With parking prices as bad as London when we arrived on Sunday we managed to find one of the free weekend parking spaces. As Monday was a Bank Holiday free parking expired at 09:00 on the Tuesday morning so we left Reykjavik at 09:00 on the dot.
Tuesday we had an itinerary of 5 planned stops before checking in to our hotel in Hellnar, a distance of approximately 155 miles. Whilst Hellnar is on the south coast of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula we decided to visit all the spots on the North coast and then drive around the western tip to Hellnar. And of course this didn’t include any “spontaneous” stops to just admire, and snap, the view.
And the view is stunning. Snow, ice, lava fields, mountains, rocks, greenery and moss and of course rivers and waterfalls. Then throw into the mix the weather. It is so changeable and so quickly. Literally every 10 minutes. Throughout Tuesday we had the brilliant blue sky and rain at the beaches and the cloud and rain everywhere else. Whilst driving we saw what we’ve called “crop sprayer” rain – looking over the road or plains in front/side of us there would be a patch of grey cloud with rivers of rain coming directly down from it and on either side clear blue or white sky. To us it was just like the arm of a crop sprayer. Hopefully you’ll see this in the one quick shot I took. If not, its our age😂
So we only did one unscheduled stop to admire the stunning flora and colour surrounding Sellvallavatn at Hellgafellssveit. We had no idea where we were when we stopped – I looked that up later. But it was the first time we had seen such colour in Iceland so we had to stop.
Our first planned stop was Kirkjufell and its waterfall Kirkjufellsfoss. This was the most well known of our stops today and was the only place that charged for parking. I thought I’d got away with it, but yes I now have yet another parking app to add to my already extensive collection. The mountain is stunning and the size of it and the vast surrounding plains make the waterfalls look diminutive by comparison. They aren’t huge but they aren’t small either. There are a couple of people left in a shot for comparison.
From there we drove westwards around the North coast of the peninsula and around its western tip. We stopped at Ingjaldshóll to see the church with all the brilliant blue lupine, except the lupine hadn’t got the message and were still at the few green leaves stage. From there west to Skarǒsvik to see the waves crash on the golden sand beach, which beautifully contrasts with the stunning jet black volcanic rock cliffs and formations that crowd it. My favourite stop was next, Djúpalónssandur beach. This was a pebble beach with stunning rock formations but not only did it have the views, it had a story. As you walk on to the beach you walk past the famous lifting stones. Fishermen were not considered fit to sail until they had proven their strength by lifting the stones – Fullsterkur (Fully Strong) – 154kg, Hálfsterkur (Half-Strong) – 100kg, Hálfdrættingur (Weak) – 54kg and Amlóði (Useless) – 23kg. The largest rock pillar in the bay is called Kerling (Old Woman). According to a folktale, some fishermen killed an old woman, or at least took her corpse, to use as bait. All of the fishermen except one, who could only lift Hálfdrættingur, used her as the bait and had a successful trip with good catches. One night, the old woman appeared to this Hálfdrættingur in a dream and warned him not to row out to sea the next day. He pretended to be ill and stayed on shore. That day all the other fishermen were drowned. I don’t know whether it’s true or not but a striking feature of the beach is the scattered rusting iron remnants of a shipwreck, left as a tribute to those that died. This shipwreck is from 1948, far more recent than the ship in the folktale!
To get to both of these volcanic beaches we had to drive through lava fields carpeted with Icelandic moss. The contrast between the colours and textures of the green velvety moss interspersed with the black of the sharp, jagged lava was nature at its best.
Our penultimate stop of the day was Malarrif to see the Lóndrangar sea stacks which are the remains of volcanic plugs from a crater. As I mentioned weather had been on and off all day and by this stage it was just downright awful so I refused to get out and walk to see the sea stacks. Whilst I sought refuge in the “facilities” the rain stopped briefly and an arctic fox appeared so Steven grabbed my camera to try and take some photos but I think the fox was too quick for him , especially as he has never used my camera before. Thankfully the fox liked the limelight and hung around for myself and the posse with large lenses that had gathered in the carpark to snap away.
Finally we arrived at Hellnar. The hotel was signposted from 2km away and as we approached we thought we’d drive past it into main Hellnar to explore first. 300m later we were at the beach and the Hellnar cliffs with all the nesting birds and we realised that the hotel, the small cluster of a dozen houses close by and the abandoned church are the sum total of Hellnar village. However the hotel is charming, well appointed and our room is huge, with views over the field and church and soooo comfortable and warm. There is only one place to eat and drink – the hotel, and thankfully the food is incredible so I didn’t mind having the same cod dish both nights. From the restaurant we look out onto the cliff with all the nesting birds, and the Atlantic Ocean. We did get very excited when we saw these breaking waves and something black peeping out of it – we thought it was a whale tail and called the waitress over. It’s a rock, she said trying not to laugh. I think we were very tired after a long but wonderful day!
Tuesday refreshed, we returned to Malarrif to see the sea stacks. No blue sky, not even intermittently this morning. It was grey and very windy either with our without rain. We managed to dodge some of the rain to see the sea stacks and then go to Anarstapi to see the stone arch. But boy was it windy +/- wet along those cliff edges. Cliff edges are always a draw for my daredevil husband. Heart in my mouth he reassured me the wind was blowing him inland!
He survived to drive us to the black Búðakirkja church. The church is a well known landmark even though it is closed and we arrived at the same time as a coach of tourists and our friend, the rain. Thankfully the rain made the tourists just pop out of the coach, snap and go. As they pulled away taking the rain with them (temporarily) leaving the place deserted, a bride and groom appeared out of the church doors. What a nice surprise.
From there we started to drive to Hraunfossar but the weather was awful and as it told us it was 100 miles/2 hours away I tried to convince Steven we shouldn’t go as he had our longest drive tomorrow and it was already 12 noon. He stopped, looked at the map and the sky and said we should persevere – the weather may be better in land and what else was there to see other than the scenery and waterfalls. We could always turn back later. What a wise man that hubby of mine is – but you knew that already. Not only did the weather clear up but Hraunfossar was every bit as charming as the guide book said it was. I have never seen so many waterfalls in one place. None of them were the huge thunderous forces of Niagra. But they were numerous and fairylike and the sum of their parts added up to so much more than any individual one. I apologise for subjecting you to the numerous photos as I played around and sadly none of them really do the waterfalls or the gorge at Barnafoss justice. The rocks and water really are that colour.
After our 233 mile round trip today I think we can say we have seen all that the Snæfellsnes Peninsula has to offer. The same road goes all around the peninsula but there is a striking difference between the two coasts Both are bound by the Atlantic Ocean and the same cloud and ice topped black volcanic mountain range runs down the middle but the two plains are so different. The green, flat, arable grasslands in the south support numerous sheep and horses, with houses and random bits of farm machinery apparently abandoned dotting the fields. Whilst the plains and lava fields of the north are more colourful, rocky and varied without the grazing animals or farm machinery.
So tomorrow we leave to head east towards the north of Iceland and its largest town, Akureyri.
By the way, for those of you following the map we don’t miraculously fly across water. There are things called bridges and a really deep 6km tunnel under Hvalfjordur.