Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Gullfossi, Iceland: Gullfoss waterfall

It's two waterfalls for the price of one! And the price is free!

Here's Gullfoss - alert readers know that "Foss" signals a waterfall in Icelandic language. The Hvítá River is responsible for all this, as the water takes a few steps and then goes for a couple of plunges. The second one is relatively narrow and deep. From certain angles, it looks as if the water is plunging toward the center of the earth.

There's an interesting story about the area. Supposedly, investors were interested in putting up a hydroelectric dam in order to generate electricity (and money). However, they didn't have enough money for construction. Besides, early environmentalists weren't happy about the plans. Sigríður Tómasdóttir was the leader of that movement, and is said to have threatened to jump into the waters above the falls unless it was saved. She even led a protest march. It's hard to separate fact and fiction with all of this, but the waterfall was saved when the land was purchased by the national government. We can be thankful for that to this day.

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