Today has been somewhat disappointing. The plan was to see as much as we could of Snaefellness peninsula but it has been raining heavily all day and even when it cleared up for a while, everything was so shrouded in mist we couldn’t see much.

In order to stay out of the rain for a bit we started by going to the Shark Museum in Bjarnarhofn, a small place that showcases the history of fishing for Greenland Shark and the process of fermenting it to be able to eat it. The reason the meat has to be fermented is because the shark has no kidneys so its flesh is full of ammonia which is poisonous. The fermentation process draws out the ammonia and makes it edible. The farm where the museum is located still ferments shark and even let’s visitors taste it; it’s really not as bad as you might imagine, the flavor is kind of like a strong cheese, but with chewier texture and a fishy aftertaste.

Newly caught Greenland Shark

Fermented shark meat hung up to dry

We drove on in the rain, crossed the peninsula on a road so misty we could barely see 100 meters in front of the car, and eventually came to the Snaefellsjökull National Park visitor center. We got some information on where to go then headed down to the nearby beach to take a look. There is a rather big kind of half cave there that is pretty impressive but just as we got down to the water the rain became heavier and we escaped to the car.

The half cave by the visitor center

Instead we went for a simple lunch in a nearby village then took the rather precarious gravel road a short way up Snaefellsjökull volcano to a place called the Singing Cave. It’s a fairly small cave, unremarkable in most ways, but the acoustics inside are amazing, the echo really reverberates in there. I really wish I could sing, it would have been really cool to sing something inside.

With the rain, caves seemed to be a good option so we headed of towards another cave nearby. On the way the rain suddenly stopped and the sun came out for a moment so we took the chance to stop and look at the scenery.

  • Lava pillars sticking up from the ocean
  • Oh so many birds nesting on the cliffs

The sun went behind the clouds just after we got back in the car and soon after we got to the cave. We joined the tour into the lava tunnels, the same kind that the protagonists talk about in Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was nice but not overly impressive if you’ve been to some bigger caves before. Unfortunately it was almost too dark to take pictures, our flashlights were simply too weak for that.

Yini managed to snap a pretty good picture of one of the staircases leading down into the cave. Note the puffin bird faces on the back of the some helmets in the lower corner

No more caves to explore and the rain getting heavier, we decided there was nothing for it but call it a day. Let’s hope we have better weather tomorrow.