Iceland 1999 - Introduction
From Worldtraveller
A trip to the edge of the Arctic
Icelandic weather is definitely a contender for the Most Miserable Climate Known To Man. It rains on about 250 days a year in Reykjavík; you can expect one cloud-free day for every 10 of the rainy ones. Although it doesn’t get nearly as cold as the name implies near the coast, much of the interior is only accessible for two or three months every year, and almost one-fifth of the land is covered by permanent ice caps. It’s certainly true to say that most people don’t go to Iceland for the weather.
The scenery, though, is another matter entirely. Iceland, geologically speaking, has only just peeked out from beneath the waves. Formed entirely by volcanoes, it continues to grow as the east and west move apart, attached to the European and American plates respectively. And several times in its brief existence, it has seen the polar icecap wander south, and then retreat back inside the Arctic Circle. The combined effect of volcanism and glaciation is one of jagged cliffs, mighty chasms, vast lava fields, untold thousands of waterfalls, and some very odd-shaped mountains.
Volcanoes are pretty impressive things: beautiful when dormant, awesome when erupting. Our mission in Iceland was to travel to all the major volcanic regions, and photograph the scenery, and this we did. The story begins in Chapter 1.
