Day 5 - Straddling the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
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After spending just a brief time in Iceland, the many reasons why Icelanders are said to be the happiest people on earth become strikingly apparent – pollution-free air, pure spring water flowing from the tap, geothermal pools, endlessly bright summer evenings, and beautiful blue-eyed neighbours are just the start.
Our guide is Sigurdur "Siggy" Sigurdsson, a blue-eyed, red-haired Viking descendant whose motivating passion seems to be beating the larger tour busses to each destination. Thanks to his speed and persistence, we arrive everywhere a solid quarter hour before the crowds, and we take in Iceland the way it seems that one should – in a cold and hauntingly immense solitude. Glacier-clear streams slice through the mountains and mossy plains, a spray of snow has just appeared on the highest peaks, and a carpet of ground vegetation is breaking into a riot of autumn colours.
Our agenda for the day is to visit a collection of natural wonders called the "Golden Circle." Geologically, Iceland is one of the youngest landmasses on earth. It straddles two tectonic plates – the North American plate and the Eurasian plate – and the two halves of this country are moving apart by about a centimetre each year.
Travelling around the Golden Circle is like a crash course in geology. While some of the earth's energy here is corralled to create geothermal electricity, most of it still seethes unharnessed beneath the surface, just waiting to pop up in the form of geysers, earthquakes, and active volcanoes. Siggy tells us that a volcano erupts about once every five years. The last one to blow was in 2000, so there's an outside chance that today could be the next "big one."
The first stop is Thingvellir, a national park 23 kilometres east of Reykjavik, where geology and world history collide in the point where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is more than obvious – as if a giant had pulled apart two pieces of a rock cliff. A narrow road cuts through the rift, and Siggy tells us that the newer highway was built in the 1960s. He recalls travelling the older road as a child, rolling down car windows and seeing how close they were to the rock as his parents drove between two continents.
From a lookout point, the plain where the Vikings established their first parliament in AD 930 stretches below, and distant peaks are reflected in the waters of Thingvallavatn, Iceland's largest lake. The lake, fed by melted glacier water millennia old, is a popular spot for scuba divers. Driving away from the look out, we see a group of three ready to brave the icy waters in thick dive suits. Visibility in the lake is unparalleled, and the waters are teeming with arctic char – another reason that the Vikings thought it prudent to establish their parliament site here, as a source of food was so nearby.
The setting is more dramatic than any indoor political meeting place, with miniature waterfalls plunging over the side of the rift and breathtaking views from every vantage point. The original parliament is not the only historic event to have taken place here – Icelanders also adopted Christianity at this spot and celebrated a millennial anniversary of the parliament in 1930. In 1974, a quarter of the entire nation gathered at this place to celebrate 1100 years of settlers in Iceland.
Racing away through the national park's potholed gravel roads, Siggy is again anxious to beat the tour busses to the next destination, and so we press on towards the site of the world's original geyser and a geothermal field where the island's geologic youth is nowhere more apparent.
View interactive map of the voyage
Back to Travel Diaries
Read the other articles:
Days 7-12 St Johns, Halifax and Journey's End
A Peak at the Inner Workings of the Norwegian Jewel
How to Pour Champagne in a Moving Vehicle
Day 5 - Straddling the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (you are here)
Day 5 - Steam and Snow in the Southwest
Day 5 - Golden Waterfalls and Pearls of Architecture
Day 5 - Iceland: Tour, Geology and Saga Museum
Days 0-4 Dover to the Shetlands
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