Snaefellsnes Pennisula

July 15, 16 & 17
Leaving behind a cold and rainy Isafjordur, we headed by bus south toward to the ferry to Stykkisholmur. Along the way we stopped at one of the countries largest waterfalls, Baejarfoss. It was another great view but to be honest there are more waterfalls in Iceland than people so the awe of this big waterfall might have been a bit under appreciated by two weary travelers. So we loaded back on the bus, then onto the ferry, sailed past a little island known as Flatey, and on into Stykkisholmur; right back into the cold and rainy storm we had just left. It is hard to get excited about a place in the cold and drizzle, not that there is that much to see in Stykkisholmur, so Ginger had the great idea to rent a car for the next day and go explore the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.
The next day we had the car, 24 hours and 250 kilometers to burn and off we went. The weather really turned in our favor and we were treated to stunning coastal views as we drove. Our journey took us past small fishing villages, the tallest structure in Iceland (which happens to be a US radar tower), sandy beaches, lighthouses and lava fields...lots of lava fields. On one of our travels from the lighthouses we saw an arctic fox, which is a rare things so we were really lucky to not only see one, but also get pictures.
As we continued around the Peninsula we hiked to the top of a volcanic crater, drove inside a volcanic crater, drove around volcanic craters and eventually came to the volcanic black sand beach of Djupalonssandur. I decided that it was time for a swim in the ocean and Ginger decided it was time to take pictures and laugh. It was a brief but brisk swim in the North Atlantic, and the Japanese tourists who were also on the beach seemed to get a kick out of the event.
Moving on from the beach we traveled in the shadow (not really a shadow cause it is light all of the time) of Snaefell peak and the Snaefellsjokull glacier.The most notable thing about this National Park is that it is the setting for the book "Journey to the Center of the Earth". It is easy to see why Jules Verne was inspired by this place, it has one of the most unique landscapes we had ever seen. Ginger and I ventured through the park and even into the caves where the story takes place. The caves were once used by the Vikings as meeting places and thanks to the stupidity of some people the caves are now full of graffiti, there are carvings on the walls however dating back to the 18th century.
From the caves we continued our adventure west along the southern coast and came to the Raudfeldargja Gorge. We decided that is would be a good idea to go into this unexplained dark creepy split in the earth. We walked up the middle of the stream that ran through the gorge and as we moved deeper into the narrow crack it felt like we were heading into the pages of the Verne Classic. We explored as far back as we could but had to stop when we came to a waterfall (yes, another waterfall). We could have climbed up the fall and kept going but neither of us had on the proper gear to keep going. By the time we left we were soaked, but we had a good time doing it and we were off to our next spot.
In Iceland you don't stop exploring because it is dark, you stop exploring because you run out of either road or energy, luckly we ran out of both at the same time and at the end of a dirt road in a place called Ytri- Tunga we camped for the night. To say camped would be misleading, we slept in the back of the Hyundai Accent and either due to sheer exhaustun or a miracle, we actually got a decent nights sleep. The next morning we woke to a great sandy beach and a sight of seals sunning themselves on the shores. After watching the seals for a bit we packed up the car and headed back to Stykkisholmur. Of the 250 kilometer limit we were given we used 249.7 of those kilometers. We proceeded to drop off the car take our traditional walking tour of town and then catch the bus headed to Reykjavik.