Monday, September 9, 2024

Sep 9 – Snaefellsness pensinsula

It was another partly sunny but viciously windy day.

Sep 9

When we got up it looked like an interesting sunrise so we drove to the shore and this troll statue.

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Next stop was the close by Raudfeldsga Gorge, a tiny crack in a large cliff face. For this early in the morning it was a tough but short climb up to the gorge.

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Again with the sunrise.

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To go you have to carefully climb on the rocks over the running stream that carved the gorge.

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But just inside is a large grotto

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The photosphere is really the only way to get a feel for being there.

Looking up.

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I guess you could go farther but it looked pretty tight.

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Back out and down the hill to the van.

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Next we took the again nearby F570 4x4 road that climbs up the Snaefekksokull  volcano. By the way, this is the volcano that was the entrance to the Journey to the Center of the Earth in Jules Verne’s novel.

Just a short way we stopped at Songhellir (Singing) Cave.

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A pretty small cave and it wasn’t singing today.

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Back to the van.

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We initally were ust going to go to the cave but decided to continue up to see how close we could get to the glacier on top of the volcano.

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Near the top the was a side road that seems to head towards the glacier.

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But we got stopped by the massive washout. I am not what kind of vehicle could make it over this.

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Back on F570 we were getting closer to the top

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A photosphere.

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It was very windy and about 2C (without the wind) up here.

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I climbed up a hill to take this photosphere.

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I think this is a close as we got before we turned around and headed back down.

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We drove back to Arnastapi to check out its shoreline. I had to be very careful walking along the cliffs because it was a north offshore wind that really wanted to blow me over the edge.

Some small sea stacks in the harbour.

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The cliffs by the tiny lighthouse.

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A stone bridge.

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When I first saw this thing, from my angle, it looked like a very deep hole.

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But it was another bridge.

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Looking father west.

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The photosphere didn’t quite line up all the images.

Back on the road the sun would occasionally peek out of a hole in the clouds.

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Next stop were the cliffs at Londrangar. A short walk led to a viewing platform.

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The sun shone on he cliffs for a few moments.

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The photosphere.

At another viewpoint we got a lower and longer view. I had to wait a bit for another hole in the clouds to get some sun.

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Walking back to the van, the volcano which it at the center of the peninsula, dominates the view.

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Next stop was Dupalonssandur Beach, which had a very craggy path down to it.

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The posts for the railing that went partway down were each individually carved.

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They say it is a black sand beach but it was mostly small black smooth stones.

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A photosphere.

Back to the van

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Next was the unusual for Iceland, gold sand Skardsvik Beach. The waves were really crashing in here because we were facing north.

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We climbed up to the point where the guy was standing in the picture above.

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Looking back east.

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A photosphere.

Next was Svortloft Lighthouse.

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And its surrounding shoreline.

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Our final stop was Svodufoss. It was a bit of a walk from the parking lot and the sun was behind it making for lousy pictures.

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I climbed up the hill beside the waterfall for a more downward view.

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The photosphere.

Looking back out towards the van.

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Early in our trip the thing that finally got us to abandon the west coast, when the weather was just terrible , was seeing the soaking wet and wind driven people in the parking lot at Kirkjufell mountain. There is a picture that everyone takes of the Kirkjufellsfossar waterfall the the mountain in the background. By now it was getting late, we have seen a lot of waterfalls and parking is $10 so we just did some drive by shots of the mountain.

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A bit father down the shore.

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Then it was off to our parking lot campground at Grundarfjordur.

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