Iceland - Land of Glaciers and ASH - Spewing Volcanoes
Few can travel around Iceland without being deeply touched by the sheer beauty of it all. It's that sort of place, with lots of surprises in store
- Published: 9/05/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Brunch
Perched on the edge of the Arctic, this wonderful little island contains some of the most impressive natural wonders in Europe. The continent's biggest waterfalls thunder down with such force that the ground trembles under your feet; the barren highlands form Europe's largest, loneliest desert; and the awesome ice cap Vatnajokull is the biggest outside the poles. Other spectacular phenomena include smouldering volcanoes, slow-flowing glaciers, extruding lava, gushing geysers, bubbling mudpots, soothing thermal pools and, in the darkness of winter, the magical northern lights.
Until about 20 years ago, Iceland's fantastic scenery, challenging hikes, friendly natives and eerily remote wilderness were a well-kept secret. Today, the country is one of Europe's hottest travel destinations. As well as having awe-inspiring nature, it boasts the compact capital Reykjavi'k, a city filled with Viking history and renowned for its high-energy nightlife and kaleidoscopic music scene.
ENVIRONMENT
Contrary to popular opinion, it's not an island completely covered in ice, nor is it a barren lunar landscape of congealed lava flows and windswept tundra. Both of these habitats exist, but so too do steep-sided fjords sweeping down to the sea, lush farmland, rolling hills, glacier-carved valleys, steaming fields, bubbling mudpots and vast, desert-like wasteland. It is this rich mix of scenery and the possibility of experiencing such extremes, so close together, that attract, surprise and enthral anyone who has been lucky enough to visit the country.
GLACIERS AND ICE CAPS
ICELAND: Available from all good bookshops for 825 baht.
Glaciers and ice caps cover about 15% of Iceland, many of which are remnants of a cool period that began 2,500 years ago. Ice caps are formed as snow piles up over millennia in an area where it's never warm enough to melt. The weight of the snow causes it to slowly compress into ice, eventually crushing the land beneath the ice cap and allowing the ice around the edges to flow downward in glaciers. These slow-moving rivers of ice have carved out and shaped much of the Icelandic landscape since its creation, forming the glacial valleys and fjords that make those picture-postcard photos today. Iceland's largest ice cap, Vatnajokull in the southeast, covers almost 13% of the country and is the third-largest in the world. Other major ice caps are Myrdalsjokull in the southwest, and Langjokull and Hofsjokull in the highlands.
THE CULTURE
Centuries of isolation and hardship, and a small, homogenous population have instilled particular character traits in Icelanders. This is a tight-knit nation of just over 300,000 souls, where everyone seems to know each other or to be distantly related - family ties are overridingly important.
Naturally enough for people living on a remote island in a harsh environment, Icelanders are self-reliant individualists who don't like being told what to do. The current whaling debate is a prime example. Although most Icelanders wouldn't dream of eating whale meat, a majority are in support of hunting - a silent sticking-up of two fingers at the disapproving outside world.
Icelanders have a reputation as tough, hardy, elemental types, and it's true that rural communities are mainly involved in the fishing or farming industries. But don't think they're badly educated bumpkins. Iceland has always had a rich cultural heritage and an incredibly high literacy rate, and its people have a passion for all things artistic. This artistic enthusiasm is true of the whole country, but it's particularly noticeable in downtown Reykjavi'k. Although people adopt an attitude of cool fatalism, get them talking about something they enjoy and the pessimism falls away. Most young Icelanders play in a band, dabble in art, or write poetry or prose - they're positively bursting with creative impulses.
This is an edited extract
from 'Iceland', by Fran Parnell, et al.
Lonely Planet, 2010.
For more information visit
http://www.lonelyplanet.com.
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