Iceland is a land of stark contrasts. Fire and Ice. Geothermal pots dot the island with steam rising from cracks clear to the horizon. Massive glaciers many miles wide and thousands of feet high descend right down to the Ring Road. Icebergs tumble in the surf in the Atlantic Ocean. Beaches of deep black, soft, volcanic sand. Unpopulated with two-thirds of the 270,000 people living in the capital of Reykjavik, there are vast stretches of uninhabited tundra. Many dozen gorgeous, isolated fjords that take hours to reach on dirt roads hanging off the sides of sheer cliffs--but well worth the effort. Millions of free-ranging sheep dot the hillsides and converge on the highways
Only one road that goes all the way around the island--the Ring Road--only completed in the late 1960's. We spent 17 days in a four-wheel drive Toyota and circled the island counter-clockwise with a five day excursion deep in the West Fjords at the end of the trip. Icelanders worship the outdoors, their horses, and their independence. Add this to your bucket list--but do it yourself by car and not in the ubiquitous, crowed buses that seldom venture more than 100 kilometer from the capital. Take time and go slow--there is much to see.
Highly educated, the second most Internet users per capita in the world, English speaking even in the wildest back country, and computerized access to all needed services,