Iceland 1 - Day 3 (March 17, 2014)

It is day 3 of this trip and we head out to the region known as Snæfellsnes Peninsula. This is a rugged region of Icelandic west coast that juts out into the Atlantic between Faxaflói bay and Breiðafjörður. The two coasts north and south separate by a range of mountains that run along the peninsula and culminate ending up at Snæfellsjökull, a large volcano and glacier at the land’s westernmost point.  This is the largest volcano on this peninsula.  This is the mountain that was featured in the Jules Verne book “Journey to the Center of the Earth"

Travel to this region is shortest when you take the 6 kilometer long tunnel that traverses under the ocean. Once through the tunnel, on the way Snæfellsnes to our first stop was the unique single crater volcano named Eldborg (The Fire Castle) is actually it is a caldera rather than a volcanic crater.

Next, we ant to the town of BÚÐIR. This is a former fishing village in the Búðavík bay. The settlement was abandoned in the early nineteenth century and today has just a hotel and a church. The church is a black church surrounded by a lava field. It has three white-framed windows and was constructed in 1703. The church has a surrounding wall made of lava and topped with turf.

 Our next location was an costal area Arnastapi at the foot of Stapafell. It is a small fishing village and harbor.  The rocks and cliff sides are rookeries.  This time of year the primary nesting sea birds were Fulmars with a few Kittiwakes.  Arctic terns also nest here and are known to dive-bomb when threatened. There are lots of photo opportunities in this area and one has to be very careful of massive rogue waves.  The waves are very unpredictable and if you are on a beach or near the ocean you must be extra cautious.A quick snack and then on to another hunt for the Aurora. There were faint signs while we were driving so we stopped and set up.  This was truly rewarding.