Icelandic Highlands
Country
Its been a while since Morroco and a trip were planned this year to fly out to meet friends in the far east, rent a bike and mooch Mongolia.
However, more pressing matters took hold and we needed to build an extention on our rather modest house so all plans went out of the side of the wall which had just had a big hole knocked in it. I was slighly grumbly about it but, other oppertunities would arrise, I was sure..
Sooner than expected, oppertunites did arrise. Harry, my youngest son was about to take his GCSE's and I promissed him if he wanted to go on an adventure during the long summer break, we could do it. It didn't take him long to say he wanted to go to Iceland to see volcanes, waterfalls and some rugged landscapes. I didn't have to be asked a second time, Iceland had been on my to do list for quite some time.
How to do it was another matter. We wanted to see the interior of Iceland, a place where you could not take a hire car. The unpredicatbility of the weather, sometimes difficult riding conditons and exceptional winds together with having to do this two up with lots of gear were things to pursuade against doing this by bike. Betty heard this, and promptly broke down for two months whilst i spent many hours replacing parts or pouring over wiring diagrams.
In the end we decided on flying with all of our camping stuff and renting a 4x4 which would cope with the F roads and river crossings within the Highlands. Althought the 4x4 rental was very expensive, it would allow us to get wherever we wanted to go, would keep us dry on the roads, provide a place of shelter in really bad weather and would be much better than a bike on the tracks covered in volcanic ash. Also, I did not want to overload poor Harry with too large an adventure load!
Comments
So, Here we are, ready to go. bags packed, double checking etc We've got a really early flight, but that means we get a full day in Iceland tommorrow.
Looks like the day doesn't end until the next day has started, given the lenght of days, looks like about 22 hours of sunlight at the moment!
With so much hecticness around the house and a busy schedule of work, I've not had the same sort of thinking time for this trip which is a shame. However, I can have a tendency to over-plan everything, so a little uncertainty might make things a little more interesting.
Early night tonight and we'll see what happens tomorrow!
Iceland.
Well, what a country. Born from Irish and nordic culture, a land of immigrants, much like the UK. However, a land forever on the move and change. Populations rising and falling due to the influx of erruptions, gass and magma. Sorry I had to say Magma, becasue I love to go all Dr Evil and say it with a little finger in my teef.
Iceland was on the cusp of the economic collapse of 2008, it had become a way too top heavy financial sector and it quickly fell. Instead of the governement bailing out the banks, it left this to the banks insurance companies (never heard of them?) and spent what was left of the GDP on looking after the vulnerable.
A lot of money was pumped into Icelandic toursim and it has paid off. In the short summer of 2 months the island's population doubles. lots of silly peple lke me and harry looking for a little different trip.
The nation phrase is 'thetta reddast' (anglicised). this mean, 'it will be allright, in the end'. when so much of nature is aginast you, this is a very stoic thing to say. from now on, thetta reddast!