All I can say is wow. Our trip to Iceland was incredible. What a beautiful place. No, beautiful is putting it mildly. Iceland is one of the most magnificent places I’ve ever seen. It was captivating, to me, it was magical.
It’s sad for me to think Iceland is so far away now, yet what I took in my heart, mind and experiences is locked away in me forever. I could have easily stayed there another month, or even 6, yet it was time to return home. It’s suddenly so dark here at night in Illinois, by 8:00 it’s day’s end. In Iceland we’ve watched the sunset over the western cliffs at 10:30 at night and at 11:30 the pink colors still danced in the vast fading sky above us. That was incredible.
As much as I love our home, Iceland quickly began to feel like home to me too. It felt like home to me because I don’t care where I am but I feel at my best when I feel connected to nature, to her raw beauty and Iceland is one of the best places to see raw untouched beauty. There you’re surrounded by nothing more than just that. I loved it. I love Iceland…truthfully I felt an intimate bond. (if that’s possible with a place…) It was mystical and magical and mind clearing and pure. Silent in most spaces. I loved the silence.
In Iceland, the scenery changes in the blink of an eye. It made for the most interesting drive. Now over 3,000 miles away, as sit back at home behind my computer writing this, I know at this moment the sun is shining somewhere in Iceland, somewhere casting shadows high and low upon the cliffs. Light and dark clouds are floating freely throughout the skies, covering the rich blue to adding depth and mystery to the eerie white. The moss covered lava rocks will continue to impress as their shade of green will change dramatically depending on the angle of the sun. I know the ship wreck we saw will continue to sit as bird and marine life will continue to make it part of their home. I know the whales are happily breeching in the ocean until the sun sets low behind the horizon. Seals are splashing close to shore as the shore birds are actively in search of food.
All those old barns and abandoned homes will continue to sit for years and years to come, untouched except by the lens of a lucky camera or the power of nature. Hidden gravel roads leading way to a closer look at their past. The waterfalls will continue to rush with their extreme power and the Icebergs in the glacier lagoon will continue to slowly melt in the heat of the September sun. The long grass upon the side of the road will sway in the wind as the sheep run off into the unique landscape. The vast green fields will sit dotted with horses grazing, fighting against their long messy manes hanging in their eyes as it’s proof the strong winds make their way around every part of the island. Standing tall will remain the cliffs weaved with waterfalls in every crack to grey mountains with snow covered tops. I know the main road will remain smooth as the gravel roads will lead to some of the most remote places on earth.
Iceland will continue to change as mother nature lets nothing rest, yet at the same time, many parts of Iceland will remain the same for many years…untouched, unchanged, raw and beautiful. I fear for it though, I do. I fear as more and more tourists visit, more and more land will become a victim to stores and convinces being built. Hotels will eventually sit where open space stood for millions of years and restaurants will take away from the open, unique horizon. I fear camping anywhere you want alongside the road will be forbidden and I fear instead of the open cliffs and waterfalls , fences will be built because of just those few who do not respect the limits of nature. In all honesty, I wish I could do something to protect Iceland, to protect her from becoming a tourist trap filled with endless attractions dotted along the roads where the sheep and horses should be able to continue to claim as their own. I know that will be years away from happening, yet at the same time things are built at an incredible speed these days.
I know when we go back there (which I definitely plan on one day) it will be changed by people. Yet not all of it. It can’t be. Driving past the city out into the vast open lands, around the cliffs and between the mountains, that will sit for a million years more, hopefully the majority only changed by nature. Walking up beside tiny white or black churches, some dated as far back as the early 1800’s, churches that look to only hold 60 people. Hearing not a sound around them but the delicate whoosh of the breeze and a distant birds song makes me wonder how close of a community and rich of a lifestyle people had, and in most places there, still do have. Standing beside the most powerful waterfalls to the most delicate trickles of others, or standing on the edge of a cliff watching the Atlantic ocean splash her ice cold waters upon the land, gives me hope there are still places on this earth that can be left just the way they are because nature wouldn’t have it any other way. Iceland is one of those places. Rocky coast lines, parts of land too unstable for building and the ever changing volcanoes…nature will fight her battle, and in most cases, nature will win.
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