Category Archives: Travel

… and I don’t mean the nice ham and cheese one I had for lunch! 🙂

I asked for a less dramatic day today and got it. We started with a relatively short drive through a completely empty black sand desert. Apparently the sand and the layer of lava below it are so porous that the substantial rain and snow drain very rapidly through to the next non-porous layer. Combined with Iceland’s low temperatures and high winds this creates completely barren areas but where the water gathers they are dotted with large rivers and lakes providing oases of fertility, and welcome splashes of colour.

The weather was glorious, sunny, calm, even relatively warm (about 9C), and the visibility was amazing, with distant peaks and glaciers clearly visible.

During the middle of the day we moved into an area known as Vatnaoldur consisting of a large number of these lakes separated by slight ridges providing panoramic views from colourful foreground right to the mountains and glaciers in the background. Lunch was taken in a charming little spot by one of these lakes.

However, our guides, and Iceland, were just lulling us into a false sense of security. To get back we had to traverse another enormous desert area. This was an impressive demonstration of our drivers’ skills, as it occasionally meant navigating the jeeps over large areas of bare rock, and it provided a couple of interesting photo opportunities at interesting rock formations.

The wind was starting to get up, and by the time we made the last stop of the day (a waterfall, surprise, surprise) it was almost too strong to stand in holding a camera steady. However, the forecast is good and we’d had an excellent day, a real “desert sandwich”.

One of Thursday’s shots, showing the sparse vegetation a near a river contrasted with the black sand desert behind.

Wednesday was a fascinating and rather eventful day. We started off gently enough with a group of locations around Landmannalaugar which were a combination of black hills streaked with almost fluorescent green moss, and colourful tarns surrounded by black, brown, green and red rocks.

After that, we headed for Hrafntinnursker (=”Obsidian Skerry”). At last we were off roads which could be handled by any reasonably capable car and into an environment really suited to the super jeeps. The first highlight was a small hilltop half-way up the mountain which has a commanding panoramic view of much of southern Iceland, including ten of the country’s thirteen or so glaciers.

A mile down the road was a deep river and Haukur decided it would produce good promotional material to have our jeep going through it while he took pictures. This started well enough, but we suddenly hit a deep patch, the jeep canted over to 45 degrees and the engine cut out. The other jeep was back down the hill remarkably quickly and towed us out, but not before my corner of the car had started to fill with water (the level of the river was only a couple of inches below my window). We had a few wet feet, but the cameras were dry! The guys decided to leave the car and have it checked by a mechanic before attempting to restart the engine (turning a flooded diesel can cause a lot of damage) and we continued in a single jeep.

We eventually got to Hrafntinnursker, which turned out to be an absolute photographer’s heaven, and the fact that we had to spend some extra time there while the jeeps were sorted out was a benefit rather than a hardship. In one small area you have the edge of a melting glacier, a load of very active geothermal vents, a mixture of rocks including large quantities of obsidian, and both hot and cold running water! This is genuine “fire and ice” as per the tour’s title.

The second event of the day was of my own making. I tried to cross a small stream and as I placed my foot on the far bank it crumbled and I went tumbling. I was unharmed, and I managed to protect the camera so that although it got scuffed on one corner no worse harm was done. What’s a well-used camera without a couple of battle scars anyway? However, my clothing did not come off so well, and my brand new North Face waterproof trousers suffered what is described in engineering terms as “catastrophic structural failure” (ripping from the waist band to halfway down the thigh). Fortunately the Levis underneath were unaffected,so modesty was preserved, but there was a sudden and distinct shortcoming in the insulation department!

So great photography, but I’ll be pleased if tomorrow is as photogenic but somewhat less eventful.

This is a panorama from just one side of a small hillock near Hrafntinnursker which has a remarkable view. Bewteen this and a similar view the other way you can see no fewer than ten of Iceland’s glaciers. The one on the left in this view is Eyarfjallajokull which caused all the trouble last year. Just out of shot to the left is Hekla, its much larger cousin which geologists say may be starting to rumble towards its first eruption of the jet age.

This is a rather nice pollur (=”tarn”) near Landmannalaugar. I particularly like the red, green and blue palette. I’m beginning to get the hang of Icelandic pronunciation. It seems to mainly involve putting at lot of “t” sounds where they wouldn’t occur in English. For example, “pollur” is pronounced “pot-lert”.

With the original cinema release of Life of Brian the Monty Python team included a wonderful documentary spoof called Away From It All, which includes at one point the memorable line “Gondolas, gondolas and more ****ing gondolas”. Tuesday’s journey through Iceland could easily be titled “Waterfalls, waterfalls and more bloody waterfalls” 🙂

Don’t think I’m being churlish – they were actually quite different, and it was a natural effect of driving along the edge of the highlands between the Hofsjokull Glacier (the one in the middle) and the mass which is the giant volcano Hekla (with the smaller but more recently troublesome Eyarfjallajokull), that we’d pass where several rivers drain rapidly onto the coast.

We started off visiting Gullfoss (= “gold waterfall”) from the East side, which gave us quite a different perspective to the usual tourist view from the West. We waited ages for a shaft of sunlight to create a rainbow in the spray, gave up, and then just as we were leaving the sun came out. I was at the back of the line, and close enough to run back and get one shot! Score 1.

We then had a moderately long drive underneath a power line through a fairly empty rocky desert, but this was justified by Haifoss (= “high waterfall”), where twin waterfalls empty straight down about 1000ft into a narrow gorge. I used the famous “switch on live view, lie on your belly and lean out as far as you dare” method to capture the above shot. I was really in the zone, clicking away, and didn’t realise that the rest of the group had already gone back to the cars until I could hear Finn shouting for me. Just as I was leaving a shaft of sunlight created another rainbow. Score 2.

A short drive took us to Gljufurleitarfoss (= “I haven’t got a notion on this one waterfall” :)) which was a dramatic contrast to the very stark beauty of the first two, a real oasis. I had to check we hadn’t gone through a stargate or similar – this green, lush, calm valley really didn’t look like Iceland. I suppose the reason is the way it is sheltered almost all the way around by moderately sharp cliffs – in Britain it would almost certainly be Coombe or Cwm somthing.

Sadly after this it was back on the bare, rocky roads to our last stop, Dynkur (= “nor this one, but it probably isn’t -waterfall”), which is another large, powerful and wide waterfall like Gullfoss. The hike in and out was quite interesting through dense moss, ferns and blueberries quite unlike the sparse vegetation elsewhere. Then it was off to the hotel via a shortcut which involved taking the jeeps through a quite deep and fast moving river. We got some great shots, and Hawk announced that “he loves his job”. Excellent.

I’m writing this with the most wonderful rich dawn light outside the window. Sadly Hotel Highland is located mainly to service a big dam and hydroelectric power plant, and all I can see out of the window is some grass, a sheep, and a couple of power lines. Oh well…

Meet our guides. I’m doing this trip with an Icelandic company called Nature Explorer, which is run by Haukur “Hawk” Parelius, in the background in this shot. He has several drivers, but always does the Fire and Ice trip himself, usually accompanied by his father Finnur “Finn” Frothason. I haven’t quite worked out why Finn (who’s originally Danish) uses an Icelandic patronimic, and Hawk who was born in Iceland, doesn’t!

Both are wonderful guides, with a great sense of fun, excellent English, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of Iceland and other subject matters. Highly recommended.

Just a quick update today, as I’ve had a few computer problems and time is tight…

Yesterday we were picked up from the hotel in two enormous “superjeeps”, which started life as Nissan Patrols but now stand about 10ft tall, and headed out into the country. The day’s itinery focused on the well-known natural sites within a day from Reykjavik, so we started (via a trip over the mountains to see a geothermal power plant) with Thingvellir, which has both historic interest, as the site of Iceland’s parliament from the 10th century until the 19th, and also geological interest, because it’s where you can most visibly see the North American tectonic plate moving away from the Eurasian plate, at about 1cm/year.

After that we travelled up to the big waterfalls at Gulfoss. I decided to try and get a close-up, which meant descending into a large cloud of spray, but thanks to my Kata Rainbag for the camera, and an excellent North Face raincoat I’d picked up in Reykjavik, both camera and I stayed adequately dry, and I got some good shots. They need a bit of work to bring out the best, but hopefully I’ll post one before the end of the trip.

After that we took the scenic (i.e. dirt track) route back to Geysir, which gives its name to powerful host springs in languages the world over except, ironically, Icelandic! Actually this is a little disappointing if you’ve been to larger sites such as Yellowstone, but it’s well worth seeing if you’re here… We wandered up the path to the main geysir, Strokkur, and waited. Suddenly this dome appeared, and the geysir erupted. And guess who was standing in exactly the wrong place? No raincoat, no rain bag – I got absolutely soaked. Fortunately I managed to turn quickly enough so that I took most of it on my back, and no harm was done. When I realised what was happening I was immediately worried that I might be scalded, but the temperature was fine, like taking a nice warm shower with your clothes on. Well at least the shot was worth it.

If you’re puzzled by the title of this piece, let me explain… Before I came away I was reading my mother’s journal from her Iceland trip, in the early 90s. At that time none of these sites had any significant development for tourism, and she remarked several times how unspoilt and un-commercial they were. That  has changed. You can still visit the attractions free of charge, although I suspect the paths and car parks are a bit more obtrusive than when my parents came, but you are also encouraged to visit the visitor centre / restaurant / shop and, of course, use the facilities should you need to do so. At Geysir and Gulfoss these were free of charge, but at Thingvellir they were extracting a punitive 200 ISK (about £1.10) for the privilege. Adam, the other British person on the trip, looked at me and we both said almost simultaneously “that’s a pound to spend a penny”*. Blank stares from those with other financial contexts. Oh well.

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* Explanation for the foreign, the young and the hard of thinking: before Britain changed to decimal coinage in 1971 the standard charge for a public toilet had been, for many years, one old penny, 1d. “Spending a penny” was a convenient and common euphamism. The expression still works, although mainly as a measure of long-term inflation.

And here’s some more of the flower of Iceland’s youth! Judging by the outfits Reykjavik has at least two pole dancing clubs in competition with one another. I would say it keeps them off the streets, but of course yesterday that wasn’t true. 🙂

I wanted to show the breadth of the “Culture Night”, and was torn between these three cute Icelandic maidens singing their very tuneful folk songs, and the pole dancing. I suspect in the interests of journalistic integrity I have to take a leaf from the BBC’s book and show both…