Summer in Iceland is such a special time — the light is so amazing, and touring this country is a total adventure. I sometimes marvel at the fact that people come from far and away to see the things that we have in our own backyard, and too often take for granted.
Last Sunday, AAH and I hopped on a tour that is one of the most popular in Iceland — the Golden Circle tour. For the uninitiated, the Golden Circle incorporates Þingvellir National Park [site of the ancient parliament, and where the American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet], the high-temperature geothermal area that most people know as Geysir [on account of its best-known hot spring] and the Gullfoss waterfall. All are located in the southwest of the country, a convenient distance from Reykjavík, and the whole tour takes around four or five hours.
Reykjavík Excursions do several versions of the Golden Circle tour — and this one had something extra special tacked onto the end: snorkeling in the crystal-clear ravine Silfra, in Þingvellir.
The drive to the Geysir geothermal area took us about an hour and a half, during which we were entertained with all kinds of facts and trivia about the terrain we were driving through [and Iceland in general]. On arrival there, we headed up to Strokkur, the only geyser currently active in the area. It erupts every five minutes or so, whereas old Geysir — the magnificent geyser from which the English word is derived — is pretty much extinct now. It erupts only if you pump copious amounts of soap into it, or if something happens to the ground nearby, such as an earthquake.
Strokkur, on the other hand, was its usual frisky self:
The hole from which it blows
Off she goes
We were too close to get the full view … however, here is a live version:
People: I’ve seen this happen countless times in my life, and it just never gets old.
From afar:
As you can hear, we were pretty nonplussed by then [possibly because we were otherwise engaged, i.e. eating lunch].
Anyway, from there, we climbed back onto the bus and headed for Gullfoss, which is about a ten minute drive away. Gullfoss actually means “Golden Falls” and its name is derived from the rainbow that can be seen in the mist above the waterfall when the sun is shining [a bit of trivia I learned from our guide].
In contrast to many places worldwide, you can actually get super-close to the waterfall, as you can see from the tiny people standing on the rocks in the above picture. It is REALLY misty in there and you get drenched, so I didn’t want to risk taking a photo that close. Incidentally, as when viewing all the amazing natural phenomena in Iceland, caution is strongly advised.
Next stop: Þingvellir. As I mentioned, this is where Iceland’s old parliamentary assembly was in the past — the Al-thing, which literally means “everyman’s assembly”. Of course, our Icelandic parliament is still called that today, although it has been relocated to Reykjavík. However, on this tour the proper Þingvellir version was not included since we were dropped off to go snorkeling in the gorgeous ravine Silfra. Amazing! What we saw was pretty much the underwater version of what we saw above ground in this photoset from last year. It was incredible; however, that report will have to wait for another post.
As I mentioned, Reykjavík Excursions do various Golden Circle tours — with or without the snorkeling.
And just to be clear: this is a sponsored review.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Caution is needed – but lots of people are not. I visited Geysir and Gullfoss last week with a friend and watched people at Gullfoss climbing over the fences and climbing at the fall below the “platform” in the middle of the fall. How stupid is this? One wrong step and you get closer contact to the waterfall than you ever wanted. And it will be the last thing in your life. I don’t understand people.
Alda, I love being a tourist in Iceland! Sadly though in the 23 years that I have lived here I have never been to the Westman Islands, nor the West Fjörds. Seriously, I just did the ring road about 4 years ago with my husband and my family. With a bit of luck I will be doing the West Fj0rds this weekend and I can not wait, I have heard it is fab. Iceland is incredibly beautiful and there is so much to see and experience here..I want to do it all.
I think the excursions is something all Icelanders should do really, they might learn a little something about their own country. I did a hop off-hop on bus tour on my recent trip back home to Chicago and was shocked at how much I did not know about my city. Good to hear it was a good trip and thanks for sharing..even though you get paid too! Sorry we missed you at the last pub quiz..next one is most likely in August!
I did the Golden Circle trip 20+ years ago, my first trip to Iceland, yes, really enjoyable. No snorkeling, but included lunch at some place along the way, we treated our guide, so he happily entertained us during the meal. Seem to recall some drinking afterwards too. Such a nice introduction to friendly Icelanders.
But one thing I seem to remember seems to have changed since then. In your pics, you show rope lines around Geysir and Strokkur. My recollection is that 20 years ago, you could actually just walk right up to any stinkin’ hot bubbling water, look, touch, get your face burned if you were so inclined. Compared to how this would be in the US, where you would be lucky to get within 100 m, maybe 500 m.
And I do recall thinking, standing by the geysirs and looking out over the barren, spectacular landscape, how it might have been 200 or 500 or more years ago, being totally ignorant of the science behind geothermal activity, volcanoes, earthquakes, and stumbling across the land and coming across hot water spewing out of the ground. Easy to imagine how religion, legends, sagas all came into being.
Gullfoss Looks as impressive as Niagra falls which I saw recently ie July 1980 that’s really me done in the waterfall department.@Chris yes I have read in Iceland Review about a guy drowning whilst snorkelling/scuba in I think the place that Alda snorkelled in, you do have to take care,but Iceland does not seem to have the annual cull of humanoids that takes place every ski season in the Alps, probably would if they got as many visitors as Spain.
It’s really worth taking lots of time at Geysir and not just view Strokkur but walk the whole geothermal area – you’ll find lichens, mosses, pure white pebbles,beautiful earth colours, bubbling mud holes, hot water fissures, steam rising and rivulets of water running over the ground in different colours. All with a mountain back-drop. Wondrous!
sylvia from viking wirral
The following live-webcams give nice impressions of those wonderful places:
http://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/icelandlive/#geysir
http://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/icelandlive/#gullfoss
Thanks everyone!
Peter — yes indeed, those ropes were put up a few years ago, after one too many tourists stepped into those springs and scalded themselves.
Kevin — yes, there was a fatal accident a couple of weeks ago in Silfra. Those people were diving, as opposed to snorkeling. Apparently it was the first tour of that particular company (not the company I went with). An absolute tragedy.
I adore Strokkur and the way it blows that perfect blue-green bubble for a fraction of a second just before erupting. I spent a couple of hours there last summer trying to catch it on camera:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46971595@N00/3804803676/in/set-72157621865451551/
(I’ve since invested in a silly-priced lens and a new camera which promise to be faster – so next time – promise!)
There’s something almost magical about geysers, that even when you know how they work, they’re so vanishingly rare that you’re like a child when one blows its top.
As for safety at Geysir, what a lot of people fail to realise about thermal areas is that the ground is quite often hollow and it is very easy to step off the path and put your foot through something like eggshell which is sitting over scalding water. Yellowstone in Wyoming is even more dangerous and it is pretty much deadly to step off the paths. But if you ever get the chance to visit a thermal site, just go!
Gullfoss is simply stupendous (have to Dettifoss which is supposed to be biblically awesome some time). It’s the noise of the falls that takes your breath away – you don’t so much hear them as feel them in your chest. I’ve been there in the summer and the winter and even in the teeth of an Icelandic gale with snow blowing it is never anything less than magnificent – if you’re really lucky you might even get to see the rainbow. Although if you go in winter be even more careful as the area is slick with ice.
Thanks for the trip updates, perhaps the rest of the Iceland tourist industry will start hiring Alda as their publicity agent?
Nice pic there, Mike! I actually found the way Strokkur looked right before and right after blowing more interesting than the actual blowing.
@mike perhaps Yellowstone is getting ready to blow and like your Yankee cars it will be so much bigger and better than anything the Icelanders can come up with in their wildest dreams, I have seen the movie 2012, I know too much, Please offer Anna Chapman our Lady in Red the hand of marriage they say that she is worried about being deported from New York Town personally I would be worried about 20 years in Arizona Supermax thats what you Yankees do.
I hope there isn’t lots of ‘Don’t do this and don’t do that’ posted everywhere. That’s one of my favourite bits of Iceland where common sense prevails. If it’s getting too hot swimming there stop swimming there. If it feels like you might fall into a waterfall go back.
@Mike ashamed of my derogatory comments about Yankee land your not that bad really,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/deepcover-spies-may-be-returned-to-russia-as-part-of-us-swap-2021145.html
Yes folks a good old swap, I really miss the commies and the Berlin wall back in the times when all you had to do was duck and cover, stewardesses on airplanes would produce a lighter to light your cigarette, nuclear incineration as opposed to someone with a wish to go to heaven blowing you to smithereens on the London tube, and oh yes Icelandic Banks where you could go and put your wages in on Thursday and suprise suprise they were still there a week later ha aha.
Mike — that is an amazing picture! How long did you have to stand there to get that?
@ Alda,
How long – not sure, but I think the tourist people were about to erect a sign advertising me as another attraction.
@ kevin
Are you accusing me of being American? That’s fighting language m’lad
But for once, the Americans do have something genuinely bigger and better than anyone else – Yellowstone is breathtaking (especially at this time of the year) and with 60% of the World’s geysers inside the crater, it’s definitely worth visiting.
I LOVE THIS BLOG,
I MISS ICELAND SO MUCH!!!!
@Mike Richards oops I thought Yellowstone therefore American, I do that get 2+2 and come up with 5, maybe I was just jealous that I have never been there nor to Iceland for that matter, but however I have been to Australia for about 10 years actually and no in all that time I never saw Ayers Rock, criminal eh
@Mike looked at that shot yes its amazing,one of those time lapse things you must be quick on the shutter button or did you set your camera to machine gun mode and take 2000 exposures a second to get it.
@ kevin
It was my old camera so it could only handle 5fps, but my new one promises 11!
The way to do this sort of photo is to set your camera to use multiple shot advance and wait until the geyser starts to heave and overflow. Then press the shutter and hold it down until the camera’s buffer is filled. It’ll then pause to write data to the card – and that’s when the geyser erupts.
Nice that you still do tourist things even when living there.
@Mike
Very nice pictures! The bluish bubble makes Strokkur indeed the most beautiful geyser in the world for me.
I’ll take a long time exposure of Gullfoss next time I’m there. It seems to be worth a try. I would have feared, that the lens gets completely sprayed before the picture is taken.
Gullfoss looks particularly fabulous also in winter at low temperatures, when the spray makes for the most bizarre ice sculptures.
And it may be worth to stay overnight at Geysir or in the neighbourhood to have plenty of time for all kind of photos.
Took the Golden Circle (or very similar) in July 2008 – perfect weather, wonderful day, no snorkelling or diving alas. Is Gullfoss the waterfall with the history of the hammer – symbolically signifying the adoption of Christianity rather than the Norse religion?
Well done on getting sponsorship – hope you get paid by the comment!