Geothermal and Tourist Hotspot at the Far North of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

That would be "What is Iceland?", Alex.

Hi everyone,

Imagine being able to drive from Niagara Falls to Yellowstone's Old Faithful geyser in 10 minutes. Now put both of them within a half hr of historic Jamestown, and only 90min from your nation's capital and largest city- without exaggeration, such is Iceland. We just finished a 2-wk, 2900km drive of Iceland's 1300km Ring Road with side trips to the West Fjords and Snaefellsnes peninsula. Iceland is impossibly beautiful, every turn of the road worth a new picture. The downsides of travel to the country are the exorbitant costs, and the low quality of food and accommodation.

Our intro to the country occurred at Pearson airport (we flew from Tor, where we were for passover) when we discovered that there was an extra charge for our bags on national carrier Icelandair (whose low cost competitor, Wow Airlines, went out of business last month stranding many Canadians)- and not just AC/WJ's ~$30/bag but an outrageous $92/bag/way=$368 total added to our previously reasonably priced flight! This led to a sour taste on arrival- and an expected one at departure, however the supervisor there, Lilly, decided to code one of our checked bags as carry-on cutting total cost to $270, admittedly sweetening my mood on leaving.

First stop was the famed and overly-touristy, but unfortunately must-see, Blue Lagoon (very close to airport-both ~50km from Reykjavik), with it's milky blue-white thermal waters, run-off from one of the country's many geothermal power plants. At $140ea for entry my accountant, while reviewing my tax return with me, advised me to look at it from their free-entry cafeteria instead (you can also do a short walk thru the surrounding lava fields and can see some of the other waters from there). The identical set-up exists in the north of the country at Lake Myvatn with the exceptions being only 40% of the cost and much less of the crowds or hype, where we did enjoyably partake. There are also multiple natural geothermal "hot tubs" elsewhere- some right off the ring road, and also a bath-able hot spring river that we hiked to at Hveragerdi (~1hr from Reykjavik)- tho later found out not as safe as we thought:

https://icelandmag.is/article/canadian-woman-thought-she-would-die-after-she-stepped-a-hidden-geothermal-vent

Geothermal activity of all sorts is everywhere in Hawaii-meets-Norway Iceland. It sits atop a magma plume hotspot due to it's location on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge- where the North American and Eurasian plates are pulling apart from each other at 2.5cm/yr. The country has ~200 volcanoes including many road side perfectly formed crater-cones that can be very easily "climbed" in minutes, and it's mountains consist of layered basalt lava flows from the intermittent eruptions. The English word "geyser" actually comes from the town of Geysir, where, altho the namesake currently lies dormant, 50ft away Strokkur erupts ~every 8min up to 20m high. Unlike Hawaii, many of these volcanoes lie under glaciers- causing historical disasters (expect another one in the news during our lifetimes-in 1783 one even caused global cooling) causing not only air-traffic disrupting ash clouds, but enormous melt-water floods.

2010 Eyjafjallajokull ("j" is pronouned as y, "ll" as tl, Icelandic place-names are much less complicated than they look: "fjalla" means mountain, "jokull" glacier, "vatn" water, "vik" cove-"Reykjavik" smoke cove from the vented geothermal steam seen on discovery. This leads to many places having the same names- at times one is famous, the other obscure- booking beware travellers!) however was more of a national windfall than disaster. It led to tiny Iceland making international headlines and along with a concerted effort to promote tourism (in part necessary because of ~70B USD losses in a country with a population of only 330K, when 3 of 4 national banks failed due to over-leveraging in the 2008 financial crisis) had led to a 5-fold increase in tourists by 2016. From June to early Sept the country is over-run (2 million/yr, or 6/resident/yr, by comparison Canada gets 0.6/resident/yr, world leading tourist destination France 1.2/res/yr both of which also have a less dramatic summer crunch), the main reason for our going in the spring (I'd recommend this- was worried that attractions would still be snow-covered as in Ottawa and the Laurentians, but not the case, also hotel costs considerably less). In addition to the crowds an unfortunate outcome of this is that most of the "locals" you will interact with as a tourist are actually imported workers from elsewhere in Europe (Poland and Portugal seemed particularly well-represented)- the exception being in the remote and rugged highly-indented nearly vertically-cliffed West Fjords (where 10% of the landmass has 50% of the country's coastline, only 9k live, and major highways are unpaved).

Day 2 we did the previously alluded-to "Golden Circle" as a day trip from Reykjavik- Geysir, Niagara-class Gulfoss waterfall ("foss"means waterfall, without exaggeration I'd estimate we saw nearly 1000 during the trip including a handful of similarly spectacular ones), and Thingvellir Nat'l Park- where you can stand in the lowlands btw the 2 separating plates and the dramatic rock cliff of the NA plate was chosen as Iceland's parliamentary site in the year 930 [shortly after being settled by Norse Vikings, allowing the "Althing" to claim itself as the world's oldest parliament] and named "Law Rock". The proximity of these 3 sites to the capital also allows tourists to reasonably claim that they've "done Iceland" in as little as 2 days. Had a tiny $35 burger and fries for dinner (other places including a gas station restaurant had larger portions for as little as ~$25. For fear of remaining hungry after overpaying for anything else burger and fries were my staple), then set off at 8:30pm on the 3km hike up to the hot spring river- well worth risking our own Icelandic Saga (at least until I found the above report)-only semi-dark on returning to the car just before 11! Some nights further north never really got very dark- so no luck for Aurora sightings.

The next day we started the Ring Road drive- Iceland is nearly treeless and almost constantly incredibly scenic, truly a world-class drive. The downside is the 90 km/h speed limit despite mostly very good roads and the ubiquitous speed cameras. Although I tried not to speed I probably went thru several at 95-105 km/h and not sure what their cut-off is- needing to wait to see if my visa card gets charged (along with the rental company's "processing" fee- this happened to us in France for being slightly over the limit- the car company's charge ended up being more than the ticket itself which I paid online after getting a beautiful "Liberte, Egalite, et Fraternite" letter in the mail a few months later) for an unknown amount has added to Iceland's bitter aftertaste. On thinking about it speed cameras in rural areas really are just ineffective traveler money grabs- the locals all know where they are and therefore can speed wantonly between them without financial risk. Weather in Iceland changes notoriously rapidly- in part due to being in the warming gulf stream (temps mostly 4-10c but felt much colder due to windchill). Very rainy, often thick endless blankets of fog and very windy (they advise you to park facing the wind so that your car door doesn't get ripped off when you open it; tho JC notes better that than getting a leg crushed by a gust slamming it shut. Our plane swayed noticeably despite the relatively calm and sunny day on take-off- apparently landing planes regularly get diverted to the other end of the country).

Highlights included Dyrholaey black lava arch, cliffs and black sand beach, Skaftafell NP (part of the huge Vatnajokull ice cap- 11% of total country, [but tiny compared to Greenland's ice cap, just seen from our plane]- with multiple glaciers reaching down for easy roadside viewing, one reachable by 15min walk behind our hotel, another actually emptying small icebergs into a lagoon, Jokulsarlon, and then river and ocean, washing up on "Diamond Beach"), and Lake Myvatn. Lake Myvatn actually is a naturally dammed lava field in a volcanic/geothermal landscape- craters, pseudo-craters, lava deserts, basalt stacks, steaming vents and bubbling mud all to be found. Also visited Iceland's 2nd city of Akureyri- it has only 1/10 the popn of Reykavik which is home to 2/3rds of the nation, and the East Fjords where our rural schoolhouse-turned-hotel was run by the very personable returnee Arnor Stefansson (Icelanders don't have family names- their second names are formed by adding -son or -dottir to the father's first name) and his Honduran wife Lillian. They served us one of our few genuinely good meals. Our last stay- at Hlid's Fisherman Village resort south of Reykjavik was also memorable as our only room with character (everything else suffered from spartan Nordic austerity- tiny undecorated rooms and bathrms even when space was easily available- Ikea must do good business in Iceland- all their modern bldgs look like square Ikea lego pieces, with exceptions for some starkly-designed churches and town halls), and also had a rooftop hot-tub and a short jog to the very quiet president's residence.

Lake Myvatn (and to a lesser degree all of Iceland) also is a draw for birding. All of Iceland is filled with large numbers of huge whooper swans, greylag geese, and their large iconic eider ducks. Birding is easily done from inside the car roadside both for warmth and not scaring the birds. Highlights included harlequins (these required effort-found hiding behind bushes in a fast moving river, then later seen in West Fjords "kayaking" down a canyon river, a few great northern divers (I was sure it was a Cdn common loon- sure enough it is the same bird in an NA vs EU nomenclature battle!), and a ptarmigan couple, one mottled in the middle of shedding her white winter coat for shades of brown camouflage [for Marshall and posterity purposes also saw: ducks- Barrow's goldeneye, scaups, tufted ducks, Eurasian widgeons, red-breasted mergantsers, long-tailed ducks, mallards & horned grebes, waders- common snipes, black-tailed godwits, a common redshank and a whimbrel, others- European golden plovers, arctic terns, gulls/fulmars and ravens.]. What we didn't see were any puffins (these generally require boat rides or a very distant drive to Latrabjarg cliffs), tho we bought one's egg for Sophie to be hatched at a later date!

Non-domestic animals on the other hand are literally non-existent: only the rarely seen arctic fox (we didn't). Icelandic horses and sheep are everywhere, and have had 1000yrs to divert from their continental cousins. Whales need a mention. Iceland generally prides itself on its environmental stewardship (quite easy to do with so few inhabitants, and one of the world's lowest popn densities-less than Canada), but despicably is 1 of 3 countries (also Japan and Norway) violating an international ban on whaling. I consider these two facts incompatible with each other. Just who do they think they are saving the environment for? Only murdering 400 per year because it may be "sustainable" (debated) remains 400 (slow and tortuous) murders of intelligent, gentle, and loving beings/yr (we didn't go whale watching this trip, but have had enough interactions in past, esp in Baja, to base this on personal experience in addition to documentaries) who's right to life objectively should be equal to our own, if not greater (due to both current numbers and historical atrocities). Most of the meat is either exported to Japan or, ironically, consumed by tourists. There is push- back against this- hopefully it will change.

And, once on your topics, Errol, I am however pleased to report that secondhand smoke, beyond a minor issue of inadequate separation in the airport, was essentially a non-issue.

As a final comment we used a Bradt guide for the first time and have to say we were very disappointed. While it is very good at informing you about places and other matters, it does a very poor job from the perspective of helping to plan your trip.

So that was Iceland- definitely a place to be seen- the question is when. Regardless, don't forget your waterproof windbreaker or ski-mask!

Until next time,

Stu

Stuart, thank you for the note, much appreciated. Thank you especially for the heads up on the car door opening warnings- I think we will take the safe route by simply climbing out from the rolled down windows. Hopefully, if I fall out, the speed cameras won't ding me for hitting the ground too fast. Maybe I can reduce my speed on the way down, by avoiding the $35 burgers.

very best, Robert and Caren,