For our first week in Iceland we rented a small motor home.
I am always aware of how fortunate I am to have Lyle as a partner making it
possible for us to travel this way. Lyle likes to drive and is very capable in
looking after an RV on the road. In our motor home we were able to go to many
spots off the beaten track away from the routes of the tour buses
We spent our first night in Grindavik, a small coastal community
on the southwest toe of the Iceland peninsula. Grindavik has a long history of
ships and fishing. Some of this history was starkly visible on our hike out to
the local lighthouse. A gravel path wound its way through lava rocks and it was
not easy walking. Between the path and the seawall we came across several
skeletons of previous shipwrecks. Huge storms and tremendous waves had thrown
these ships up and over the seawall landing them at great distances inland. We
found it difficult to imagine the force of nature that had made this possible. From where we stood on the path, we couldn’t
even see the ocean, yet here were the remains of ships swept up and over onto
the reefs of rock.
The harbour in Grindavik is also quite amazing. When we were
there, the weather was mild and so we walked for quite a way around the inlet
and to one of the piers on the other side. The amazing part was that
originally, the harbour construction was begun by hand. Crews of men, working
with shovels and wheelbarrows, began removing the rocks to hollow out the harbour
basin. Of course this work could only be done at low tide. I wouldn’t have
believed it possible except that we saw a photo of the work in progress. One
man stood in knee-deep water shovelling the rock. Another wheeled the barrow up
a ramp and yet another unloaded the heavy cargo. Eventually the government
provided funding and more serious digging was undertaken with heavy machinery.
The harbour is still a very active fishing port.
There are four pictures with this post. Lyle took the first
picture looking out from our motor home. It shows some of the little boats
moored in the harbour. While we were there, we saw one man who had caught a
fairly large fish – about one meter in length. We were too late to get a photo
of this although the fisherman and his mate were busy with their own phone
cameras. Possibly the fish was a cod.
Most fish caught along this part of the shore are either cod or herring.
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| Boats in Grindavik Harbour |
We took the second picture as we walked along the trail to
the Grindavik lighthouse. It shows one of the shipwrecks beside the trail. The
third picture is a close up of another wreck. There were descriptive plaques
beside each wreck. It was apparent that storms were more prevalent between
November and February.
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| Shipwreck near Gindavik lighthouse |
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| Another shipwreck near the lighthouse |
Lyle took the final picture when he climbed over the rocks
towards the seawall. In the photo you can get some idea of the height of the
wall and the water in the distance.
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| Seawall |
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