Driving around Borgarfjordur
Day 2, 3rd August 2023
The small town of Reykholt is large in terms of Icelandic history. At one time it was one of the main intellectual centres of the island, and now houses a museum to Snorri Sturluson, one of Iceland's most famous poets, historian, and chieftain (1206-1241). The charming Snorrastofa museum tells of his life and something about the Sagas which he wrote, and it was conveniently near the Fosshotel Reykholt where we were staying. Just behind the museum is a rebuilt thermal pool which he used to use, and a small church located on the site of earlier religious buildings. Also nearby was this wooden cave 'Hoskuldargerdi' which was actually a horse corral and saddle coop.
Just a few minutes drive west from Reykholt is Deildartunguhver, the highest-flowing hot spring in Europe. It was here that we first saw the scope of geothermal energy and its value to Iceland. The water at Deildartunguhver hot spring emerges at 97C, which is very very hot! And it emerges with a lot of force! Hot springs such as these are harnessed for heating to buildings such as the nearby Fosshotel in Reykholt, as well as homes some 40 miles away.
Our next destination was a drive south to the Settlement Centre in Borgarnes, to get another quick update on Icelandic history. This small museum provided an audioguide to follow as you walked around the displays and took great length to tell you about the Icelandic sagas. And the wooden carvings visualising these sagas were artworks in themselves.
Borgarnes sits on a small promontory and provides marvellous views of Harnarfjall mountain across the sea. It was a grey day at this time, but that suited the scenery!
We drove back north towards Reykholt to get sight of our first Icelandic waterfalls. Iceland is famous amongst photographers, and others, for its waterfalls. The Hraunfossar area was clearly a popular destination, so we headed first to Barnafoss (Children's waterfall). As you can see in the photo below, this is an extensive set of waterfalls, in fact there seemed to be waterfalls everywhere along the Hvita River. Just above where the water emerges, you can see the layer of lava which covers this whole area.
The Hvita River was extremely fast flowing and a photo (below left) does not do justice to its power. There was an another waterfall here called Hraunfossar but I think we missed that one. I had given myself an itinerary of things to see, but often there was not time to do everything on my list! We got too absorbed taking photos of Barnafoss! But as well as waterfalls, Iceland is famous for its lava flows. You can see in the photo (below right) how the waves of lava set solid as they cooled. Even after hundreds of years, there is little vegetation on some of these lava flows, which is why they are so protective of these areas and don't want visitors walking here.
Our first day of driving in Iceland showed us the variety we might expect for this road trip around Iceland, and after a good dinner, we slept soundly. This was going to be the routine for much of the rest of the trip.
