On February 25, representatives of the IATNL and Outer Bay of Islands Enhancement Committee (OBIEC) traveled to Iceland to attend the final meeting of the 3-year EU Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme funded Drifting Apart project.
Paul Wylezol and Arne Helgeland were joined by Alan Shepherd at the 2-day meeting and tour held just outside of Reykjavik.
After the meeting, the scene shifted to the Blue Lagoon
for a delicious dinner at Lava Restaurant.
For Arne and Alan, second dessert was $50 per shot whiskey, with no worries they’d drink enough to miss the tour bus in the morning!
The tour began at 8:30am with a short drive to Bru Milli Heimsalfa (Bridge Between Continents) in Reykjanes UNESCO Global Geopark.
After Paul (left) and Arne accelerated the “drifting apart” of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates
the scene moved to Gunnuhver Geyser, named after the legend of ghost Gudrun Onundardottir.
From the geyser, the tour moved on to Kvikan House of Culture and Natural Resources in the fishing community of Grindavik.
Grindavik’s history goes back to when it was a major trading centre during the Middle Ages in the booming Hanseatic period. It was raided by pirates many times and has been the site of numerous shipwrecks over the ages. There is still an active fishing fleet in the village and most of its catch goes to the local factory that specialises in processing salt fish for export. The museum does a fine job presenting this history with a series of modeled exhibits.
From Grindavik the tour moved on to Eyjafjallajökull Cinema featuring a 20 minute dramatic film about the spectacular eruption of a volcano located in the middle of a glacier in Katla Geopark on Iceland’s south coast.
The cataclysmic event disrupted air travel over much of Western Europe during the Spring 2010.
After the film, the group traveled a short distance to Sólheimajökull for a one-hour walk to the receding glacier
before visiting Samgongusafnid Museum of Transportation.
Alongside the museum is a heritage village of 19th century Icelandic buildings, including church, houses, barns and workshops.
Approximately 1km to the west is spectacular Skogafoss, widely considered to be one of Iceland’s most beautiful waterfalls. Spanning a width of 50 feet (16 meters), it drops 200 vertical feet (60 meters) to mist-shrouded groups of tourists gathered below. It is situated on the River Skoga, which originates from both Eyjafjallajökull glacier and the western part of Mýrdalsjökull glacier.
The last stop of the day was Lava Centre in Hvolsvöllur, an interactive, high-tech educational exhibition depicting volcanic activity, earthquakes and the creation of Iceland over millions of years.
The final Drifting Apart meeting and tour was a memorable and inspiring event that certainly left a lot of food for thought. After dinner at the Lava Centre and a 2-hour bus ride back to the hotel, Paul, Arne and Alan made a toast to Iceland and reflected on the long journey ahead, both for Cabox Aspiring Geopark and the travellers returning home. But for Paul and Alan that return flight was not before a two-day tour of Reykjavik, including a visit with Palli Gudmundsson, manager of the Iceland Touring Association, IAT partner in Iceland.
