Iceland: A Non-Epic Adventure

Video by Richy Taylor
Photos by Chris Jackson
Words by James McKnight

It was meant to be an epic, an adventure to discover unknown lands on the fringes of human existence. Alas, while we at no point struggled to find the extremes of humanity – that’ll be Richy Taylor who you’ll find in the below video – what we didn’t uncover was fresh territory. But we had one hell of a good time in the northern sun.

Iceland is depicted in all manner of ways, mostly as an adventure capital and nearly always with imagery containing unearthly pumped up colours and wilderness exploration. But the reality is that you’d need a long time in the Land of Fire and Ice to get really lost in its interior; a week-long holiday could only ever be enough to skim the island’s outer features and get a taste for the potential wilds that exist there. And so it was that we gave in and simply enjoyed riding bikes and getting a small taste of the endless space there.

Our group – me, Richy Taylor and Chris Jackson – was joined and shepherded by Icelandic Steve, a big, friendly Nordic-ish fellow, and also local mountain biker Hlynur. Steve organised logistics, Hlynur saved us from our own navigational nightmares (map reading and following non-existent trails in a place this empty can get you in some trouble). We saw glaciers, waterfalls, that place where Game of Thrones was filmed and everything else a visitor to Iceland has to tick off their ‘adventure’ list.

But above all we enjoyed incredible hospitality, extraordinary trail riding and a feeling of insignificance that only travel to places like this can deliver. I for one know that Iceland is begging a second, longer, trip to truly unearth its potential, for a week simply isn’t enough time to get far enough from the hotdog trail (i.e. the tourists coach-tripping around the most readily accessible of Iceland’s nature spots).

Stay tuned for the extended write-up and gallery, coming any. day. now.