We came back from our Iceland holiday in June. And while we have been wallowing about the 10-day trip there, I have been unable to bring myself to sit down and write about it. Reason is – Iceland is beyond beautiful. Not a country, it is a planet in itself. God’s frame. Clean. Pristine. I fear, writing about it will get more and more holidayers interested, and the place will soon have too many shops, petrol pumps, hotels, restaurants….garbage, pollution….Why, just after coming back home, we read reports of the death of the Okjokull glacier, about it being commemorated with a plaque….
But then, this is how I feel about most places, hills, beaches…and so I sat myself down to write about Iceland, promising to be more vocal about sustainable tourism, responsible tourism….
As I said, Iceland is a planet….a planet that plays out an intense drama every mile, every moment. The drama starts much before you touch down, while you are still many thousand feet high in the skies, glancing down to gaze at the glaciers which you would have at first mistaken to be cloud envelope. Later, when you drive through its countryside, and see rolling green hills give way to stark brown, purple ranges, you know that the acts in the drama have begun in earnest. Little are you prepared for its moss-topped lava swathes, or its million years’ old volcanic ridges. The part where it gets intense is when you swerve to the east of the country and head north through its mountain passes — by now, colours have given way to an endless setting of black and white ice carpet, the theatrics heightened by steady snowfall or gusty winds lashing sleet. Climax is when you reach Myvatn to find beautiful brown foothills bubbling and gushing out hot sulphur, lagoons turned turquoise blue, lands invaded by gigantic lava rocks — earth has in its bosom so much drama, you gape in wonder…and so I sat myself down to write about Iceland…
The changing colours, the changing landscape, the intense and dramatic actors in the form of ridges, geysers, moss-lands, sulphur fields, icy mountain passes of Iceland will stay with us a long long time…the drama hasn’t ended….it will keep playing in our memories….
And I start reliving them as I sit to chronicle the trip….
- Sight-seeing in Reykjavík — Day 1 of a 10-day Iceland Roadtrip
- Iceland Roadtrip Day 2: Reykjavík to Selfoss — Tour of the Golden Circle
- Iceland Roadtrip Day 3: Exploring the South Coast of Iceland
- Iceland Roadtrip Day 4: Tour of Vatnajökull National Park and Glacier Lagoon
- Iceland Roadtrip Day-5: Touring the East Fjords of Iceland
Travellers, please note: Please look for bed and breakfast, local options, instead of 5* hotels in such faraway lands…help build local employment…help in the conservation of habitats by not expecting swimming pools in hills, television sets in jungles….