Photo blog: a road trip in Iceland

Sunset over Reykjavik. Over 60 per cent of the country’s 330000 population lives in the capital city.

This specially built 8×8 truck is the only way you can get onto Langjökull (glacier). It weighs 20 tonnes and can deflate and inflate its tyres on the move.

Inside the man-made ice cave at Langjökull, which was opened earlier this year. Soon to be seen on screens across the world as it will feature on the hit TV show Game of Thrones.

Þingvellir National Park is the meeting point of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates that are tearing Iceland apart at a rate of 2cm a year.

Falljökull, one of the many fingers of Iceland’s largest glacier, Vatnajökull, creates an intimidating vista on the national road as you approach the Skaftafell region in Vatnajökull National Park.

Face-to-face with an icy giant. Jökulsárlón is a 200 metre deep glacial lake formed by the recession of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. Icebergs calve off the glacier and float towards the narrow mouth of the lagoon until they are small enough to drift out to sea.

The beach near Jökulsárlón is littered with hundreds of icebergs in various stages of decomposition, a sad sight when you consider why…

Svartifoss (Black Falls), so named for the dark coloured lava columns that form the back drop for this beautiful waterfall.

Long since cooled, lava fields that stretch for several kilometres are covered in spongey moss.

Turf houses used to be a common sight in Iceland until fairly recently. Using mud and turf provided occupants with a warm barrier against the elements.

Humpbacks are just one of the whale species that frequent the seas north of Iceland. Others include Orcas and Minke.

Kirkjufell Mountain, meaning ‘Church Mountain’ might be small (only 463 metres high) but together with the gentle flowing Kirkjufellfoss, it paints a beautiful backdrop to the charming west coast town of Grundarfjörður.

Farming isn’t undertaken on the same scale that we are used to in SA. This is a typical Icelandic farmstead.