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A Look at Iceland
A little while ago, I was poking around BBC's iPlayer looking for episodes of BBC Scotland's Adventure Show and found one that was centred around an arduous fell race on the Scottish island of Jura. Also featured was a visit to Iceland by Cameron McNeish, the first part of which strayed away from his more customary hill walking and backpacking to take in snorkelling in a stream flowing along the line of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The second returned him to more familiar ground though he needed a guide to escort him through an area with boiling springs and mud pools. Iceland may not be a big place but it seems to have plenty of natural drama to offer the visitor.
The activity on Jura in that television show mostly human but it would appear that Iceland has no need of humanity for there to be drama. Being situated on the part of the Atlantic Ocean where new ocean floor is being created can only be geologically interesting, I suppose. That gives Iceland its fire and its heat but it also finds itself in icy latitudes too; glaciers coexist with volcanoes and even cover one or more of them.
When the volcanoes get to erupting, then we cannot fail to hear about it. With Iceland's small population living on a small part of the island, it's not about human disasters that news stories are told. In fact, it's international air travel around Europe and between there and North America that got to bear the brunt, particularly when the first of two volcanoes jettisoned ash into the atmosphere. Almost twelve months later, another one did the same though we got to challenging the aversion to risk by then. Nevertheless, nothing rash was done and I don't recall the second round of eruptions went on for as long as the first.
As if active volcanoes weren't sufficient to guarantee notoriety for Iceland, the country's economy took a direct hit when the banking crisis (first?) struck a few years ago. While you might consider that a banking system meltdown would have been terminal for any economy, Icelanders only seem to have bruised national pride to show for it given that their fortunes are on the up. That outcome seems an affront to the conventional wisdom that has been hamstringing some economies, both large and small, for a few years now. Much to the annoyance of some economic managers, the idea of defaulting on debts as a way out looks all too tempting as an alternative to austerity and curtailment in government spending. There isn't such a thing as a free lunch though...
On a brighter note, an island with a dramatic (and very active) countryside does present an invitation to those seeking such things though I wouldn't mind keeping away from molten rock and scalding pools myself. Nevertheless, here are some places that I'd be using should I get to visiting myself and I started my search for them with the Gateway to Iceland and even found websites pertaining to the Government of Iceland and University of Iceland too. There seems to be enough information out there on the web for anyone needing to gain a comprehensive knowledge of an island that only comes up in the news when there is some real drama.
Useful Visitor Information
The moral here is not to assume that any country is too small to have regional or local tourism information websites. This lot could keep any of us busy for a while and I reckon that I have some learning to do too. The photography alone is reason enough for anyone to go looking at them and they all have English language versions too to go with those in the national tongue. Sticking with the multi-lingual theme, the national tourism website caters for far more languages than even these. It's good to see that here is an attempt to see to it that no one is being left out because of the language that they speak. As if all of these weren't enough there's Inspired by Iceland, which appears as a link on a good few Icelandic travel websites and covers similar ground with more of a social twist.
There was a time not so long ago when Iceland sported no less than four national parks. It was in 2008 that two of them were merged to form the first of three still existing national parks that are listed here and it is claimed to one of the biggest in Europe too. Maybe Iceland is bigger than I thought it was.
The second park on the list may have an unusual consonant, the sound of which is equivalent to the "th" sound that is common in the English language, but it also is a region that hosted Iceland's parliament for hundreds of years. It also hosts some interesting geology thanks to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The last of the three national parks has a name meaning Snæfell Glacier and that is a hint of the ice that exists in Iceland though the country's official tourism agency would lead one to think that the climate is less cold than some may think it to be. Nevertheless, the Arctic winter cannot make things that warm so the heat coming up from the ground is more than useful.
Icelandic Meteorological Office
It isn't just the overhead weather with which this agency has to concern itself but also the effects of the molten rock and ash that gets spewed up into the sky from time to time. That came in most useful when two springtime eruptions caused disruption in consecutive but I am one of those who prefers to see geological activity from a safe distance so it's the weather reporting that naturally is of more interest to more. Still, staying safe in Iceland's countryside involves being geologically aware too so there is a bit to learn before going and knowing the climate is part of that too. Towards that end, the six day forecasts for selected locations could come in very handy.
Travel Options
Most of these airlines will get you to Iceland from Europe and North America. Two of them (Icelandair and Iceland Express) connect Iceland with the U.K. while SAS focus on Scandinavian flights and Delta on U.S. ones. Air Iceland is more of a regional airline with flights within Iceland and beyond to Greenland and the Faroe Islands. From what I have seen, U.K. flights aren't that cheap though a stopover in Rekjavik could result in a saving on a transatlantic trip.
Going to Iceland by sea hadn't struck me as an option that existed at all. However, residents of Denmark and the Faroe Islands (the company is based here) are best placed for this way of travelling to Iceland and you need to have time (and money for my investigations revealed prices around €750 for a September return sailing) on your hands for it to work too. After all, it takes several days to travel half way across the Atlantic and a return trip takes up most of a week so this is a slower and perhaps more relaxing mode of travel. You can take a car along too so that could be an idea for a few weeks away. All in all, this sounds like something that you mightn't do too often.
