Iceland on Film, Part III
Snæfellsjökull national park
So I and couple of friends decided that we must visit the legendary Iceland for the purpose of photography. I of course, being me, took 35mm film camera instead of a very good digital camera which I have lying around too, mostly collecting dust.
We landed on Iceland and visited Reykjavik three days before. Also had some adventures on the Golden Circle and wondered in the western regions on the next day, eventually setting up camp in Ólafsvik. Let’s just continue from there…
So, Ólafsvik — We stayed in a little camping site between mountains, which covered up the wind pretty good. Or that’s what we thought. But apparently wind was not our only problem. The temperatures drop pretty far down during the night in Iceland, and the night leading to this morning, the temperature had gone down to 2°C.
Friend I was sharing the tent with had slightly too cold sleeping bag, and he spend most of the night putting on more and more clothes to stay warm. I had a better one so I slept like a baby. By that I mean, I woke up every few minutes because I am just not used to sleeping bag, but at least I was not cold. So if you are ever travelling to Iceland during summer, remember: It is not silly at all to bring a sleeping bag which is rated for comfort at 0°C or below.
Either way, we packed up our bags and went exploring the Snæfellsjökull national park. Snæfellsjökull pretty much translates to Snow Mountain Glacier, which I guess describes the mountain in the middle of the national park pretty well. There definitely was snow and a mountain. Although we did not see the glacier, I have no reason to doubt it is also there.
The mountain itself is an old volcano that pretty much has shaped the entire peninsula by covering it with lava fields. I expected them to be fairly smooth and flat, but in reality they are quite the opposite.
I learned this type of lava field is caused by ʻaʻā type lava flow. Yes, it is an actual, official name for a type of lava flow. It comes from Hawaiian language meaning “rough rocky lava”. Why didn’t they just call it Rough Rocky Lava then? Nobody knows.
And by the way. Even though these rocks look fragile and loose, I can assure you they are not. Be careful when navigating this place, if you hit your toes or head on a little rock, it’s gonna hurt like hell because they are hard as steel, jagged and sharp and firmly attached to the rest of the planet.
Other than Lava fields the sea was also offering some pretty views.
The region is also surrounded by some smaller volcanic cones. One of which we climbed to take some pictures of both the crater and surroundings.
Although the crater itself did not really speak with me in the photographic sense, I did get one of my favourite pictures of the trip on the hill.
Next we stumbled upon Vatnshellir cave. Although the name literally translates to “Water Cave”, it is an old lava tube, formed by underground lava flows. Only way of visiting it was through a guided tour. Regardless of a fairly hefty price we decided to check it out.
I have to admit I didn’t take many pictures inside. It was cold and damp, and also very dark. We were all given fairly low powered flashlights while the tour guide had a much more powerful one. All of them combined were what lit the cave. The light was mostly too dim to take pictures, and not very flattering either, with the chaotic yellow spots running around.
So was it worth it? I’d say yes. Didn’t get many pictures but the experience itself was worth it. Flash photography was allowed so it is possible to get some better pics out there. Unfortunately flash is not something I have in my film camera arsenal.
The highlight of this day for me was definitely when we noticed high standing stone pinnacles in the distance: Lóndrangar.
They are old volcanic plugs. Part of a bigger volcanic crater which has mostly eroded away, leaving the plugs, made of stronger material, standing alone.
It was impossible to drive right up to them so we had to walk a little. The weather was great and and there was many photo opportunities on the way, but I did not take many pictures, just enjoyed the walk.
When we finally arrived at the pinnacles, instead of taking close up shots of them, I took some pictures of the ground. Because it had some smooth stones that felt really good in hand. Mmm… Stones.
So yeah… That is that. Aren’t you glad you chose me to introduce you to the magical land of Ice and Fire? No? Oh well…
Next up Hellnar. We were hunting for one of those stone arches that form by erosion. Although Hellnar has some form of an arch, it was not the location we were looking for. What we were looking for was Gatklettur. Apparently we are not the only ones to confuse Gatklettur and Hellnar, as searching either of them in Google will reveal pictures of the other one as well.
As the weather forecast promised some rain and it was colder than usual, we really didn’t want to stay in tents this night and also we didn’t want to stay stuck in the western regions for another day. I booked a guesthouse in Akureyri and we set our GPS to lead us there.
It was fairly long drive, and GPS recommended us to go through road 570, gravel road of 19 km back to the northern part of the peninsula which would have considerably cut our route to Akureyri shorter.
People more experienced in traversing iceland probably are grinning right now. But we were quite oblivious even when we took the road. Just after we had finished the first slope of it, we realized the climbs were considerably more steep than we were comfortable with. Although neither our GPS nor the signs thought so, the road was indeed an F-road.
F-roads in Iceland are mountain roads which should not be travelled without a four wheel drive. Some of them have rivers crossing the road with no bridge, the climbs are steep and rough and car rental companies don’t actually allow you to go on those roads without a qualified car. Something which we didn’t have. Fortunately after the first climb, there was a bigger area where we could park our car, take few pictures, and turn back around.
So we ended up taking the long route through the south coast of the peninsula and towards Borgarnes and from there towards Akureyri. The trip itself was rather uneventful and I really only have a single picture from it.
We went to a small guesthouse in Akureyri where we got a really nice sleep, shower and could cook some hot food. On the next day we left early to go visit the nearby sites such as Goðafoss, Dimmuborgir and to go chase down some whales. You can read about all this in the next chapter of this epic story.
