A few years ago, I returned from the past. This past was not the romanticized version of life at Downton Abbey, but rather a land where nature is raw and unrefined with not many plants or animals, but plenty of fire and ice. The land is a lot like it was millions of years ago: geysers, glaciers, moss, lichens, fields of rocks, volcanoes, lava flows and torrential rivers. Luckily this place is reachable by airplane, only five hours from NYC.
Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, just south of the Arctic Circle. It was reputedly named Iceland in an effort to persuade Norwegian settlers to adventure to a more “enticing” place optimistically and inaccurately called Greenland. Iceland is the size of Maine, but with a population of less than 500K, it has roughly the population of the District of Columbia. By comparison, Maine has 1.3 million people. Most of the people live in the capital Reykjavik, leaving the rest of the island to a few farmers, glaciers, lava flows and occasional tourists. Reykjavik is a fine little capital with a wonderful concert hall of the latest design, but my wife and I went for the landscape of the countryside.
Near the capital is historic Pinguellir where the original Parliament (the first in Europe) held meetings following the initial settlement in 874 CE. The site is on the edge of a crystal clear lake and visitors can walk on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that is widening at a rate of a little less than a centimeter per year, causing the wooden walkways to need repair every few years. Even if you have not been to Iceland you probably have seen it. In Game of Thrones, the entry to Eyrie Castle (home of the Moon Door) is through the Pinguellir rift. Nearby are fields of geysers and hot springs. The English word ‘geyser’ comes from one of the more famous Icelandic thermal phenomenon name Geysir, located in Blaskogabyggo (go ahead, I dare you). As an interesting side note, Iceland’s biggest industry in the 1700s and 1800s was sulfur production originating from the hot springs, and their product supplied incendiary weapons for the numerous European wars.
In the south, the coastal plains are bisected by rivers tumbling off the glacial highlands in hundreds of spectacular waterfalls. Almost every farm is located so as to have access to water usually supplied by a waterfall whose summertime temperature stays in the upper 30s. In August the farms have collected the hay into huge rolls for the winter feeding of their sheep and horses. This causes the landscape to look like it is sprinkled with white, baby blue and pink marshmallows. The Skaftafell Glacier, one of the largest in Europe, comes down to the sea at Jokursarion and you can sit and watch as parts break off and float into the Atlantic Ocean. Thje imaginary Global climate change has accelerated this process.
On the east side of the island, the high bluffs drop precipitously into the sea, creating fiords forcing the road weave in and out of the fingers of land. The Ring Road (Route 1), completed in the 1970s, is two lanes for most of the way. In some places it is still a dirt road and the bridges over the numerous waterways are almost all single lane. Luckily, there are so few trees, there is seldom any trouble is seeing one of the rare cars coming from the opposite direction. Some of the one-lane bridges are very long to accommodate the huge spring snow melts flowing off the central portion of Iceland.
The Jokulsa Fjollum River, on the north side of the island that almost touches the Arctic Circle, has three spectacular waterfalls including Dettifoss, the largest in Europe. The landscape is primeval with no vegetation and nothing but volcanic rock in every imaginable color and type. The opening scene in the recent film Prometheus was filmed here, and you can stand right at the edge of this massive waterfall just as in the movie. The National Parks (open only in July and August) are rugged and primitive. Little of the U.S. standard walkways, safety railings, and signage or tourists accommodations exist here.
The center of the island is virtually untouched with no towns, villages or year-round roads. Glaciers and volcanoes that dominate this central area are visited by only the toughest hikers. The 2010 volcanic eruption by Eyjafjallajökull (which was under a glacier until it melted through) sits at the southern edge of the central portion. Such eruptions create huge floods of water and mud. You may recall that air traffic to Europe was disrupted for weeks by the plume of volcanic ash. The rock is still warm inches below the surface. There are also stratovolcanos (multi-layer volcanoes) and shield volcanoes that do not erupt, but rather simply push up the land creating huge mounds. There area is largely national park and campers can walk all day through the treeless landscape and see no other people. They also see little wildlife. Aside from a few birds on the coast, there is only one indigenous mammal, the arctic fox, though man has introduced reindeer, mice, and domestic animals to the island. Mink were brought for farming, but have since escaped and gone wild. There are no reptiles or amphibians native to the island.
My wife and I traveled to Iceland to escape the summer heat and found the weather all that was advertised. The landscape was spectacular, sublime in its sheer magnificence and absence of human impact, a refreshing change from our digitized virtual world.