Iceland's Golden Circle tour

One of the most popular tours in Iceland is the Golden Circle, commonly done from Reykjavik. It goes to 3 of the major sites in the area. 

Unfortunately it was drizzling with thick low cloud when we started and stayed like that all day, with intermittent rain showers. The countryside outside Reykjavik has small trees/shrubs and moss covered soil and rocks. There are no trees on Iceland. The country used to have about 30% of forest cover, mostly birch trees, but early settlers, the Vikings, cut down every tree. They used them for buildings, and to make pastures for cattle and crops and to make charcoal.

First stop was Pingvellir National Park, a World Heritage site. It is important geologically and historically. It is by Iceland’s largest lake, Pingvallavatn but it was too misty to really see as we drove past. The park is a shrine for Icelanders as the Law Council made all laws here 930-1262 from Law Rock. 

I was more interested in the geology. A 7 km rift valley separates 2 tectonic plates, the North American and the European. Pingvellir and the Great Rift Valley of eastern Africa are the only sites on Earth where the effects of two major plates drifting apart can be seen. The valley walls are moving apart 7 mm a year. Almannagja gorge defines the eastern edge of the N. American plate. 

A path leads through the valley, there are views over small lakes and the path goes down to a waterfall. 

The lakes -

Ropy or Pahoehoe lava. "Pahoehoe" is a Hawaiian word used to describe a lava flow with a smooth, ropy surface. Pahoehoe flows advance slowly, with small amounts of lava squeezing out of a cooler crust. It can be seen at Pingvellir mid Atlantic ridge rift valley and also the historic assembly site of Althing or Law Rock.

A family of geese

The waterfall, Oxarafoss. It's not certain if the water has been diverted over the years for the old Parliament meetings. The pool at the bottom of the cascades was apparently used to drown women accused of various crimes, especially adultery.

From Pingvellir we made our way to Gullfoss, stopping on route to see some Icelandic horses. They are classified as horses although they look more like ponies. They are the only breed of horse allowed in Iceland. Needless to say they are very hardy animals.

Gullfoss or Golden Falls is a spectacular waterfall in the Hvítá river canyon. The water comes from a glacier. The water falls in 2 cascades, the first is 11 m and the second 21 m. The canyon walls are up to 70 m high. Typical moss covered ground as you approach the falls from the car park -

I was lucky when I walked to the upper fall as the wind was blowing the spray away from the path so I could stand and take photos and videos.

Our third and last stop was at Geysir. Geysir is a geothermal area. It is an area of boiling mud pits and erupting geysers.

The main geyser, Strokkur,  spouts water 30 m into the air every few minutes. So you don't have to wait long to see it. It goes off with quite a loud bang. 

 

The area was very wet underfoot but the flowers were pretty. 

Lupins are an invasive species in Iceland but they do help topsoil loss and erosion. They are beautiful in bloom in June.

Some of the pools and other areas are also rather pretty

Turf roof houses on Faroe Islands

 The Faroe Islands are a series of volcanic islands between Norway, Scotland and Iceland in the North Atlantic. They are self-governing but part of the Kingdom of Denmark. 

The islands are quite long and thin, running north-south. The capital is Torshavn. 

It rains about 300 days a year on the Faroes, and true to form, it rained both days I was there. On the first day I took the bus from Torshavn to Klaksvik. The road goes through a series of tunnels including the 6 km long Noroya tunnel under the sea. I was surprised how good the road system is with all the tunnels, considering the population is less than 50,000.

One of the main points of interest of the Faroes are the buildings with the turf roofs. The grass roofs were introduced in the early days to provide protection from the rain and to give insulation. I had seen a few in Norway in the past, but in Torshavn many buildings had these roofs. View through the rain of the old town -

The Vikings founded the first Faroese parliament on the Tinganes peninsula in AD 850. And today part of the government is in Tinganes.  The name Tinganes means "parliament jetty" or "parliament point" in Faroese.

Views of Tinganes and the red wooded government buildings -

To make the roofs, the sods are cut from pasture land, and laid on birch bark on the roof. Corrugated iron and tiles were later used in some buildings, although nowadays the green trend means the grass is making a comeback.

In Torshavn town -

Even the Hilton Garden Inn hotel on the outskirts of Torshavn has a grass roof (photo taken from inside the bus in the rain) -

And in Klaksvik the bank has a grass roof -

On buildings with large flat roofs, the grass can be cut with a lawn mower. Or goats as I saw in Norway. With the smaller and steeper roofs, I guess the grass is just left to grow. 

Birds in Iceland

In June 2022 I spent a few days in Iceland and saw lots of birds. I am not a birder, but like to take photos of the birds that I see - here are a few of those photos.

Being on a cruise, we saw lots of seabirds. The most common around Iceland seemed to be fulmars. I loved watching them flying around. They skim the waves, flying just above the surface and almost look as if they are playing. I'm surprised how much energy they must use doing this. They fly with a fast wing beat and stiff wings. They look a bit chunky compared to other seabirds such as gulls and gannets. 

Fulmars are very common around Iceland and the Faroes. They have learnt to feed behind whaling boats and now fishing boats in the North Atlantic. They usually breed on sea cliffs and lay one egg a year. 

Arctic terns nest on the ground and are notorious for dive bombing humans who get too close. They breed in colonies. They have long narrow wings and a long forked tail. The adults have a dark cap during summer, a dark red bill and legs, a grey body and white rump and tail. 

Oystercatchers also nest on the ground and screech at humans who get too close. Firstly the one on the left was shrieking at me then the other one came over to join in.

Eider ducks, the common eider, are probably best associated with eiderdowns, the quilts that are stuffed with their feathers. The males are mostly black and white whereas the females are reddish brown. There were 2 large groups on the beach at Grundarfjord. As I approached the first group, even though I was quite a distance away, they all took to the water. 

They slowly spread out until they were in one long line -

I walked along and the second group also took to the water -

A ringed plover, well camouflaged on the beach -

The Northern Gannets are known for their fast high dives into the water like a torpedo. Unfortunately they are badly affected by avian flu. We saw quite a few bodies in the sea. And I saw this one on a beach at Grundarfjordur.

 

Avian flu has become a really big problem in 2022. Initially it was thought to affect gannets, but it is now known that it is not confined to one species or area. This sad report is from 16 June on BBC "Avian flu hits world's largest gannet colony on Bass Rock". Bass Rock is in Scotland. As this report says, others birds such as gulls, puffins and the great skua are also dying from the flu. There are several linked reports from previous weeks. And a report in Nature from 26 May "Why unprecedented bird flu outbreaks sweeping the world are concerning scientists".

On a happier note, I saw some puffins. These have to be one of people's favourite bird. They appear on so much tourist merchandise in many countries. I did a boat trip from Grundarfjordur to to the island of Melrakkaey. We saw puffins on the way, in the water and also flying - they fly with fast beating wings. They still have their large, colourful beaks, of red, black and yellow.  

There were quite a few on the cliff top, but it was very hard to get good photos as our boat was bobbing up and down in the rough sea. They breed in colonies on grassy, steep slopes where they dig a nesting burrow.

We also saw gulls, shags and cormorants. A gull and puffin eyeing each other up -

Black guillemots- In the summer they are black, with red feet and a large white patch on the wing. This photo was taken in the Shetland Isles, I wonder if they are just talking or is one scolding the other! -

Inland I saw redwings, which belong to the thrush family.

A white wagtail, aka pied wagtail -

I only saw one raven. It was large but too far away for a photo. The raven is the emblem of the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. The raven is a prominent bird in Icelandic nature and traditional beliefs.

And finally, a really cute photo of a puffin on the book "Birds of the Faroe Islands" -