Glaciers

Iceland holiday - There was lots to get excited about in Iceland. It really is an amazing country and particularly good for photographers - so many varied subjects. For me, it was chance to see things I've never seen before and may never see again, like the glaciers. We mainly toured the south coast, around the Vatnajökull National Park. Here, one massive ice cap, which covers 8% of the total land area of Iceland and is one of the largest in Europe, flows out via around 30 outlet glaciers, like fingers, carving their way down from the ice cap cutting huge glacial valleys. You glimpse many as you travel and we were able to get close to about four of them. (You can actually take tours and treks onto the glaciers in some areas, using specialist vehicles with expert guides, but these are of course very expensive). 

They are beautiful and I found it awe-inspiring, and humbling too, to realise how old the ice is. You then start to realise, from the evidence of the natural geography and contours and the large ice lagoons, not to mention the photos and displays in the visitors' centres, that the ice is now receding at an alarming rate. Before too long there may no longer be any significant glaciers to marvel at, only the evidence of global warming.