In 1973 I was still a student at Aarhus University. I even extended for the third year, but as soon as exams were over in the second half of June, I headed north to Iceland. I loved the North back then.
I flew up, to get there quickly at the peak of the Nordic bird breeding season. It was mid August before I arrived back in Denmark towards the end of the summer, I took a ferry back. So I ended up spending almost two months on the island.
I hitchhiked out of Reykjavik, the capital, and followed the coastal road along the west coast across the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. As I seem to recall, there was no road all around Iceland in those days. The East Coast was more rugged and less developed, I am not sure if there is an all-year, all-weather road across that part now, I haven’t been back since. At Snefellsnes I stayed for a few days and explored this rugged area, then I hitchhiked up to the town of Akureyrion the north coast. Here there was a youth hostel, you could stay here in relative comfort and meet other back-packers. I took this opportunity to take a break from camping, wash my clothes and get a decent meal in town.
From Akureyri there is a connection to the island of Grimsey, the most northerly settlement in Iceland, located right on the Arctic Circle. However, I didn’t go to Grimsey to meet the – I am sure wonderful - 60 or so people who live on the island. I went there to check out the famous bird cliff colonies of North Atlantic sea birds of the steep and rugged cliff-faces along the north-east coast opposite the ‘airport’ which is just a landing strip.
After Grimsey I found my way down to Myvatn, when I spent a week or so walking all around the large shallow lake packed with waterfowl. This late in the breeding season the ducks all had rows of ducklings in tow and the density and variety of waterbirds was outstanding, it was the most astonishing Nordic wetland I have ever seen, before or since.
Since I couldn’t circumvent the island completely - like I said, there was no proper road then along the length of the east coast - I walked back to Reykjavik. There was a track across the interior that I could follow. You could also drive much of the way, but at your own risk, the track was rough and there were streams to cross which might swell up during heavy rains. I followed the track and walked cross-country part of the way where the going was easy. I don’t know how far that is, maybe some 150 km, it took about 5-6 days. I only saw a few cars in total, one stopped to offer me a ride, but I was stubborn and declined – I wanted to walk all the way!
There weren’t many birds in the interior; I had heard about large colonies of breeding geese there, but I never found them. As you can imagine, my research and intelligence was not so good then, and I mainly found out stuff just be checking out places and exploring. But the terrain was spectacular: Rugged lava fields and shingle-filled plateaus that looked like something you might find on another planet. If Elon Musk gets the urge to go to Mars, he can save us all a lot of resources by just going on a walk across Iceland’s interior like I did! I walked as far as Strokkurwhere there was a famous geyser that people came out from Reykjavik to see. There were some tourist busses there and I got talking to one of the drivers, he gave me a free ride on the highway to town.
Since I didn’t have a return flight home, my schedule was flexible, so when I saw a notice at the Reykjavik youth hostel for volunteers to go to Heimaey, I signed up for the hell of it. That small island south-east of the capital was hit in January that year by a devastating volcanic eruption which had covered much of the previously prosperous fishing town in ashes. I and a bunch of other tourists and back-packers were flown out and given shovels and told to clear ashes … from the cemetery!? The rescuers couldn’t get their heavy equipment in there, so this had to be done by hand. But work is work; I and the other kids were given a floor to sleep on in the local school and some basic meals, and then we worked all day for free, I enjoyed every minute of it!
When my stint was up, I bought a ticket on the ferry back to Copenhagen, Denmark; my sister met me at the ferry, she lived in the city at that time. I loved this so much – traveling, photographing birds in remote places, doing ‘real’ work - that I never went back to college again after that. And thank goodness for that.
