Travel, outdoors & adventure blogger who loves Iceland, camping and swimming.
The reason I had two whole weeks in Iceland in a campervan was that I had A Birthday while I was there. The capitals signify the significance, I’m still not comfortable with saying the actual number out loud. The way the trip seemed to be panning out, I was going to be somewhere in the … More An unbirthday on Iceland’s Diamond Circle (North Iceland part 2)
This is the first of a little trilogy about the north of Iceland. Tourists flood to the south west and the South Coast but tend to skip over the north. If you ever watch a Ring Road vlog on YouTube, they cover the South Coast in excruciating detail, might do Stuðlagil and then skip over … More Grettislaug: camping at a saga pool (North Iceland part 1)
Húsafell’s Canyon Baths are a little bit mysterious. You don’t get to just turn up at the door – indeed, there is no door – but instead you meet at the activity centre in Húsafell where a guide drives you to the edge of the canyon and you have to walk down into it. It’s … More Everything you ever wanted to know about Iceland’s Canyon Baths
I was initially expecting this to be the harrowing tale of the love/hate relationship between a girl and the vehicle she was tied to as both transport and accommodation – of how I hated driving it but loved that I could stop at any campsite and just climb into the back and go to sleep. … More My relationship with a campervan for two weeks in Iceland
This is another Instagram vs reality. Stokksnes and Vestrahorn are a little corner of the south coast of Iceland. Stokksnes is the headland – -nes is a headland in Icelandic – and Vestrahorn is the lump of mountain attaching it to the mainland. It’s another place to scamper around looking beautiful, more commonly in pristine … More What they’re not telling you about Stokksnes
When asked why he wanted to climb Everest, George Mallory famously replied “because it is there”. Well, I’m applying the opposite of that here. Ten or so days before I went to Iceland, a volcano started erupting, the ninth in the Sundhnúksgígar series and the twelfth since the Reykjanes Fires began four years ago. All … More Why I didn’t go to see the volcano
Instagram first. This is me at Stuðlagil. Blue-green water, basalt columns, vintage film camera slung across me, pretty Insta-perfect. The reality: an unplanned 5.4km round hike, a scramble my mum must never find out about, perpetually checking everything is zipped safely away and keeping half an eye on the rushing water in case some malevolent … More Stuðlagil: Instagram vs Reality
Reynisfjara, on Iceland’s south coast, claimed its latest victim last week. There have been six deaths, all at roughly the same place, in the last twenty years and at least twelve near-misses which have involved emergency rescues. I could talk for an entire blog post about the inadequacy of the signage (when I last visited, … More Using correct names saves lives: Reynisfjara vs “the black sand beach”
This is a question I ask myself a lot. Obviously I’m a tourist when I’m in a country that’s not the one I live in. I’m a tourist when I go to London. Am I a tourist if I go glamping at the cute little place a twenty-minute drive away? Am I a tourist in … More How far do you have to go to become a tourist?
After the eruption in Iceland the other week, I was speculating on what to tell my colleagues about it at the weekly meeting, where we give a nod towards watercooler chat on between “what I did last week” and “what I’m doing this week”. I wanted to tell them about the eruption because it’s something … More What is a volcano and how do we know when one is going to erupt?
I Am A Polar Bear 