Iceland: Day 17 - Kleifarvatn & Krísuvík

July 11, 2004

We wound our way along slow gravel roads back to Reykjavík with intermittant rain and decided to check out a geothermal area. After navigating a chain of super annoying round points and construction detours, we finally found our way to Kleifarvatn,the biggest lake on the Reykjanes peninsula and until the earthquake in year 2000 also one of the deepest. Here we found a tiny geysir that was quite disappointing for a thermal area.

However, travelling on we eventually did find the real geothermal area of Krísuvík where a very new boardwalk led us through the hot springs and boiling sulphur mud pools.

Both Kleifarvatn and Krísuvík are within the Reykjanesfólkvangur natural reserve which has many hiking trails and was established to protect the lava fields, lake, geothermal area and many birds that live among the cliffs.

We had sandwiches for dinner in the comfort of "Hotel Clio". Some other tourists stopped by to check out the thermal area around 11:20 pm but they didn't stick around.

Hitting birds while driving was a major concern for us in Iceland!

Now this looks more like a proper geothermal area!

 
The boardwalk snakes through mudpots and other sulphur smelling gems as well as colourful mineral deposits.

Rubby watches the slow bubbling of the mudpots.

We've seen lots of waterfalls in Iceland but this is our first geothermal "waterfall"!

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