Gullfoss waterfall, further down river it is possible to go white water rafting
The waterfall was saved by a woman called Sigríður from the Brattholt farm.
Her father owned the land on one side of the river while another farmer owned the other side.
They sold the right to harvest the energy of the waterfall to a foreign company and would that way destroy this beautiful waterfall. She didn't like what her father did and tried to get him off this idea but he didn't listen. She then tried to stop the project by talking to the local community and then walking to Reykjavik to try to get the parliament to stop the project. Nobody listen and she even threatened to throw herself into the waterfall. Nobody listen! Eventually though, the company got bankrupt and never made the hydroelectric plant. It wasn't though until two years after her death in 1959 that the government decided never to make a power plant there. We still like to think that she stopped the project but she was definitely one of Iceland's first nature preservist.
Visited on:
#Daily post of #sites visited on our #Tours in #Iceland #Adventure #familytime #privatetours