INTERNATIONAL ADVENTURE
Where The Wind Blows
An eager Hannah heads to one of her dream destinations, only to discover it’s not like she imagined at all.
WORDS HANNAH
PHOTOGRAPHY HANNAH AND SNORRI THOR TRYGGVASON
Iceland Air’s safety announcement features very little of the usual plane stuff. Instead, there is an improbably healthy and relaxed looking woman hiking her way across the mountainous landscapes of Iceland. Instead of heading for the exits, she walks serenely towards a pass between two hills. She dons a life jacket as well as a wetsuit, and prepares to canoe down a river, clear waters revealing a black river bed which cuts through lush green terrain. She leaps not down the emergency water slide, but instead off a waterfall. She’s not assuming the brace position, she’s doing yoga. Her child (I told you she looked improbably healthy and relaxed) sits happily beside her in the plane as they both relax under a blanket and take a nap. It’s an effective video: I ignore all the safety stuff and look forward to seeing this outdoor paradise for myself.
As we come in to land and I lay my eyes on the landscape for the first time, it is nothing like I expect. There are no roiling waterfalls, bubbling springs, dramatic cliffs, or smoking volcanoes. There is just… flatness. The sea meets the land in fractal fingers that look like they could be washed away in just one extra-large wave. Resisting the sea’s advances are acres of black gravel, akin to the reclaimed spoil heaps of former mining towns. Late snow covers much of the ground, though not enough to give a winter wonderland scene. The light is flat, grey and murky, and so it will stay for most of my trip.
Never go full roadie.
Pedalling purgatory
There is often a space in-between. It’s the gap between expectation and reality, in the wait between now and the next thing. It’s in the unpredictable weather at the change of the seasons, or the purgatory between heaven and hell. The space in-between may be vague, amorphous, difficult to pin down, with edges that bleed into the certainties on either side. Or it may be clear cut, with defined boundaries – the sea between the land, the gorge between the cliffs.