The Icelandic Outback

Thursday, July 12, 2007
Reykjavik, Iceland
For the remainder of the trip we left the "big city", joined a group of 10 others and took the Viking Challenge!

Iceland's uniqueness starts with its geographical location . It is in the North Atlantic at the junction of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Also, despite being near the Arctic Circle it is on the Gulfstream.

These plates move apart about one inch a year and over millions of years this movement causes earthquakes and volcanic activity. Earthquakes happen regularly on the island and a volcanic eruption happens somewhere every 10 years or so.

Without any land bridge to another continent, Iceland was uninhabited by man or beast until the Vikings were able to find it in around 870 CE.

The people today live on a narrow ribbon of fertile ground on the coast and the interior is mostly bubbling hot springs, moonscape like lava fields , volcanic mountains and glaciers.

We were determined to explore this area -- its rifts, its glaciers, its hot springs and its coastline.

We hiked, rafted, snorkeled, jeeped, shipped out and rode horseback to see the sights.

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