The Icecapade

The most fascinating place I’ve been to in my relatively short life is without a doubt the country of Iceland. There is an incredible amount of places to see and it’s a country I wish to visit again soon. The place that fascinated me most was Eyjafjallajökull.

I went to Iceland in 2009 on a school geography trip, before the volcano eruption that caused disruption across Europe. Indeed it’s the volcano that encapsulated me or rather the glacier that covers/surrounds it.

It was the third day of the trip and whilst it wasn’t as cold as you’d expect a country named Iceland to be it still warranted wrapping up.

After a lengthy journey on the questionable coach, which despite its dodgy appearance was reliable, we arrived at the foot of the glacier and it was enormous, a truly amazing sight.

The sheer size of it was incomprehensible, and I was excited to explore the small piece of it we were exposed to. Many of the group I was with climbed on to the glacier, with care may I add. It’s not something you want to rush into and it’s something you should be doing with a good set of boots on your feet.

Standing on the glacier made me fell like I was standing on top of the world, and it’s probably the closest I will get to literally standing on top of the world.

But it was perhaps not the safest thing to do, because as I was taking in the scenery slowly moving around my left foot slipped and for a split second I thought I was going to be sliding down the glacier into the freezing cold stream that was running beneath it.

It’s the same terrifying feeling you get when you’re walking down the street in winter and your foot slips on the ice and you got to battle with nature to keep your balance. It was exactly that but on a glacier.

I took the hint and carefully made my way to ground.

The sheer size of the glacier, whilst breathtaking, was not the most phenomenal sight I laid my eyes upon that day. Indeed, skipping over the stream (rather poorly and getting my socks wet) allowed me to explore more of the glacier and truly experience the sheer force of nature and the exciting formations the ice had created.

I saw many great things in Iceland but the glacier was by far the most impressive and it gave me a new appreciation of the force of nature. I would urge anyone with the resources and time to visit Iceland, and see all its wonders. If you go in autumn it’s not too cold.