THE UNTAMED BEAUTY THAT SO TEASINGLY LURES PHOTOGRAPHERS IN COMES PACKAGED WITH WEATHER THAT'S AS MOODY AND DARK AS A GOTH TEENAGER
The English novelist and poet Philip Larkin once wrote, “depression hangs over me as if I were Iceland,” possibly, and inadvertently, winning the award for the harshest Tripadvisor review ever. But now, looking out across an unforgiving, sinister landscape, I can see where he was coming from. Barren and inhospitable, this really is a godforsaken place. I feel like we’re standing at the edge of the underworld. Ahead of us a tiny trail winds onwards, skirting a vast jagged outcrop before tiptoeing almost apologetically along a ridgeline. It’s a wild place, perhaps the most untameable landscape I’ve ever seen. I can’t imagine living on this terrain, trying to call this place home – so what the hell are we doing trying to ride bikes here?
Iceland’s landscape is notoriously besieged by moody skies, powerful, incessant winds and long, dark
