Things to do in Iceland, Reykjanes peninsula

Iceland

I spent 10 days in Iceland in 2018 for new year's eve. I did a volunteer work camp and it was a good experience, but not the best work camp I have been to. Work camps are a nice opportunity to help the local community (this factor was missing there) and at the same time visit a country, know a new culture and meet nice people, I suggest you do it. 

Reykjanes peninsula

This was the second of three excursions we did during the work camp, and the one I liked the most: there was good weather and we visited amazing, not touristic, places.

The Reykjanes peninsula is a region in the southwest of Iceland, it is where Keflavik and the international airport are. The peninsula is marked by active volcanism under surface, and large lava fields, there are numerous hot springs and sulphur springs, and the famous Blue Lagoon, where I didn't have the opportunity to go.

Kleifarvatn lake

At the shore

The first stop of our tour was at this lake, which is the third for extension in Iceland with an area of 10 square km.

It was a sunny day but with a strong cold wind, and I think that my friend decided to lay on the shore to protect herself from the wind first and after to be funny and be in some pictures.

 

Where am I?

In the picture the lake is on my back, so basically I rotate 90 degrees comparing the previous picture. When I jump off that van I felt I was in a weird place, something that I have never seen before: the snow mixed with the ground, and the silence gave me the feeling I was on another planet. 

This is a great place for photographers, the lake is surrounded by volcanoes and is possible to get unique shots. There is also a story about a monster with a worm shape that lives in the lake.

 

Woah!

The sunrise gave the pictures unique colours and coloured also the lake, this was literally a "Woah!!" situation, and I felt grateful to be there.

The lake has no visible water coming in or going out because it comes and leaves underground. The depth is 97 m, and, after the 2000 earthquake the lake began to diminish, it lost 20% of its surface. 

Krýsuvíkurleið

The king of the world

This is a specific area in the Reykjanes peninsula, that includes the lake itself, the volcanic area around it and some points of geothermal activities.

Here we were on the right part of the lake compared to the previous pictures, there is a street that runs along this side of the lake. 

As I said before this place is perfect for landscape photography, and you can easily take beautiful pictures because the place itself is amazing. What I like the most in this picture is the presence of a person that emphasize the stunning landscape.

 

Curves

Here we have the lake on the left and the street we travelled, that brought us to the south, on the right; what I like the most from this picture are the curves from the lake and the street that merge and just after going in opposite directions.

The sun is up and the colour of the clouds give a nice composition to the picture.

The photographer

The last picture from this stop shows the sun coming up behind the volcanoes, and it is from the same spot as the previous one. 

I like the figure of the photographer, s/he is looking at the last picture s/he shoots, I would like to see it too, and s/he is kissed by the sun, you can see the sun rays and some flares made by the lens.

Seltun Geothermal Area

Little house in the prairie 

This geothermal area is situated in Krýsuvík, which is located in the separation of the mid-Atlantic ridge. The volcanic and geothermal activity has resulted in fumaroles, mud pots and hot springs.

This one is the only building in the area, and it impressed me: you travel for several kilometres and what you see is only wild nature, and sometimes, randomly, a house here or there.

The journey

Probably is difficult to see it, but in the picture, there is a street and a car. This picture represents what I wrote before, wild nature, at the horizon a building and this car that is running to reach it.

I like the clouds that are, somehow, pointing the way: the navigator of this lonely car.

Only nature

I saw some pictures of this place during the summer and it is completely different, the snow cover all the colours of the geothermal activity: red, yellow and green.

This photo relaxes me: the white with a bit of pink from the clouds and this nature with a minimal human presence makes me smile, that smile that warm up my heart.

Selatangar

Winter ocean

The next stop was at the ruins of a coastal fishing station; between the 14th and 19th century Icelanders had fishing stations as essential supplements to their farmsteads.

The ocean in winter was a surprise, It was really cold because the wind was strong, but I loved it immediately and I didn't want to leave it.

Waves

See this picture reminds me of the power of nature and how the landscape was beautiful there, and a thing I thought there was: "how is it possible that someone has lived here?".

Selatangar was a fishing village, and one of the most dangerous: jagged rocks just off the shore could shatter boats in bad water, and as you can imagine by the picture, those who lived there had to endure freezing, uncomfortable, squalid living conditions.

  

Ruins

Here is possible to find foundations of the stone houses that the fishermen were using while they were living there. It is possible to find the deteriorating shells of huts used for hanging and drying fish.

The ruin on the picture was probably used for drying fish. What I like from this picture is the sky and the geometry made by the people and the hole. 

Reykjanesviti

Sea stack

This area includes a lighthouse and a geothermal area that is at the next stop of the tour. Looking at this picture the lighthouse is behind me, and on the left, there are two big cliffs, but the first thing I saw was the stack in the ocean.

I thought that this picture could be better in black and white in the way to emphasize the correlation between the girl and the stack, and the alignment elbow/horizon. 

Suffering

I was talking about the cliffs and here there's a picture from the top of the first one, as you can see the situation up there was not really easy, the wind was strong and really cold, but the view was unforgettable, and you can see it in the next two pictures.

In this photo, there is the yellow from the hoodie, her expression and the person on the other cliff that altogether make it nice.

Lighthouse

It is the oldest lighthouse in Iceland, it was built in 1878 and it was 31 meters tall, but 5 years later it was destroyed by an earthquake, the new lighthouse was built in 1908.

This pic was taken from the cliff I was in the previous one, I was caught from the steam coming up from the geothermal area, and the combination of white: lighthouse, smoke and snow.

Can you see the aeroplane?

The Bus

Here the view from the second cliff, you can see some people on the other and a white tourist bus that keeps the white tendency from the previous picture.

The view of the bus from here reminds me of the one from into the wild, it is alone in the wild nature, but more accessible than Alaska's one.

I have to say that here it was difficult even to stand, because of the wind and the cliff's steep.

Gunnuhver geothermal area

Like in a horror movie

There is a nice story behind the name of this place: the legend says that 400 years ago, Gudrun, an angry female ghost was trapped in the hot springs by a priest.

This, plus the steam, give the place a surreal atmosphere; the photo reminds me of the graveyards in the old horror movies, or the CO2 used in the theatres to give a dramatic feeling. 

Steam treatment

There is a route to follow in the geothermal area, and it is important to do it because some hot springs can reach 300°C, but in some points, you can't avoid the steam, as you can see from the picture, that, of course, is not dangerous, and anyway, some hot steam was well accepted in that day. 

It's not a geyser

This geothermal area has the largest mud pool, it's 20 meters wide of violently boiling earth. What makes Gunnuhver hot springs different from the others in Iceland is that the groundwater is seawater, the colourful minerals in the ground provide vibrant hues.

Gunnuhver has mud pools and, as you can see in the pictures, steam vents, not geysers as they could appear.

Sandvík

Standing at the border

This was our last stop of the tour, as you can see the sun was going down and the dark hours were coming. 

The Reykjanes peninsula lies on one of the world's major plate boundaries, the mid-Atlantic ridge. So the guy in the picture is standing at the border of a continent, if I remember well the Eurasian one, it's amazing if you think about it, and the combination of the light and the landscape give this photo a unique atmosphere.

  

Blade runner

This is the only street that brings you to the plate boundaries, the picture itself doesn't show up the place, and it is not connected to the place I'm talking about, but I wanted to put it because I like the feeling it gives to me. I like landscapes with nature and one street, maybe with a car, that cut them in two; this picture reminds me of Blade Runner, or any other dystopian movie: the smoke, no life presence except a lonely one.

The angel in the snow

The Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are continuously drifting apart with great forces under the gaping rifts, the plates move away from each other and fissures form due to the stresses are created. The girl with the yellow hoodie is lying down on the fissure between the two plates, trying to make an angel in the little snow. I like the contrast between her hoodie and the dark colours of the rest of the picture.

The bridge between the continents

The main attraction in this part of Sandvík is the bridge between the continents, it is a small footbridge over the fissure that show up the presence of the divergent plate margin. The bridge was built as a symbol for the connection between Europe (left) and North America (right).

Iceland is the only place where this rift is visible above the land, it was created 16 million years ago by a volcanic bloom that still continues today.