Day 69. 6th September. Reykjanes Peninsula, South-West Iceland.

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This is the old lighthouse at Garður, on the north-western tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula, built in 1897.

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From the campground at Geysir, I drove through Reykjavik to drop the campervan off at Reykjanesbaer. I then picked a smaller four wheel drive one up at a nearby firm and drove on to Garður and Reykjanestá, finally staying the night at a campground near Hveragerði.

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There are two lighthouses at Garður, close by each other.  This one was built further inland in 1944 in response to coastal erosion.

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Also, a fishing boat near the lighthouse.  There were no signs to indicate whether rides were offered during spring tides or tsunamis.

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Close by, there were a couple of people preparing to take off into the sea windsurfing.  The water was no doubt cold and they were wearing full wetsuits.

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This is the Hólmsvöllur golf course beside the road.  Here, the members are able to imbibe single malts in the luxuriously appointed clubhouse while they view the champion golfers finishing up on the eighteenth hole.  After enough single malts they probably don’t even notice that all the windows and doors are boarded up, the flag on the green has got mixed up because it shows the number 6 and they are a long way from their cars.  I presume the golfers shown are professionals, though they did seem to be taking rather a large number of shots, even around the green.

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Now we are at Reykjanestá, on the south-western tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula.  At a different time these cliffs would have been filled with gannets, common guillemots, Brünnich’s guillemots and kittewakes but they must have all seen me coming with my camera and fled.  From the top of the cliffs, you can see the small bird island, what the Scots would call a stac, of Eldey.  This is where the last of the Great Auks were killed in 1844.

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Facing in the opposite direction, this is Reykjanesvíti lighthouse and the Gunnuhver geothermal area behind it.

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Here are a couple of “stacs”, not much populated by seabirds at the time.

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I could have visited the Blue Lagoon near here but it did not interest me.  It’s not a natural geothermal bath, just the waste water of a geothermal plant and something of a tourist trap.

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