Day 88-Iceland splits in two!

Diane and Norm at
the Nýlenda lighthouse.

   April 1-April Fools!  Well, kind of.  Iceland actually is spreading apart, east to west, as we got to see today, but it won't "split in two" any time soon.  While tossing around ideas the night before, Diane ran across a pamphlet in the guesthouse that advertized a driving tour around the Reykjanes peninsula.  We looked at it and realized that it hit most of the sites that we wanted to see.  Instead of paying a thousand dollars to let someone else drive us to them, though, we figured we could do the tour ourselves.  So, we got up and around this morning and essentially toured the western third of the peninsula in a counter-clockwise direction.  This meant that we first drove along the western coast at its tip.  The Reykjanes lies on the divergent boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, so much of the land here is relatively new and has not had time to be broken down into soil.  The result is a barren landscape of lava flows, summer homes, lighthouses, geothermal power plants, steam vents, sea cliffs, and the occasional ruins of sheep pens.


The Bridge Between Two Continents spans this rift between the North American and Eurasian plates.



There is actually another rift that runs south through Iceland as well, so it might not be completely true to say that the Eurasian tectonic plate is on Spencer's left.  However, home, sweet home, is certainly on his right!



The Reykjanesvirkjun geothermal power plant and Iceland's oldest lighthouse, Reykjanesviti, are situated at the southeast corner of the Reykjanes peninsula.

Effluent, still boiling hot, flows out to sea from the Reykjanesvirkjun power plant.

Reykjanesvirkjun built a scale model solar system that stretched for miles down the highway.  Shown here are the Sun and Earth.  Apollo astronauts trained in the barren lava lands of the Reykjanes.

Alex, Stacia, and Joslyn birdwatching at the Valahnúkur sea cliffs near Reykjanesviti.

Steam vents and mudpots at the Gunnuhver geothermal field near Reykjanesviti.



Fish being dried the traditional way near Reykjanesviti.



Alex, Joslyn, Stacia, Spencer, and Kailey, the Blue Lagoon, and the Svartsengi geothermal power plant.

    We ate pizza for a late dinner at Grindavík and drove up to the Blue Lagoon, where we took in the cheap views, but skipped the expensive swim.  We drove back out to Garður to visit the Garður Peninsular Historical Museum on its opening day of the summer season!  Like most of the folk museums we have visited over here, its collection was varied with an emphasis on fishing boats and fishing paraphernalia.  We got keys to the Garðskagaviti lighthouse, which was next door.  Garðskagaviti is the tallest lighthouse in Iceland and was built in 1944 by U.S. servicemen, who were grateful to locals for rescuing them when their Coast Guard ship sunk.  Since this was the lighthouse that had been flashing us the night before, it was pretty exciting to climg to the top and to see the lights and other machinery.

The Garður museum and Garðskagaviti.

Flathead Ford V-8 engine that has been modified to compress air and to generate electricity.

   When the museum shut down, we played around at shore.  Some of us drove back to the guesthouse, while the rest walked back along the shore.  This walk allowed us to discover an old fishing shack, boat, and winch that was used to pull boats up onto the shore.  It turns out that the place we were staying was the only gathering location for fishermen in the 1800s.  They cleared the shore of loose rocks so boats could be placed on carts to be dry-docked more easily.  There were the remains of an old hand winch that was originally used to do this and next to it was the car engine that they installed with a pulley system later to make this job more easy.  The whole set-up had been restored recently and partially covered to protect it from the weather.  The community had even put up a placard to explain the history of the site.  It all seemed quite elaborate, given that you would never know it even existed if you didn't decide to walk a rough sea wall along the coast with no apparent goal in mind.  I suppose that made up appreciate its discovery that much more special.

Shan by the hand winch, in front of the fishing shack and traditional fishing boat.

   We drove back to Keflavík for supper.  Greg ordered a minke whale steak, so everyone could try it.  I don't think that anyone was terribly impressed, but no one necessarily disliked it either.  We returned to the guesthouse to destress and get some sleep.