Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.07.2017, Side 53

Distance from Reykjavík
60 km
How to get there
Drive Route 41 South
4.8
4.9
Winny the pooh chilling in Reykjanes
stead of tombstones, colourful play
equipment encircles the building—a
metaphor I won’t belabour. Horses
graze nearby. I snap a selfie with an
equine pal and wonder—unorigi-
nally—whether selfies rob the self
of experience, or if they reinforce it.
Continuing along the coast, we
pause briefly at Brimketill—a rock
formation which resembles a sea-
side hot tub—but interest wanes
when we realize that resemblance
is not equivalence, and it’s simply
a cold, photogenic pool buffeted by
an unrelenting tide. We cruise by
the geothermal Gunnuhver region,
taking to heart the timeless ad-
age, “If you’ve seen one fumarole,
you’ve seen them all.” Stopping at
the so-called Bridge Between Con-
tinents, where the North American
and Eurasian tectonic plates creep
apart from each other, we stand
staring, but nothing moves. I de-
mand a refund only to remember I
hadn’t paid anything.
And so we come to Hafnir, re-
freshingly devoid of human life,
nonchalantly unconcerned with
the arrivals and departures down
the road in Keflavík. It’s a decently
pleasant Saturday evening; the sun
seems poised to make an appear-
ance; there’s laundry flapping in the
wind.
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