I am back from my
latest adventure, which was an 8 day hiking
trip in Iceland. All I have to say is a
big WOW!!! As many of you know, I am a
big fan of taking a break from the ordinary, and giving yourself a chance to reset
and retool your life. This trip did not
disappoint.
Iceland is probably the
most geologically interesting place that I have ever visited. It is the only place where the mid-Atlantic ridge
is above the ocean’s surface, and so its soil and rock is 100% created by eons
of volcanic eruptions, much like the Big Island of Hawaii. It is still subject to periodic volcanic
eruptions, lava flows and earthquakes. Iceland
also has ice caps, glaciers, ice bergs, black sand beaches, volcanic fissures, geysers,
sulfuric steam coming out of cracks in the ground, bubbling mud pots, hexagonal
basaltic columns, hot streams that one can soak in, naturally pure cold
drinking water that does not need to be treated, some very big lakes, and
way too many waterfalls to count. All
very picturesque. Not to mention those
very cute Icelandic ponies.
On a personal note,
while on this trip, I had a chance to connect with the nature kingdoms of the
plants and the minerals. The volcanic
energy had a very masculine feel, not like the feminine energy that one finds
in Hawaii. The energy of everything also
felt quite new and fresh, not ancient, and a bit sterile. The only mammals that live there, besides the
domesticated cattle, sheep and horses, were the arctic fox and some rodent
species, and we saw neither. So no critters, except for a few birds, were
ever seen while we were out hiking. That
made our outings very quiet, and somehow a bit disconcerting. As a contrast, I went with a botany group up
into the alpine zone yesterday, and at one stop alone, we saw a marmot, several
pikas and a weasel. I also flushed out a
little snake from my flower bed while I was watering this morning, so not seeing
these kinds of things was a bit unusual.
I now find that I
have internalized the “quiet”. It feels
good just to sit with it while I am getting my body and energies back to “normal”. It took me 24 hours to get back here, door to
door, last Wednesday because of some airport delays, not to mention the 7 hour
time difference between SW Colorado and Iceland. So as
I sort through my photos, I will post some of them here. More later!
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