Vik and surrounding Area
Vík means ‘creek’ which relates to the village being located on an opening between two mountains, Reynisfjall to the west and Hatta to the east. The surrounding farm area is full of contrasts where extreme glacial rivers and vast, black sands meet grassy hills and pastures. To the south the testy sea pats the black beaches and in the north hovers the magnificent glacier Mýrdalsjökull. Mýrdalur is renowned for its diverse flora and fauna; thanks to this area being the wettest area in Iceland, it provides great conditions for a one of a kind variety of plants and wild flowers.
The rare seabird with the brightly coloured beak, Puffin, also attracts visitors to the area. By hiking or driving up on top of Mt. Reynisfjall people can approach this distinctive bird in and around its nest. The sightseeing boat trips that are offered from farm Dyrhólar are also a splendid opportunity to spot seabirds such as Black Guillemot, Fulmar, Kittiwake, Razorbill and many more.
Mýrdalsjökull glacier is 595 km2 and its highest peak is 1493 m above sea level. Underneath its thick ice shell lurks the sub glacial volcano Katla.
Katla is an active volcano which erupts regularly on approx. 80 years basis. It is a caldera of about 80km2 and is the centre of the 80 km long, hoof-shaped volcanic system in Iceland, which is believed to have formed the Westman Islands as well. When Katla erupts, tons of ice melt so that a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) will rush from the glacier towards sea, merciless of anything that might be in its way. The average flow rate in such floods is about 300.000 m2/sec or almost the same as the highest water level in the worlds water highest river Amazon in South-America. In comparison, the flow rate of the 1996 flood at Skeiðarársandur, after an eruption in glacier Vatnajökull, went up to 45.000 m2/sec. The village Vík and its surrounding farm area will be in great danger in the events of an eruption in Katla, the greatest dangers being a glacial lake outburst flood, spread of volcanic ash and lightning. It varies where the floods come down from the glacier but they always completely wipe out everything in their way, leaving a desert behind. The spread of volcanic ash can be a health hazard for humans and animals, as well as contaminate water sources, damage vegetation, interrupt power transmissions and stopping traffic since it ruins motors in vehicles. The lightings can be dangerous to men and animals in up to 40 km circle around the eruption. Because of these dangers, the people in the area regularly practice evacuation and reactions to an eruption in Katla.
Here follows the folklore about Katla:
“When there was a monastery in Þykkjvabæjarklaustur it occurred that an abbot there had a housemaid named Katla. She was skilled in magic and owned a pair of trousers that had such a spell that whoever wore them never became tired of running. Katla herself used those trousers in emergencies. Most people feared her skills and her bad temper, even the abbot himself. One of the workers in the monastery was a shepherd named Barði. He often got told off by Katla if any of the sheep was missing after he gathered them. One autumn, the abbot and his housemaid were away at a social gathering and Barði was supposed to gather the sheep in the meantime. When he couldn’t find all the sheep he resolved in taking Katla’s trousers and ran around the highlands to find the remaining sheep. When Katla returned, she soon found out that Barði had stolen her trousers. She secretly drowned him in a barrel of whey that stood in the farmhouse and leaves his body there. Nobody knew what had happened to Barði but as the winter passed, the whey in the barrel reduced steadily and people started hearing Katla repeating these words: “Soon Barði will emerge”. Katla knew that her evil doing would then be revealed and she would be punished. She took the trousers, ran out of the monastery and towards the glacier in Northwest. She was never to bee seen again so people assumed she had dived into the centre of the glacier. Shortly after, a flood came from the glacier and towards the monastery and Álftaver region. It was believed that Katla’s magic skills caused the flood and so the caldera was named Katla and the area which the flood destroyed, Kötlusandur.”
Reynisdrangar are black, basalt columns close to the beach. They are quite spectacular and a benchmark for Vík. They stand beneath, and are part of, Mt. Reynisfjall which the sea has slowly been knocking into through the years. A folktale says that Reynisdrangar are the remains of two trolls that lived in the mountain. One night they tried to pull in a big ship from the sea, but the seamen repelled with so much force that the trolls spent the whole night in a tug of war, wounding up being exposed to the sun at dawn and turning into stones. In 1991 the black beach by Vík was selected as one of the ten most beautiful island beaches in the world and the basalt columns no doubt had much to do with that choice.
Dyrhólaey is a peninsula west of Mt. Reynisfjall, which stands partially out in the sea. Its distinction is a hole right through it, large enough for big boats to sail through. In fact, a small plane was once flown through the whole, just above sea level. The view from the top of Dyrhólaey is both beautiful and far and wide. One can drive up to a lighthouse on the peninsula, look across the sea or peak down on the powerful surge beneath. A diverse world of flora and fauna can be found on Dyrhólaey.
