30th
April 2016
History, Geysir,
and another waterfall !
It was freezing
again when I woke up – Ice on the grass type freezing. But I am very snug and warm in this little
van, with my own sleeping bag plus a duvet supplied with the camper. Today was my last full day, and I was going
to explore the “Golden Circle”, a well known group of attractions in the
Pingvellir National Park, within easy reach of Reykjavik. As a result they tend
to get rather crowded as they are a “standard tour” for the many people who
make a short one or two day stop on the way from the US to Europe. But the
guide books speak highly of the attractions (an historical site, the first
Geysir, and the Gullfoss waterfall), so after my breakfast I set off. There had been no northern lights last night
despite the clear skies, but this morning there were still blue skies with a
light cloud cover.
First stop just a
couple of kms from my camp site was Pingvellir.
Ping means “Assembly” or “Parliament”, and Vellir is “fields”, so
basically this is the Parliament Fields. In fact it was the world‘s first
Democratic Parliament in 930 AD established by the Vikings. The meetings were
held outdoors with people coming from all over Iceland, and the setting is
further enhanced by the immense fissured rift valley formed by the meeting of
the North
Walking up the
path along the tectonic plate boundary is dramatic, with the plates tearing at each
other at a rate of up to18 mm per year. The resulting formations and scarred
rocks, together with the river Öxará flowing through the middle, make it an
impressive entry to a site that is Iceland’s most important historical
site. A small pool in the river was used
to drown women found guilty of infanticide, adultery, or other serious crimes,
while a small fissure on one side was where 9 men were accused of witchcraft
and burnt at the stake.
Central, and just
below the fault line, is the Lögberg, or Law Rock, forming the centre of the
annual gathering, and from where the laws were recited to the assembly below.
This site is now marked by the Icelandic flag.
And in this morning’s clear sunshine, the views over the surrounding
countryside, up to the mountains in the background, were superb. I wandered around, trying to keep away form
the large numbers of tourist coaches that parked up at the Visitor’s Centre
(think tea towels, lumps of volcanic rock, fridge magnets and Icelandic woollen
goods etc etc for sale rather than
But away from the
madding crowds, it was very impressive, and I wandered over to the little
church in the valley which, although this building only dates from 1859, was originally
the site of one of Iceland’s first churches in the 11th
century.
Wandering along
the trails back to the car park I passed more of the geese of which I had seen
so many around the country, but this time they seemed quite used to humans and just
stood by the path as I went by.
Once away from
the Pingvellir, it was about an hours drive to the next attraction on the
circuit, Geysir. On the way I made a
detour to have a look at Bragabot, one of many old volcano sites right beside
the road around here. I was also passed
by yet another enormous monster van on its massive (and very noisy) tyres – It
sounds like an aircraft as it approaches and passes you !
Geysir is
supposedly one of Iceland’s most famous tourist spots – I say “supposedly”
because I think that title is only because it is within reach of the many day
trippers from Reykjavik – I certainly didn’t find it particularly impressive,
but that is just my opinion. In a small town of only a few buildings is the
most ENORMOUS Visitor Centre, car park, and food hall – Yup, think tea towels, lumps of
volcanic rock, fridge magnets and Icelandic woollen goods etc etc again,
but this time on an even bigger scale !) – I actually think the Visitor Centre
is bigger than the Geothermal area over the road ! Lots of monster trucks in the car park that
had brought tourists out, and I think almost as many people were taking photos
of them as of the geysir !!
Geysir actually
means “gusher” in Icelandic, and is where the world “geyser”, now used around
the world, comes from. It has been active for some 800 years, and once gushed
water up to 80 metres into the air. However, it has now been dormant since 1916
! Luckily there is a much smaller, and
more regular, geyser alongside, called Stokkur, which erupts every 5 – 8
minutes. However it now only shoots
about 10 – 15 metres into the air, with about every third “eruption” being more
of a minor “burp” of just a few feet ! I
must admit that the first time it erupts is quite fun, but for me the best bit
was watching the crowd who stand around for up to 8 minutes with their fingers
on their camera buttons, Selfie sticks at the ready as they look over their
shoulders, and in TOTAL silence – I was dying to call out “Say Something” to
break the silence !! There is a short
walk up past other minor bubbling pools onto a nearby hill to look over the
area, but it is a very short (and crowded) walk. Hmmmmmm.
I understand
there is talk of instituting an admission fee, and if I had to pay to see this
attraction, I would feel ripped off, so after the obligatory photo of the
monster trucks, I was off down the road to Gullfoss.
Gullfoss is
apparently Iceland’s most famous waterfall (like the Geysir being Iceland’s
most famous tourist attraction ?!), and while it is certainly a fine waterfall,
once again the Selfie stick brigade were out in force, brought out from Reykjavik on the many
big coaches up in the car park – And once again there is a “lower” coach park
as well, to enable the “less active” day trippers to view the falls without
having to walk very far. But there is no doubt the falls
are good, with two distinct sections – The upper falls of 11 metres in height,
and the lower falls of another 20 metres into a narrow canyon. Ironically in the 1920’s the falls were
almost destroyed when a team of foreign investors wanted to dam the river to
build a hydro-electric plant, but fortunately local residents were able to
protest successfully, although the local farmer’s daughter had to threaten to
throw herself in the falls if the project went ahead before it finally failed. 
Smaller “Visitor
Centre” here though, which was good !! Ha ha.
By now it was
only 3 pm, but I decided to go back to the same pleasant camp site as I had
been in last night near Pingvellir, so I just drove slowly back across the
NP. On the way the only thing of
interest was that I was nearly involved in a very nasty accident when a local
decided to overtake me in a white Skoda while another car was coming the other
way – I hooted, the oncoming car hooted, but we both had to go into the gravel
(and almost in the very rough and rocky lava field just to the side of the road, which
would have been interesting), while the idiot in the white Skoda STILL continued
to overtake in between us as if nothing was the matter, waving to me as he
passed. Never saw any driving that bad
anywhere in Central or South America, or anywhere else. Unbelievable primarily because instead of pulling back in line, he just barrelled on through regardless.
Back at the
campsite I took the time to download a few pics onto the computer (no wifi),
and even bought a beer from the small shop. I have been very good this week,
having only previously had a beer when I had the pizza in Myvatn. I then went to bed for my last night in
Iceland, wondering what I would do tomorrow in the few hours before I had to return my car.
And there were certainly not going to be any Northern Lights tonight –
It was cloudy again and trying to rain !
Sorry to be a litle cynical today, but I think the Golden Circle pales into insignificance compared to the sites around the rest of Iceland, and doesn't deserve the hype it is given. Just IMHO.
Thought for the day - If "Lögberg" means "Law Rock", what does "Iceberg" mean ? Along with geysir, lots of words come from the Icelandic !!
Photos of the day here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6279745350675634673?authkey=Gv1sRgCOjQk5SZrL7clQE
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