West End of Europe EarthCache

This cache has been archived.

jizersky_drak: Because of the paranoic US rules and their enforcement, after 4 seasons I unfortunatelly do not have any other option, than to close this earthcache.

For the explanation, here my mail to GeoawareNordic3, who has asked me to remove the photo from the log conditions...:

Dear GeoawareNordic3,
I don't know, whether you are an (North-)European or an American, whether you just enforce the Groundspeak rules regardless of your own attitude or firmly agree with them. Anyway, we in Europe do not always need the same rules as in the US - e.g. we do not care about placing physical caches near railways, school or at bridges. And most of us do not care about posting own photos in the gc.com-gallery - the majority fulfills this optional requirement anyway.
Geocaching is not an obligatory activity and even when one decides to do geocaching, he/she can freely choose which geocaches he/she visits and logs. I understand that someone perhaps do not want to post their own photos in the internet - well, he/she can simply ignore geocaches with such condition. Will the next step be prohibiting mystery caches, which are so difficult to solve that some cachers are simply not able to get it or they do not want to invest much time in solving such a quest? Or terrain 5 geocaches which are accessible only for cacher who can e.g. swim or climb rocks or are slim enough to get through in a cave?
My earthcache was developed under some rules and conventions - virtually each earthcache in 2009 required posting a personal foto on the site. Later they have been changed to something, what I do not agree with and although I had known about it for a long time, I have intentionally not altered my logging conditions. As long as 'you' enforce the retroactivity of the new rules, I do not have any choice: I have to archive my earthcache.

More
Hidden : 8/13/2009
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

Welcome to the westernmost place in the Europe!

Well... when standing on the cliffs of Latrabjarg, where you actually are? In the Europe, or in America...?? Politically, Iceland counts to Europe. However, it lies partly on European litospheric plate and partly on the American one. On Latrabjarg, you stand on the American.

Many people think the origin of Iceland is simply in lots of volcanos along the Mid-Atlantic ridge (on the border of the two litospheric plates), whose eruptions gradually built up the island over the ocean. But even hundreds of volcanos were not sufficient to build up a "heap" of several thousands meter height. //The existence of Iceland points to another important fact: A so called hot-spot, the Iceland plume, is located near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the North Atlantic and it is believed to have caused the formation of Iceland itself. A hot-spot (also "mantle plume") is an upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth's mantle.// (from (visit link)
Both the plates are drifting east- and westwards, orthogonally to the Mid-Atlantic ridge, so the Iceland is spreading mainly in that direction. So you can find the oldest Icelandic rocks in the northwest - i.e. here - and in the east, whereas the young, still active rock, occurs in the central Iceland (compare Latrabjarg with e.g. Hverir or Geysir areas). Rocks, that now create Latrabjarg, solidified already some 20 milions years ago.

High, steep, unaccessible cliffs of Latrabjarg are ideal place for seabird nesting. With its length of 14km, it is the longest bird-nesting cliff in Northern Atlantic and one of the most crowded bird cliffs in the world. In june and july, you can easily find here mainly (thousands of) Common Guillemots (Uria aalge), Brunnich's Guillemots (Uria lomvia), Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) and especially Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) - one says some 4 mio of the 6 mio Atlantic population of these ridiculous birds breed on Latrabjarg. However, we saw much more of them on Grimsey island... whereas on the other hand, on Latrabjarg, puffins let you come to photograph them from less than 1 meter distance...

To have your "found it" log accepted, you have to:

1) e-mail me (via profile) anwers on all the four following questions. DO NOT include them in your log here! Answers in English, German, Czech and Russian are accepted.
a) What longitude was the highest you were able to see on your GPS while on Latrabjarg? Please do not go too close to the cliff edge to get even higher number - the cliffs may be unstable.
b) How high is Latrabjarg in its highest place? Do not use maps, guides nor internet to find this out, just send me the exact number you can find in ICELANDIC text (first or second paragraph in the left upper corner) on the table at the parking lot.
c) How far is it from Latrabjarg to the nearest piece of American continent? (Greenland and other islands do not count; this answer cannot be found on spot, just use some map and ruler)
d) Where on Iceland you can walk in the fissure between the European and American litospheric plates? (Hint: it is one of visitor highlights, you surely have been or are going there)

2) Upload to your log both the following pictures (when in doubt, see spoilerphotos):
a) You standing on solid ground next to the Latrabjarg lighthouse
b) Detail of your GPS somewhere around the lighthouse with visible (readable) coordinates - mainly longitude. The lighthouse need not to be seen on this photo. Please take care of you and do not step to the very edge of the cliffs just to get even higher number - the cliffs might not be very solid!

All these conditions are very easy, I expect no problems with fullfilling them, so you do not need to wait for confirmation before logging this cache. If there were some problems, I will ask you for correction. Logs not meeting all the conditions also after correction request will be deleted!

How to get to Latrabjarg?

There are no scheduled busses nearby, so you need to come here with an organised tour or have an own (rented) car - just follow the road nr. 612. No 4x4 is necessary, however, note that the last ~40km are "common Icelandic gravel road" with some very steep, bumpy and/or sandy sections! There is a parking lot just few tens of metres from the lighthouse.
For getting to Westfjords I strongly recommend ferry Stykkisholmur - Brjanslaekur, rather than driving road 60, which has lots of steep, bumpy sections as well. As far as I know, the only two filling stations on southern coast of Westfjords are in Flokalundur and Patreksfjordur.

Of course you could come by boat as well, however, note, that a photo of you on solid ground is required to meet conditions. As there are quite high cliffs just around lighthouse, you need to land several hundreds metres NE from it.

Accomodation opportunities on the very west:
- Breidavik - simple accomodation on beds in rooms (booking in advance recommended) and camping pitch next to the building.
- Simple camping pitch (grassy ground, water, WC) next to the road to Latrabjarg, some 3km from it.

On the very west, in addition to Latrabjarg you can see:
- Egils Olafssonar museum in Hnjotur, with wide span of exposure, including viking boats or US army plane (these may be seen from the road)
- Oldest steel ship in Iceland beached in a bay approx. where the 612 road's asphalted surface turns into gravel

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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