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Click on the picture to watch this audio slideshow about bird watching at Óshólmar, an area at the mouth of Eyjafjardará river just outside Akureyri in north Iceland, the largest Icelandic town outside the capital region. Not many tourists know about this attraction, which is perfect for a walk in the sun.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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Ice climbers from around the world have tried climbing the unique frozen waterfalls—that extend from mountain tops to the shore—on the land of Björg, the northernmost farm in the Kaldakinn region in Sudur-Thingeyjarsýsla county in northeast Iceland.
The land is fenced off by cliffs on one side and Skjálfandafljót glacial river on the other. In frosty weather, gigantic frozen waterfalls form in the mountains overlooking the farm, sometimes all the way from the mountain tops and down to the stretch of rock by the seaside. The size of the waterfalls depends on the level of precipitation, Morgunbladid reports.
Ice climbing is usually practiced in the mountains and it is therefore considered a novelty to climb a frozen waterfall down by the shore with the surf roaring in one’s ears. The conditions at Björg are regarded as unique.
Hlödver Pétur Hlödversson, farmer at Björg, said ice climbers don’t have to walk far from the farm to locate the frozen waterfalls.
“There is almost a continuous stretch of rock from here and down to the ocean. It starts at a distance of about 200 meters away from the farm,” Hlödversson described. “The frozen waterfalls reach a height of 120 to 180 meters. Stekkjastaur [named after one of the Yule Lads] is the most famous one.”
According to the farmer, well-known ice climbers from central Europe and the UK have come to Björg along with photographers, publishing articles about their experience in widely-read magazines.
“I haven’t promoted it at all, but people have left satisfied,” Hlödversson stated. He is now considering advertising Kaldakinn as an ice climber’s paradise in the UK.
Until now, Brits have mostly traveled to Norway for ice climbing but Iceland is currently a better destination because it lies closer to Britain and is probably also less expensive at the moment because of the weakening of the Icelandic króna, Hlödversson said.
Björg is primarily a sheep farm and dairy, although the farm has also taken advantage of its natural resources such as eider down and trout fishing and since 1945 forestation has also been practiced at Björg.
Now ice climbing could become another source of income for the farm.
A skeleton from a person who suffered from the Paget’s disease of bone was unearthed this week during an archeological excavation project at Skriduklaustur in east Iceland, where a monastery was once operated.
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The human being will be on display for the first time in its natural environment in the Reykjavík Family Park and Zoo next weekend. Visitors can observe three men and one woman in a cage after 10 am on Saturday and Sunday.
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The formal Videy island swim took place yesterday and there were three participants, two men and one woman, Thórdís Hrönn Pálsdóttir, who is the first woman to participate in the Videy swim since 1959.
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The Environment Agency intends to investigate whether the Heath Protection Authority handled the situation in Eskifjördur, east Iceland, in the correct manner when contaminated water from a trawler was carried into the town’s drinking water system.
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The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book Puffins as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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REVIEWS
Hendrikka Waage is an accomplished jewellery designer whose first children’s book Rikka and Her Magic Ring in Iceland, takes readers on an enchanted and educational journey through the country. It’s beautifully illustrated and a good lesson in geography, but the plot could have been better thought through and the moral of the story is a bit too prominent.
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On the third day of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption we drove from Skógar to Hvolsvöllur in total darkness, a distance of 18 kilometers. It was frightening, the darkness being so impenetrable that we could hardly see out the windows of the car. We could see faint lights from the farm standing right next to the highway.
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Ásmundur Sveinsson is among the foremost Icelandic sculptors. The current exhibition in the Ásmundur Sveinsson Museum in Reykjavík is entitled “I choose women who thrive…” and features women as symbols in the sculptor’s art. The works in the exhibition are selected from his entire career.
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