Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hafnir
Around 10km from either Keflavík or Stafnes, halfway down the Reykjanes Peninsula's
blunt west coast , HAFNIR is another speck of a settlement. There's little more here than
the harbour and an old wooden church, outside which is a large, rusting anchor, a
memento from the 1870 wreck of the schooner Jamestown .
Hafnaberg cliffs
Coastal Route 425 heads south of Hafnir over rugged lava terrain, the 15km
Prestsastígur walking trail to Grindavík crossing it southeast via a line of square-sided
cairns (drily known locally as “priests”, because they point the way to salvation but
never go there themselves). A well-signed parking bay here also marks a 45min trail
west to the coastal Hafnaberg cliffs , home through the summer to tens of thousands of
nesting kittiwakes and fulmars, along with a dusting of shags and black guillemots, all
of which you'll hear (and smell) well before you arrive. Note that loose soil and strong
winds make standing up near the edge extremely dangerous.
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Reykjanestá
Ten kilometres south of Hafnir, Reykjanestá is the Reykjanes Peninsula's southwestern
extremity, an abrupt headland surrounded by solidified lava flows whose seaward face is
rapidly disintegrating into the sea. There's a good, 2km-long gravel road in here off
Route 425 (marked “Reykjanesviti”) past Reykjanesvirkjun , a shiny new 100MW
geothermal power station, all pipes and clouds of steam; along the way the track
divides to reach either the coastal lighthouse or the Gunnuhver thermal springs.
The lighthouse and Eldey
A tall white lighthouse , standing safely inland on a knoll (the original fell into the
sea during an earthquake), sits above Reykjanestá's headland. From here, you can
look westwards over the waves to the sheer-sided distant platform of Eldey , Europe's
biggest gannet colony. Eldey island also has the sad distinction of being the place
where the last known pair of great auks (and their single egg) were destroyed on June
3, 1844; there's a giant bronze auk in the Reykjanestá car park, its beak pointing
towards the island.
Gunnuhver thermal springs
The second fork of the gravel road from Route 245 ends at Gunnuhver thermal springs ,
a small area of viciously hissing, malodorous, muddy pools into which an eighteenth-
century witch is said to have been dragged by a magic rope after she'd killed her
landlord. Incredibly, remains of foundations outline where some optimistic farmer
attempted to establish a hothouse here in the 1930s, but Gunnuhver proved too
unpredictable; the area has only recently reopened after blowing itself apart again in
2005. Stick to the new boardwalks (remains of the old ones can be seen suspended over
a void of mashed-up ochre clay).
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO CONTINENTS
About 2km south from the Hafnaberg car park, the Bridge Between Two Continents is a
thin steel span in the middle of nowhere, supposedly crossing the rift separating the North
American and Eurasian continental plates. “Contrived” doesn't begin to describe it, but the idea
is fun and it's perked up by “Welcome to America” and “Welcome to Europe” signs that greet
you as you cross. The bridge is decked in steel mesh, so you can look down into the ravine
below along the way, though this isn't especially deep or at all dangerous - you can easily walk
through it from either end and pass under the bridge.
 
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