Colours of Iceland 

 
 
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The Snaefelljökull glacier overhangs the head of the peninsula not only by its position but also by numerous sagas set on its slopes.

Here is the cave that Jules Vernes choose as the starting point of its book “Journey to the centre of the Earth” in 1880 : Professor Lindenbrook discover here on the slopes of the glacier the passage that will take him to the depths of the Earth.

It’s still a mystical place and many people come there each year to enjoy the “magnetic radiance” supposed to be produced by the glacier.

At Hellisandur a communication antenna stands : with its 12 meters high it’s the highest in western Europe. The top is often hidden by clouds.
It’s been painted regularly red and white since 1959, year of its construction, but it’s necessary to have nerves of steel because the wind makes it move, even with long docking wires.

It’s a place where terrible storms occur and many ships have sink near this coast. Away from Borgarnes, occurred the shipwreck of Commandant Charcot’s '”Pourquoi Pas ?”. A statue in front of the church commemorates this terrible event.

On the beautiful black sand beach of Djúpalónssandur still lay the remains of the shipwreck of the British fishboat “Epine GY7” grounded in 1948 : only five sailors escaped the raging sea with the help of villagers.
Frozen lava chimney keep watching on the beach.

There you’ll know if you could be a true sailor or not : stones on the beach weighting 34, 54 and 114 kg were used to challenge between villagers.

Not far from there, the cliffs of the little harbour Arnarstapi shelters a colony of Black-Legged Kittiwake.

A little cove surrounded by cliffs linked by a rocky lava arch allows you to observe them as close as possible.

The small wooden Church of Bùdir has been rebuild four times (1703, 1816, 1848, 1987).

Up to the 19th century there was up to 300 inhabitants in the village. But the population stepped down slowly as the way of fishing changed in the 20th century, especially the size of the boats, incompatible with a not deep enough harbour.

There you will see an exceptional white sand beach, a rare colour for the sands in Iceland. It’s made of Rhyolit and contrasts with the black lava stream and dark basalt beaches.