Iceland

boxed text

Lake Myvatn:
I took a trip to the north of Iceland to see the countryside around Lake Myvatn - the locals call it the Lake of Flies - and as soon as I stepped off the bus it became apparent why! I had to wrap my head in my scarf to stop the mosquitoes biting..

I visited Iceland back in 1996 - and had many adventures - the first was not being aware that Reykjavik international airport is about 30kms down the road from Reykjavik, and shares a runway with the US airforce base at Keflavik! After that little hiccup I found the Youth Hostel I was staying in with no problems.

Iceland is an interesting place - at bit like Wales on steroids. I was there during mid summer, and because it's so close to the Arctic Circle it never got fully dark, and it's very difficult to get to sleep with the sun shining!

Just as I was dropping off to sleep, an old guy comes into the Youth Hostel dorm, and decides to unpack his complete collection of plastic bags - the especially crinkley loud ones. Then he wants to place each one into the foot locker, with the creaking hinge - one at a time. Creak - Rustle - Creak - Rustle. When he finally got bed, and then started snoring, I started to laugh maniacally - I never found out his real name, but I christened him Jasper Loudsnoreperson.

Lake Myvatn, Iceland

The highlights of my trip was seeing Strokkur at Geysir erupt, and throw water high into the air, even though it was in the middle of a torrential downpour, and watching our bus driver picking his moment to cross an exposed piece of road in the middle of a gale. Actually - that was quite scary!