All Images © Peter Olson
The North
June 2, 2016
On the plane to Iceland I had a butterflies in my stomach not just because I was excited, but because I was nervous…. How could Iceland possibly live up to all the expectations I had for it. I was worried I was going to leave disappointed. Within hours of landing all that fear was blown away, this was by far the most beautiful place I have ever been.
In 10 days my wife and I managed to put 3559 km on our little camper van, sometimes on dirt roads we had no business being on. It takes a long time to get from point A to point B, narrow winding mountain roads, gravel roads with potholes threatening to swallow the car, and having to stop every 15 minutes to jump out and shoot, hike, stretch, or very quietly follow reindeer.
When people tell you that Iceland looks like the moon, they are not exaggerating, and this is especially true in the north. There are so few people that live there a lot of the time we felt completely alone, maybe seeing another car every 20 minutes.
Couple that with a vast landscape with almost no trees to spoil the view, and it makes for the interesting problem of scale. I found it incredibly tricky to convey how huge everything is.
If you haven’t been following along in instagram, you probably should be there is a lot more I would love to share from this trip. In addition, I am heading to the Faroe Islands and back to Iceland in August, there will be a lot more adventures in store!