To Be Humbled By Nature

Iceland has been a place I have been keen to visit for decades, and last year, I visited for the first time and spent a few days in Reykjavik, to see some costumes that I had created for Follow The Viking Project. During that visit, however, I didn’t have the time to travel and see the drama of the south coast. 

This time around, I am seeing more of the country. The journey to the Skaftefel National Park really showcases the spectacle of nature; 80 miles of flat ice plains that look more like the surface of the moon than anything on earth. Bumps, lumps, drifts and pimpled landscapes stretch as far as the eye can see. It seems to take hours to get across and the mountains in the distance never seem to get any closer as we carefully drive over the Sandar; the glacial outwash plains south of Vatnajökull. The snow sprints across the road like dry ice and the road shrinks and expands with the weather. Singletrack bridges cross the meandering ice-packed rivers creating the most iridescent, light-reflecting mirrors. 

The Skaftafellsjökull Glacier is in the Skaftefel National Park on the edge of the mighty Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest Volcano. When you first catch a glimpse, nothing can prepare you for the mesmerising, gargantuan, menacing atmosphere that these silent, slow-moving mountains of ice instill.

All I could do, in all honesty, was to cry. 

Frozen tears stuck to my eyelashes.

I feel so humbled and privileged by my visit.

As a side note, I am a self-confessed scaredy-cat. But this trip is taking me to a different level of terrified. As a traveler in Iceland, you have to do as the Icelanders do and keep an eye always on Vedur – the country’s weather, volcano and earthquake service. I’ll just rewrite that line… the country’s weather, Volcano and Earthquake service!