Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.06.2016, Page 58

BOOK YOUR FLIGHT OR
DAY TOUR AT AIRICELAND.IS
ÍSAFJÖRÐUR
ICELAND’S WESTFJORDS
ARE ONLY 40 MINUTES AWAY
Let’s fly
ÞÓRSHÖFN
VOPNAFJÖRÐUR
GRÍMSEY
ÍSAFJÖRÐUR
AKUREYRI
EGILSSTAÐIR
REYKJAVÍK
is
le
ns
ka
/s
ia
.is
F
LU
7
32
63
0
3/
15

Distance
from Rvk
323 km
How to get there:
Fly from Reykjavík City Airport, changing at Akureyri
Accommodation by
Guesthouse Gullsól :
gullsol@visir.is
Book flights :
airiceland.is
59The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 7 — 2016 TRAVEL
staircase down to sea level, where
the columns flatten out into a nat-
ural hexagonally tiled floor.
After a heavy-going hike up the
rugged heathland and high cliffs
of the east coast, we cut across
the island, past a frozen lake in
its centre—one of Grímsey’s four
freshwater springs. The west
coast has, for the most part, well
marked paths. Through a rusted
farm gate, we pass through a herd
of Icelandic horses and arrive at
the towering cliffside of Básavík
bay. A roughly hewn wooden
seat—like a humble throne, some-
how—overlooks the crashing sea,
far below. The slowness of Grím-
sey life is easy to adapt to, and as
I sit watching gulls hang on the
wind against the curved horizon,
I drift into half-sleep, feeling the
earth turn beneath me.
The island ends without cer-
emony, its northernmost tip
marked by a pile of rocks with a
metal bar jammed into the cen-
tre. There’s nothing between this
point and the North Pole, except
for Kolbeinsey, a rapidly deterio-
rating islet that’ll soon be gone
completely. We rest in a wind-
eroded sandbowl, scattered with
tiny bird bones. Up here, the pyr-
amids of tough grass have been
clawed flat by the biting wind. I
shiver, pulling up my hood and
sipping hot coffee from a ther-
mos, imagining a time when this
wild island might be blown from
the map, too. The waves crash,
the birds shriek, and after a fi-
nal glance towards the Arctic, we
start the walk back to Sandvík.
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