TAKE OFF TO THE RAINBOW’S END Traditional Geocache

This cache has ended up being most visitor's first or last cache in Iceland as it is so easy to reach once you have checked your luggage in or while you are waiting for a bus. At the time of placing I never imagined this cache would get so many visits!! However PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU REPLACE ANY BLOCKS YOU INADVERTENTLY DISLODGE. THE HINT WAS MADE VERY PRECISE SO PEOPLE WOULD NOT DAMAGE THE AREA SURROUNDING THE SCULPTURE.

On arrival at Keflavik the first thing that takes most peoples' gaze are the 2 sculptures, the "Jet Nest" & "The Rainbow".

The Jet Nest comprises a giant stainless steel egg out of which a jet wing (or Concorde-like nose) is peeking out, rather like a little bird breaking out of it's egg.

This symbolic piece is the largest work of designer Magnús Tómasson and is stands on a pile of Icelandic rocks in a floodlight pond. The Rainbow is much farther away at the edge of one of the long term parking areas. It was constructed by Icelandic artist Rúri in 1991 and reaches 24 metres into the sky. It is made of stainless steel and stained glass. Unlike a natural rainbow which materializes out of the blue, lasts for a few moments and then disappears, this sculpture is made to last.

In Icelandic folklore the rainbow has a symbolic meaning in connection with good fortune or wishes. The story tells that if one can stand "under the rainbow" one may have a wish, that will be fulfilled. This is similar to the more widely known European version which says that if you can get to the rainbow's end you will find a fortune such a cauldron full of gold there. It seems that the Icelandic 'fortune' (meaning destiny & luck, as in "good fortune") has become translated in a financial in the other European cultures.

So for once you can actually get to the end of a rainbow and you will hopefully have good luck during your stay in Iceland. As the end of the rainbow is on a raised slabbed area, disabled cachers may need assistance to make the retireve of the cache but, however you do it, PLEASE REMOVE THE FEWEST NUMBER OF STONES NECESSARY TO RETRIEVE THE CACHE!

Because of the cache size and the likely frequency of visits it would be much appreciated if:-
1) You use only 2 lines maximum for your log entry please, and
2) Don’t fill the cache up with geo-tat, personal ‘signature’ items and the like that are likely to go soggy.
Please leave it available for geocoins or small TB’s, especially those that want to leave the country to visit other parts of the world. It would help if they had their desired destination attached to them in some way.

Many thanks to those wizards of Icelandic caching, Islandia Geomatics and Dreki, for saying they will try and help me maintain this cache if necessary. Thanks to many other people this has not yet proved necessary.
The "SPECIAL THANKS" list keeps getting longer, however, due to this being one of the top 3 most often found traditional caches in Iceland!
Many thanks indeed to Team Knossos, and later Kaviol for helping by kindly replacing the logbook and tidying up the cache when they visited. Very much appreciated. Since then cobra67 has put in a fresh box as the old one was falling apart after 4 years and over a thousand visits.

Other huge "THANK YOU's" to tomfre, madre6095 (Karen) and several other "white knights of geocaching" who offered to help replace the cache when it went missing in August 2014. I AM VERY GRATEFUL INDEED FOR FOLK LIKE YOU WHO HELP ME KEEP SOME OF MY FAR-FLUNG CACHES (far-flung from the UK owner in this case!) UP AND RUNNING. More recently to De Mondo who gave the cache a good clean and dry in March 2015 and "pete+becky" for very kindly putting in a new log book and even replaced the zip-lock bag when the old one blew away!!! That's Icelandic weather for you And in March 2016 Delenna & Tehotytöt have helped me by putting a new log roll protected inside a 35mm pot into the damaged container so that should keep this one going for a while. The latest to do this was tanjulainen from Finland and more recently still (June 2016) FollowMeHawkMom Also much appreciated the help of XCaellaX in Feb 2017 - hope he didn't leave behind his boarding pass as the log sheet!! Also to Albatross62 in March 2018 for putting in a fresh dry log sheet for folk to sign. Likewise Shazmeister for doing likewise at the end on November 2018. Many Thanks Indeed to you all. The geocaching world would be far poorer if it were not for kind-hearted people like you!

And the latest big THANK YOU's are to LANMonkey/s who kindly put a new box, log (and 'goodies'!) in place during the World Cup of July 2018 and the anonymous person who replaced this in July 2019 after it had become damaged. I really appreciated your help. Alas it didn't help Iceland get as far as I (and probably most of the world) had hoped
Since then maerrien and then sandalettus and SoniaBeard have put in a new log sheets so a big thanks to them as well

And a HUGE THANK YOU to mamiat for putting a new container in place in July 2022 when all that there was in place was a few soggy bits of paper in a polythene bag. Lots of people had visited and logged finds but you were the ones who acted on my plea for help that I'd put at the start of the cache description! Thank you so much also to greddler for doing a similar help job 2 months later. A huge help

In April 2023 it is to bjazze that I owe a big "Thank You" for putting a new container in place and enabling me to remove the urgent request for help at the top of the listing. All that was there was a piece of paper in a polythene bag which is not enough to withstand Icelandic conditions!! MEGA Helpful :-) And in Feb 2024 I have to say another big THANK YOU to Quinnpa for putting a pill bottle in place when the previous container was broken/destroyed/a soggy mess - and had been for quite a while. So nice to be able to remove the 'Needs Maintenance' attribute

It sems there might be 2 boxes present as Laberbacke0815 emailed me in March 2024 to say "One of the boxes was broken, so I decided to place a new box that is more stable. I put all the other stuff in it + TB's" Thanks to BettinaS for giving me an update on the situation - it seems to be a pill box inside a box. ! Again I'm very grateful for any help in maintaining this cache.