There aren’t too many reasons to be on the morning ferry to Grímsey. Perhaps you are one of the 80 residents of the island returning home. Perhaps you are acquainted with one of those 80 residents, have been making excuses not to visit them for over a decade and, having recently played your “my-nephew-just-failed-his sheep-shearing-exam”…
It was a world of pre-departure cocktails, in-flight spa treatments, and post-arrival shower facilities. There was Fast Track and “Sir, Welcome Back”. Various lofty words, gemstones, and precious metals confirmed my superiority; I was “Envoy”; I was “Sapphire”; I was “Gold”. Occasionally, the Utopian combination of “Executive Platinum” would announce my arrival in the highest…
A ferocious blizzard was pummeling the car, threatening to send us tumbling into unknown peril. Aside from a few yards on each side, our surroundings were rendered invisible by a forbidding wall of relentless snow. Only a series of regularly-spaced poles marking the sides of the road served to guide our tentative advance. White knuckles…
Yesterday’s battle against the elements seemed as if it were months ago. The sun was struggling into the clear morning sky of an Icelandic winter, as if straining against the horizon’s short leash. Our car, essentially alone, was weaving in and out of the splayed fingers of the spectacular eastern fjords, stopping frequently as each…
When you drive in Iceland, it doesn’t take too long before you stop noticing the yellow poles marking the sides of rural roads. Spaced 25 to 50 metres apart and arranged in pairs, one on each side of the road, a driver could be excused for thinking their purpose is mainly decorative. Surely one glance…
Slowly, as she made her way around the room, the expression on our daughter’s face began to change. It had started as a picture of feigned interest; that uniquely teenage ability to simultaneously show just enough enthusiasm to avoid a parent’s ire while also leaving the observer in no doubt that this is not what…
Suddenly, there were headlights coming straight towards us. They swayed erratically as they accelerated out of the exit lane. We were no more than 200 yards apart – and the gap between us was closing at a rate of 50 yards each second. Adrenalin pumped furiously; white knuckles glowed in the dark; we could feel…
As the last of the day’s light fades, I notice two sets of footprints in the sand. They are freshly made. Their stride is short, suggesting the slowest of walks along a beach recently made flat by a receding ocean. They have a symmetry, a unison, a connection. They have a story. In places they seem to converge; to merge.…
I can’t remember exactly when it happened, but I was definitely younger than ten years old when I realised that England is not a big country. At least some of my early childhood misconceptions on the subject can be traced back to the military style planning with which my father would prepare for each family…
Every journey is a quest of sorts but, as we leave the familiar behind, what are we looking for? Perhaps it is the enticing prospect of the unknown. Perhaps we are in search of the simple pleasures of immersing ourselves, however briefly, in another way of life. Perhaps we just want a break from the monotony…
Journeys And 