Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gamla Pakkhúsið
Ólafsbraut • June - Aug daily 11am-5pm • 500kr
Other than the ice cap, Ólafsvík's main sight is the
Gamla Pakkhúsið
, a solid-looking
timber warehouse built in 1844 by the town's leading trading firm which, naturally,
dealt in fish. Today it houses a
folk museum
, which has a few good black and white
photographs of the town and the obligatory exhibitions about fishing.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
ÓLAFSVÍK
By bus
Buses from Ólafsvík run year-round westwards
along the coast to Hellissandur; eastwards via Vatnaheið to
Borgarnes and Reykjavík and, in summer only, daily around
the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula via Arnarstapi, Hellnar,
Dritvík and Hellissandur.
Destinations
Arnarstapi (1 daily June-Aug; 45min);
Borgarnes (1 daily; 1hr 50min); Dritvík (1 daily June-Aug;
2hr 50min); Hellissandur (1 daily June-Aug; 10min);
Hellnar (1 daily June-Aug; 2hr); Reykjavík (1 daily; 3hr);
Stykkishólmur (1 daily; 1hr).
Tourist information
There's an o
ce at Kirkjutún 2
(June-Aug Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm;
T
433 9930,
W
westiceland.is).
Services
The supermarket is just up from the harbour at
Norðurtangi 1 (Mon-Thurs 9am-6pm, Fri 9am-8pm, Sat
& Sun 1-5pm); the
vínbúð
is at Ólafsbraut 55 (Mon-Fri
2-6pm); and the indoor swimming pool at Ennisbraut 9
(Mon-Fri 4-8pm, Sat & Sun 1-5pm).
3
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Campsite
Hvalsá
T
433 69290.
Easily identifiable by the
old fishing boat stranded beside on the main road by the
Hvalsá river, 1km east of the town
centre,
the site has hot
and cold running water and toilets.
800kr
Gilið
Grundarbraut 2
T
436 1300.
Built from imported
Lithuanian pine, this new restaurant resembles a giant log
cabin - and the food is great: the Caesar salad (1750kr),
fish of the day (2950kr) or lamb curry (2250kr) are all good
bets. There's live music here each weekend, too.
Mon-Fri
11.30am-1am, Sat & Sun 11.30am-3am.
SNÆFELLSJÖKULL
Enter the Snæfellsjökull crater, which is kissed by Scatari's shadow before the first of July, adventurous
traveller, and thou wilt descend to the centre of the Earth.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
, Jules Verne
Made world famous in the nineteenth century by Jules Verne's
Journey to the Centre of the
Earth
,
Snæfellsjökull
stands guard at the very tip of the peninsula to which it gave its name
(
Snæfell
means “Snow Mountain”; Snæfellsnes means “Snow Mountain Peninsula”). It is from
here that Verne's hero, the German geologist Professor Lidenbrock of Hamburg, descends into
a crater in the dormant volcano under the glacier and embarks on a fantastic subterranean
journey accompanied by his nephew and an Icelandic guide with the very un-Icelandic name
of Hans. The professor has managed to decipher a document written in runic script that leads
him to believe that this is the way to the centre of the earth; rather inexplicably he finally
emerges on the volcanic Mediterranean island of Strómboli. This remote part of Iceland has
long been associated with supernatural forces and mystery, and stories like this only
strengthen this belief - at one time the glacier even became a point of pilgrimage for New
Age travellers, though they're not much in evidence today. The 1446m, three-peaked glacier
sits on a dormant volcano marked by a large crater, 1km in diameter, with cliff walls 200m
high; three eruptions have occurred under the glacier in the past ten thousand years, the last
around 250AD.
Experienced hikers have a choice of
ascents
, though you'll probably need ice axes and
crampons, and should also first talk to the national park o
ce in Hellnar (late May to mid-Sept
daily 10am-5pm;
T
436 6888,
W
snaefellsjokull.is) about the condition of routes and the likely
weather
. There are two
trailheads
: either east off the four-wheel-drive-only Route F570,
which clips Snæfell's eastern flank as it runs for 18km between Ólafsvík and Arnarstapi; or at
the ice cap's northwestern corner, via a track running east of Neshraun.
Hiking trails
cross
between these two starting points via the glacier's apex, Jökulþúfur (1446m), which sits atop
three crags on the crater rim - allow at least four hours to make the crossing, not counting the
time it takes to reach the trailheads themselves.
