Iceland Day 5 - South Coast
The morning was a brief visit to the Skogarfoss waterfall, then time next door at the Skogar Folk Museum. An eclectic collection ranging from Viking age archeology to a naturalists donated collection to handicrafts spanning several centuries. What it tends to be lacking is dates. Even the items only labeled Icelandic mostly didn’t have dates, and there were more of them than English. Still well worth the stop, but it could be a lot more. The location also contains various transported historical buildings including stone and sod huts to the first schoolhouse in the area. And a transportation/communications museum covering from the late horse transport era to the modern road system.
From there, we tried to stop at the Katla Geopark center, the visitor center for the area we’ve been in for these two days, but it was closed.
A little further down the road to Landeyjafohn and the 1:15 ferry out to the Heimaey Island of the Westman Islands. Volcanic in origin, this Island experienced a large eruption in 1973, expanding the island about 20%, but unfortunately covering about that much of the town. Fortunately the first wave of the eruption was out towards the sea, and the majority of the Island evacuated safely, with a limited number remaining as a recovery crew for goods and such. One person died from the toxic gasses, the only fatality. I learned all of this in the Eldheimar, the volcano museum. Located on the new terrain, it is an excellent presentation. The exhibit on the ground floor covers the eruption, including a house excavated from the volcanic debris. The upper floor covers the formation of nearby Surtsey Island. More or less untouched by human hands, it has been made a UNESCO world heritage site for studying the natural progression of plant and animal life.
From there we wandered down the edge of the material from the new eruption, seeing the mix of basalt and tephra, and good views over the town. Eventually we found the stairs back down into tower. Early dinner was at a local “fast food” place which had extremely good fish and chips. Given that the Island apparently accounts for a disproportionate portion of the country’s fishing industry, presumably it was local and fresh.
Back on the 6:30 ferry, and I’m writing this on a 2.5 hour drive (again, I’m not driving) back up to Borganes, which is a good jumping off point for the Snaefells Penninsula tomorrow, which is why it was originally later on the schedule before the weather called for an adjustment.
From there, we tried to stop at the Katla Geopark center, the visitor center for the area we’ve been in for these two days, but it was closed.
A little further down the road to Landeyjafohn and the 1:15 ferry out to the Heimaey Island of the Westman Islands. Volcanic in origin, this Island experienced a large eruption in 1973, expanding the island about 20%, but unfortunately covering about that much of the town. Fortunately the first wave of the eruption was out towards the sea, and the majority of the Island evacuated safely, with a limited number remaining as a recovery crew for goods and such. One person died from the toxic gasses, the only fatality. I learned all of this in the Eldheimar, the volcano museum. Located on the new terrain, it is an excellent presentation. The exhibit on the ground floor covers the eruption, including a house excavated from the volcanic debris. The upper floor covers the formation of nearby Surtsey Island. More or less untouched by human hands, it has been made a UNESCO world heritage site for studying the natural progression of plant and animal life.
From there we wandered down the edge of the material from the new eruption, seeing the mix of basalt and tephra, and good views over the town. Eventually we found the stairs back down into tower. Early dinner was at a local “fast food” place which had extremely good fish and chips. Given that the Island apparently accounts for a disproportionate portion of the country’s fishing industry, presumably it was local and fresh.
Back on the 6:30 ferry, and I’m writing this on a 2.5 hour drive (again, I’m not driving) back up to Borganes, which is a good jumping off point for the Snaefells Penninsula tomorrow, which is why it was originally later on the schedule before the weather called for an adjustment.