Rod Smallwood: Nether Moor Images

Iceland is just south of the Arctic Circle and straddles two continental plates. The land is still being formed as magma rising at the Mid-Atlantic Rift pushes the Eurasian and North American continental plates a few cms further apart each year. Þingvellir, the historic site of the Icelandic parliament, is located on the Mid-Atlantic Rift. The result is a landscape of extremes – barren volcanic plains; ice-capped mountains; thermal areas; powerful rivers fed by glaciers.

It is generally accepted that Iceland was first settled in 874 CE. The country has had a difficult history, not helped at all by half a millenium of Danish rule and by the climate being marginal for European subsistence farming.

The population was genetically very uniform until about thirty years ago. More than half of the male population had Norse ancestry, with most of the remainder from the British Isles. The women were predominantly Gaels, with most of the remainder being Norse – no doubt a reflection of the Norse rule of northern Britain, Ireland and the Scottish islands.

My focus in these images is on the landscape, not the social history.

The road layout is simple: Route 1, now mostly paved, runs around the periphery, with side roads to the peninsulas. The centre is crossed by unpaved roads, almost all of which are only suitable for high-clearance 4WD vehicles. There are very few bridges over the glacial rivers, and you are not insured when fording rivers. If in doubt, you wade them first to check depth and the condition of the river bed. This can be difficult and scary. I have crotch-high waders – if the water does not come over the top, the Land Rover can cross the river. There is no permanent habitation in the interior.

The Kjölur route is the easiest north-south route across the interior, which is a high altitude volcanic desert as large as Switzerland. Leaving the road is illegal – tyre tracks here will remain visible for centuries. On a busy day you might see a dozen vehicles in a long day’s drive.

Landmannalaugar in the east is a popular destination, with a mountain hut and hot springs. The mountains are impossible-looking pastel colours with very rough lava flows, some covered with bright green moss. The road crosses the foreground.

Rough lava in the foreground of this view in Landmannalaugar. There is a thermal area on the lefthand skyline ridge. This is a wonderful area for walking from the hut.

The power of the glacial rivers is usually very obvious, with huge volumes of grey water carrying rock down to the sea. Here, in Landmannalaugar, the enormous area of the river bed testifies to the force of the river in flood.

The 44 m high, 100 m wide Dettifoss, on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, can now be reached on the true right bank by a paved road, and on the left bank by a much rougher road. The source of the river is Vatnajökull, the largest ice cap in Iceland, covering 7,900 km². Most visitors walk only to Dettifoss, a few walk upstream to the u-shaped Selsfoss, and we saw no-one downstream at Hafragilsfoss. All are worth the walk, but don’t expect to have a conversation anywhere near them.

The Leirhnjúkur lava field, near Reykjahlíð, was formed by eruptions of Krafla, the most recent one lasting from 1977 to 1984. We first visited it in 2009. The lava was still warm and glowed red down the fissures.

The largest historical lava flow in the world is the Eldhraun lava field, which is now covered in bright green moss. It was formed by an eruption of Laki in the late 18th century, and covers more than 500 km². More than half of the Icelandic livestock died as a result of the eruption, and a quarter of the population starved to death.

Álfavatn has one of the small number of mountain huts in the interior. Steam from the thermal area can be seen beyond the huts, next to the lake.

We stayed overnight at another hut, Hvanngil, not far from Álfavatn. The evening light was spectacular.

Evening light at Hvanngil.

There are a few bridges in the interior over rivers which are unfordable. These traditional buildings are near the Markarfjot Bridge on the F261 (F roads are unpaved). The Mýrdalsjökull, a 600 km² ice cap, is in the distance.

Clearing clouds and the Mýrdalsjökull.

The great basalt plain of Vididalur in the north of Iceland, with the thin ribbon of Route 1 running across the centre of the image.

Lava tunnels are formed by a lava flow where the outer surface has solidified and the interior lava has stayed liquid and flowed out of the tunnel. The lava tunnel at Grótgjá contains a hot spring.

Most of the thermal areas which are easily accessible now have boardwalks and fences to protect visitors. The surface is often unstable and the ground is close to boiling point. The two holes in the foreground at Hverfjall thermal area are filled with boiling mud.

There is a lot of weather in Iceland. This is Búđir on Snaefellsness in a force 9 gale. I have since discovered that this church is a ‘must see’ on photographic tours of Iceland. Needless to say, in a force 9 gale there were no photographers standing around with their tripods.

More weather. Spray being blown across the dunes at Breiðavík in the early morning.

Strandir in the far north-west of Iceland. The trees originate in Siberia.

Further reading

Ragnar Axelsson is an outstanding photographer, with a personal mission to record life in the Arctic before it is irreversably altered by climate change.

Halldór Laxness received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955. I find his ‘Iceland’s Bell’ to be bleak, but that is probably an accurate reflection of life in Iceland under the Danish absolutist monarchy.

No visit to Iceland should be complete without at least dipping into the Icelandic Sagas, many of which were first written down at Þingeyrar, the site of Iceland’s first monastery. The interior of the church at Þingeyrar is delightful, and has an alabaster alterpiece from Nottingham.

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