"The time seems to stand still here - but as the invisible working hour-wheel in the clockwork, slowly the picture is changing through the decades."
- Ina von Grumbkow: Isafold -
On these pages I would like to present some impressions of my hikes through this unique lava desert to the north of Vatnajökull. In the previous years I spent well over one hundred days and nights there and there are still many places I would like to visit. Gunnar Gunnarsson writes a perfect description why I want to revisit Ódáðahraun again and again in his book The Good Shepherd: "... and then it drove one repeatedly over here, to see if everything was unchanged. And that it was: strange and inaccessible - and yet familiar and indespensable."
Introduction:
Almost untouched landscape get scarce on our planet let alone Europe. But there are. Ódáðahraun, the great lava desert in the interior of Iceland is one of them. Here you find a growing gallery with my views of this primordial landscape. Photographs taken during trekking tours in summer, winter ... and fire!
"Ódáðahraun is a huge, varied and magnificently beautiful area. […] I consider this area to be the most beautiful location that I have been to. Few things equal the rough lava and the plant oases by Suðurá and its islets. I also feel that water in the springs emerging from beneath the lava by the river is the best water I have ever consumed. Perhaps this stems from how thirsty I was when I drank it for the first time after having chased sheep down from Dyngjufjöll. Later I realised that Ódáðahraun is a unique area, not only for this country but for the whole world."
- Ingólfur Á. Jóhannesson, 1996 -
You now find a photo list of places in and around Ódáðahraun: PLACES of Ódáðahraun.
Of course this list will never be really complete...
If you have any question please do not hesitate to contact me:
Background photo: Kollur, seen from Stora Kista.