Ice cool

It really could have been Superman's Fortress of Solitude or even the wampa's cave on the ice planet Hoth, but I’d already here, not to let your surroundings fool you - this was Earth.
An untouched, rugged part of Earth, but Earth nonetheless.
Iceland has come into vogue recently, particularly with travellers between Europe and North America. It breaks up what would be a ten-or-so hour flight.
However in my travels, I found that not many venture too far out of the capital, Reykjavik.
It's a shame because the further you travel away from civilisation, the more enchanting the place thought to be roamed by elves can be.
We're at the Vatnajokull glacier; the largest in Europe. It's a constantly-moving mass of ice, water and terrain that breathes out towards the sea, and inland again as the seasons change.
Today, we are ice-caving. Down in the depths of the cold, immense blue glacier. Our guide, fittingly named Thor, tells us that the ice we stand around has been frozen for thousands of years, and is likely to be frozen for thousands more.
Immediately our group peered into the electric blue ice in wonder, spotting flecks of dirt, stones and pockets of ancient air.
It soon dawned on us that whatever mental preparation one can do for "ice-caving" will not be enough. As you abseil down a sheer ice cliff into the dark, yet glowing cracks in the glacier, a sense of childish wonderment washes over even the most experienced traveller.
After a short walk along a thin crack in the ice, we come to an opening that is positively cavernous. Rushing water - or the glacier moving as Thor explained - echoes along with our voices, as a deep blue light, from the sun pushing through the ice, fills the void.
We're twenty metres below the top of the glacier, in an unstable environment, in a dangerous and unforgiving country. The group doesn't know what to do. They take photos, climb up rocks, dip their hands in the water and feel the sheer, smooth, thousand-year-old ice.
It's as if everyone are children again, and the imaginary world they dreamed about after watching superman had materialised in front of them.
Two of our group were late in coming back to the meeting point after what just seemed like a few minutes. Light was fading and Thor said we had to get off the glacier before nightfall.
The elves might find us, he said.
No one laughed, no one knew what to say. This place of extreme beauty had surprised us once and we all thought it could probably do it again.