gait, the tölt, which is like a fast walking pace, and comfortable for the rider.

As we moved towards the mountains the ground began to show its volcanic origins and was bulged and cracked from tectonic activity. The weather was cold and wet when we arrived which hid the tops of the peaks in mist. In fact the whole landscape was saturated. Water pooled and streams through valleys crystal clear and poured out from the mountains everywhere you look like a leaky barrel.

We visited Ϸingvellir, the site of the first parliament of Iceland set up in 930CE. There the chieftains met at the logberg or lawrock to discuss and agree laws. This continued until 1271 when Iceland became part of the Norwegian crown. The Commonwealth continued until 1662 when the Icelandic people became subject to the absolute rule of the Danish king.

We sat to have our lunch beside the waterfall Öxaráfoss trying to avoid the misty spray. The water flows into the largest natural lake in Iceland where the crystal clear waters make it popular with scuba divers. Once we finished we began to walk around the park accompanied by a raven flying overhead cronking along the rocky outcrop . Ϸingvellir sits on the mid-Atlantic ridge that divides the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates across the middle of Iceland. Here a dark streak can be seen slashing across the rocky landscape marking the edge of the European plate.

We only had a brief glimpse of the northern lights during our stay owing to the overcast and rainy weather that dominated our holiday. This was a faint blur that extended above the black clouds, like a smudge in the sky. At times it grew brighter expanding into a bar of vertical streaks. It glowed and faded a few times like a fire trying to light before finally the cloud cover drew a curtain over for the rest of the night.

Nevertheless there was still plenty left to see as we headed towards some Iceland's most iconic waterfalls..

..more to come!