Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
HELLA
By bus
The bus stop is in a car park close to the Olís fuel
station.
Destinations
Hveragerði (6 daily; 55min); Hvolsvöllur
(3 daily; 30min); Kirkjubæjarklaustur (1 daily; 3hr 30min);
Leirubakki (2 daily; 25min); Mývatn via Sprengisandur
(1 daily; 9hr 30min); Reykjavík (6 daily; 1hr 35min); Selfoss
(6 daily; 35min); Seljalandsfoss (3 daily; 40min); Skafatfell
(1 daily; 6hr 20min); Skógar (2 daily; 2hr 20min); Vík
(2 daily; 3hr); Þórsmörk (2 daily; 2hr).
Tourist information
There's limited information
available in the Olís fuel station on the Ringroad.
Services
There's a small supermarket inside the fuel
station, and a bank with ATM opposite along riverside
Þrúðavegur, which holds most of the town's services.
2
ACCOMMODATION
Ì
Hótel Rangá
T
478 5700,
W
hotelranga.is.
Upmarket fishing lodge 8km east of Hella just south off the
Ringroad, whose lobby features a huge mounted salmon,
caught locally (and a stuffed polar bear, imported from
Greenland). The whole place is designed like a giant log
cabin and rooms are cosily panelled in pine; the suites
(87,000kr) each have their own theme, with furnishings
from each of the seven continents. Fishing licences are
available; salmon needs a year's advance notice and a
sizeable
bank bala
nce; char and trout might be available on
the day.
47,000kr
Árhús
T
487 5577,
W
arhus.is.
Large riverside campsite
and cabins with showers, toilets, large indoor dining area
and a self-catering kitchen (including cookers and toasters,
but no crockery or pans). Turn coastwards at the
highway
roundabout and it's
100m al
ong the road. Cabins
5600kr
per person, camping
1000kr
Fosshotel Mosfell
Þrúðvangur 6
T
487 5828,
W
fosshotel.is.
Perfectly clean and well-run place behind
the fuel station, but the furnishings - frilly lightshades,
green carpets and drapes, silver-striped wallpaper - create
an incredibly dated atmosphere.
Breakfa
st included,
en-suite rooms are more expensive.
14,000kr
Keldur
June-Aug daily 10am-5pm • 500kr
Just beyond Hella, Route 264 heads northeast off the Ringroad towards Hekla. Some
20km along, the pretty farm of
Keldur
is named after the “cold springs” (
keldur
) that
seep out from under a vegetated lava flow to form a sizeable stream winding off across
the plains. There's a modern farm here, but an older string of a half-dozen
turf-
covered halls
date, in part, right back to the Viking period - incredibly, it was lived in
until the 1930s. The entrance hall is low-ceilinged and flagstoned, leading to a kitchen
and store-room; the roof beams and doorway panels are incised with simple
line
decorations
, typical of the Viking era. To the left, another room has a
concealed
tunnel
leading 25m out into the fields; this dates from the twelfth century and was
built as an escape route in case of siege.
Snorri Sturlusson
, Iceland's great medieval
man of letters, was raised at Keldur by his foster-father Jón Ólafsson; even earlier,
Keldur was home to
Ingjald Höskuldsson
, uncle of Njál's illegitimate son, who
supported Kári against the Burners.
Once you've looked around inside, take a moment to register Keldur's location, right
on the steep front of one of Hekla's flows: the few stone walls defining the fields below
were built to limit ash drifts and erosion following periodic eruptions.
GUNNARSSTEIN
Ask at Keldur for directions to
Gunnarsstein
, a boulder 3km east where Gunnar and his allies
were ambushed by a group led by local horseman
Starkað of Þríhyrningur
. The battle that
followed contains some of
Njál's Saga
's most savage imagery; when it was over, Gunnar's side
had killed fourteen of their attackers, but at the cost of Gunnar's brother
Hjört
(whose name
means “heart”). The tale describes Hjört's burial here afterwards, and in the mid-nineteenth
century a mound at the site was indeed found to contain a skeleton and a bracelet engraved
with two hearts.
