Snorrastadir Farm

Snorrastadir is a farm in western Iceland where we stayed with some family friends, Dora and Bassi. Dora and Bassi are sister and brother- though Dora now lives in the US and Bassi in Scotland, they grew up in Iceland and still own a cabin on the farm at Snorrastadir. "Farming" in Iceland consists mostly of sheep farming (for wool and meat) and horse farming, and Snorrastadir is no exception.

The farmer's house at Snorrastadir

Eldborg, a blown-out volcano near Snorrastadir

Icelandic horses are prized all over the world and are known for their toughness, tolerance to pain and cold, and comfort for riding. They are much smaller than "normal" horses but Icelanders get very offended if you call them ponies. No other types of horses are permitted in Iceland, which ensures that the breed will stay pure, I guess. After an Icelandic horse is born it is basically free to run wild for a long time before the best horses are selected to be trained and bred again. The Icelanders feel that it is important that the horses grow up learning how to be an independent thinkers, to take care of themselves, and to not be too dependent on humans. I'm not sure what happens to the "less than best" horses that don't make the training cut, but we did see a generous selection of horse meat on sale at a large market in Reykjavik.

You can rent horses at Snorrastadir, and people come there from all over the world to go on horse-camping treks. We didn't try any riding because apparently the Icelandic horse is not for beginners, so we left that adventure to the horse folks.

Icelandic horses grooming each other

A horse trek in action





Aiden watching the horses


More horses

Horses that did or didn't make the "cut," depending on how you look at it

Dora and Dad enjoying the sun from the cabin porch

Sheep in the endless twilight (near midnight in this pic)

Clockwise from top left: Aiden on the porch; mudflats at low tide; Icelandic flag blowing in the ever-present wind; sheep! sheep!

Lots of shorebirds by the sea

Snorrastadir Farm is about a half-hour's walk to the ocean, so we took quite a few treks down to the water to watch birds and try fishing for salmon and sea trout. Fishing in Icelandic rivers is HIGHLY regulated, to the degree that people own and pass on through their families the "rights" to stretches of river. Only the person holding these rights (or someone s/he allows or rents the stretch to) has the opportunity to fish on this stretch, and only one person may fish at a time. You can go with a friend, but only one rod! Fishing in the ocean is a different story (open to anyone with a fishing rod and some patience).

Bassi owns the rights to the strech of river near Snorrastadir, so Micah and Andy got to try their luck at fishing it. Micah had a large sea trout (about 5 lbs, he thinks) on the line and brought it right up to Bassi who was about to slip a rope around its tail when it dramatically twisted and got away. Very sad for Micah, who was already tasting the grilled trout with lemon and butter.

Micah trying his luck

Andy birding by the sea at Snorrastadir Farm

Micah and Bassi watch Andy fish