friluftsliv: Thinking about Iceland

The big news in Sweden tonight is the volcano in Iceland. Swedish airspace, along with that of most of Northern Europe, will soon close due to the danger that the volcanic ash poses to airplanes. I have a friend sitting at the Oslo airport wondering when his flight to Canada will be allowed to take-off...Anyhow, it is much more interesting that a geologic event vs. a terrorist attack has closed the skyways. The news has made much of the fact that the last time this happened was 9-11.

No ash here, but oddly enough the whole city smelled like sulfur yesterday...I was walking downtown and had this self conscious thought, "Do I stink?" And then I heard a couple near me talking about how much the city stinks and could it be the volcano...I was relieved, but surprised as I had not imagined the smell to be the first noticeable impact. I heard in the news people talking about the smell in Scotland and Oslo too.

I have visited the part of Iceland that is now flooding (due to the tremendous melt from the heat of the eruption)...fire and ice is now water and rock and mud. I can remember seeing evidence of past floods caused by eruptions under the glaciers...wide rock strewn flood plains. The drama of glaciers and volcanoes contribute to making Iceland such a starkly beautiful place. I fell in love with the open tundra-like landscape for much the same reason I love the open Mts. of Sweden's North--there is something quite liberating about the feel of the wide open northern space...(The picture above is that openness I am referring to and was taken in Jämtland this past Sept.)

Sunshine and ice! (and rock and forest)...the photos, of course, are not from Iceland, but rather from further adventures on the Bohusleden. Mattias and I hiked a 'wild stretch' North of Göteborg called Svartedalen--in an area noted as being the largest wild landscape in Western Sweden.