the starrs: Iceland - Golden Circle & Lava Caving

We did a great sightseeing tour through Arctic Adventures called the Golden Circle Tour and Lava Caving. When we arrived at the meeting place for our tour, we discovered that we were the only two people signed up for the day, so we ended up getting a private tour! I'm sure the day would've been awesome even if there were more people, but with just the two of us it was amazing. Our guide Gilli loved his job, and was extremely knowledgeable about anything and everything relating to Iceland. As a bonus he was a Canon camera enthusiast and avid photographer, and he ended up teaching me a ton about my own camera, and giving me great tips for capturing the Northern Lights on camera (if we were lucky enough to get to see them).

Our ride

Since it was just us three in the Jeep, if Gilli saw something cool that wasn't normally a stop on the tour he would pull over and stop anyways, especially for great photo opportunities. It was also nice to be able to ask questions about Icelandic culture, and Gilli was always able to give us answers. We were curious about the crime rate in Iceland - the population for all of Iceland is only about 320,000 people, with about 2/3 of them living in the Reykjavik area, so it seems that crime would be relatively low. Gilli said that crime is extremely low in Iceland, and guns are used only by hunters- not even their police force carries guns. He also told us that Iceland has no military, which surprised us initially but makes more sense now. The U.S. Air Force used to operate at a base near the international airport outside of Reykjavik, but they are no longer there which apparently came as a relief to the Icelandic people. They weren't that comfortable having a military presence here, especially when they don't have a military of their own. Anyways, on to the tour! :)

Our guide, Gilli

Our first stop was at Þingvellir National Park (also known as Parliament Fields). This is the only UNESCO cultural world heritage site in iceland, and was the place where the Vikings would hold their parliamentary meetings starting back in 930 AD. This was before the Icelandic people had adopted Christianity (they still worshipped the Viking gods) and therefore they had no knowledge of reading or writing. As a result, the head of Parliament would have to remember all of the laws since they were not written anywhere, and recite them to the people when they came to Parliament Fields. This site is also the location where the tectonic plates of America and Europe meet, and we could clearly see each rift and the growing distance between them (about 7km as of now). Thomas loves history and geology so he was very excited to see this site, and recognized it from all of the History Channel shows he has watched on the subject. The whole park was very beautiful with the little creeks running through the Parliament Fields area, and the lake off to the side. We were lucky enough to be there at sunrise (at 10:30am mind you), so we got some awesome views and some awesome pictures.

Parliament Fields

Ridge of Eurasia tectonic plate

Me & Thomas

I have such a sweet husband :)

Beautiful views from Parliament Fields

Old Parliament buildings

Our next stop was at the hot springs area, which is the geothermal area of the original Geysir (the one all the rest are named after!), and the still erupting Strokkur hot spring. I'd never seen a hot spring before, and it was very intriguing to see the constant steam coming from the old Geysir hot spring. The Geysir doesn't erupt as frequently as it used to, but does tend to go off when there is volcanic activity. The Strokkur geyser is about 50 meters from Geysir, and erupts every four to ten minutes, although sometimes it would have another mini eruption only seconds after the previous one. It was fascinating to watch it erupt, and it managed to scare me every time. Right before the water bursts out of the ground, a bubble forms and it is so strikingly blue - if I hadn't seen it I would never have guessed that water could be so beautiful. I know it sounds crazy, but the color was just astounding!

The old Geysir

Strokkur hot spring - it erupted twice very close together

Brrrrrr

Me in front of Strokkur

Strokkur right before erupting

My favorite stop of the day was at the Gullfoss waterfall. I'd never seen anything like this waterfall, you'll just have to look at the pictures to see what I mean! At several points in its history, investors wanted to use the waterfall to generate electricity, but luckily it was sold to the state of Iceland and is now protected. I'm all for using natural resources to generate electricity, but it would be a shame to see such a beautiful site marred by equipment and other commercialization.

Thomas & I in front of Gullfoss

Gullfoss Waterfall

Thomas & the delicious lamb stew

Crater

Lastly, we got the chance to go lava caving at the Leiðarendi lava cave in the Blue Mountains. Before entering the cave Gilli asked if either one of was claustrophobic. I'm not usually...but that question had me a little concerned for the caving conditions. Luckily it wasn't nearly as confining as I thought it would be, and we only had to belly crawl twice, phew! Inside the cave was very fascinating. Since it is a lava cave there is no continuous growth like in "normal" limestone cave; the cave was formed by flowing lava about 2,000 years ago and has remained the same ever since. Since there is no water present like in a normal cave, there were no stalagmites or stalactites since water is what carries the limestone and calcium and causes the formations to slowly but continuously grow. While we were in the cave Gilli had us turn off our headlamps so our eyes could adjust to the darkness a bit. While it was pitch black (I couldn't even see my own hand when it was right in front of my face!) he told us a little story that made me want to rush back to the sunlight and never look back. Apparently a long time ago when criminals were banished by Parliament they would flee to the caves to hide from their victims. The victims were allowed to kill the criminals if they were found, so the dark caves were a natural hiding spot for them. If someone entered the cave, the outlaws would assume it was their victim coming to kill them, so they would defend themselves and attack anyone who they heard come into the caves. These original outlaws had children, and these cave children had more children until there was an entire population living in the caves, with their own "clicking" language developed to help make up for their lack of sight. Gilli told us that while the main areas have been explored, there were many side tunnels in the cave that they have not been through, and if we heard any clicking noises we were supposed to let him know so we could get out of there. Um, was he serious?! I convinced myself it was another Icelandic folk tale, but it definitely had me looking over my shoulder whenever we came across any side tunnels. Luckily we made it out unscathed and a little more grateful for the sunlight! :)