Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.11.2016, Page 60

“Ca n you i mag i ne bei ng up
there, l iteral ly on the moon,
f lipping the pages of your in-
struction manual, and coming
across this?” Dr. Huw Lewis-
Jones says, with laughter in his
voice and eyes. He’s pointing at
a little black and white picture
of a nude girl in a quite provoca-
tive pose. The museum hall fills
with hearty chuckles and smiles.
About two dozen people sit in
front of him, soaking in his ev-
ery word. Looking at the audi-
ence over the course of the day,
I slowly come to realise that I’m
surrounded by truly interest-
ing people with diverse stories,
all proving that exploration is a
daring, dangerous activity that
steals the hearts of the brave.
The occasion is the first Ex-
plorers Festival, held in the
small northern whale town of
Húsavík. A brilliant, charismatic
and devilishly inspiring bunch
of explorers and adventurers as-
sembled there: the kind of peo-
ple who make you want to order
ten new books, rummage in your
closet for a thick sweater, and set
out for Antarctica.
The first event in the pro-
gramme, a poetry reading, proved
that seemingly unrelated things
can come together in beautiful
ways. It was a chance to hear
written works related to explo-
ration through the mouths and
minds of people with a unique
and intimate understanding of it.
Volcano diving
But poetry was just the begin-
ning of the myriad ways the fes-
tival explored its subject. The
names on the list of speakers for
the series of inspiring talks at
first made me imagine a huge,
overcrowded auditorium—but
this intimately scaled event in-
stead gave us the opportunity to
personally meet almost each and
every one of them.
And you want to meet them.
Tashi and Nungshi Malik are
24-year-old twin sisters from In-
dia, who are the youngest people
ever to have completed the Last
Degree Explorers Grand Slam
(including climbing the “Sev-
en Summits” and reaching the
North and South poles)—some-
thing only 51 people have ac-
complished. Scott Parazynski is
a NASA astronaut who has flown
five Space Shuttle missions and
conducted seven spacewalks,
climbed Everest, and dived in a
frickin’ volcano. Kari Herbert,
the daughter of polar explorer
Sir Wally Herbert, spent the first
years of her life in a remote is-
land in Arctic. The list went on.
Wonderful rebirth
The talks made jaws drop, one by
one. The lightness, humor and
modesty with which the speak-
ers handled their often alarming
and exciting stories was mes-
merising. Iceland’s new presi-
dent, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson,
gave voice to the quality of the
event when he said: “All these
amazing people we've listened to
tonight... I’m just humble to be
a part of the evening we've had
here.”
The organiser of the event,
Ö rl y g u r H nef i l l Ö rl y g s s on ,
pointed out that exploration has
shaped today's world—and the
stories don’t belong only to the
explorers themselves. Again and
again, they come to life in the
mind of the public, via museums
and paintings, film and poetry.
Such things offer these adven-
tures a wonderful rebirth—and
that’s what the Explorers Festi-
val aims to celebrate.
SHARE & MORE PICTURES:
gpv.is/exp17
Car provided by: Go Car Rental,
book at: gocarrental.is
Exploring
Exploration
Words SIGNE SMALA Photos ART BICNICK
The Explorers Festival
comes to Húsavík
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2016
60
According to new
results published
by Statistics Ice-
land, more Iceland-
ers are now leaving
the country than
are moving back to it. To be more
specific, the study asserts that 250
more Icelanders are annually mov-
ing away than are returning home.
Where are they going? Most flock to
Nordic countries—1,830 Icelanders
moved to Denmark, Norway and
Sweden in the first nine months
of this year. This trend is not going
to end anytime soon, as the study
details, but is rather projected to
continue from 2016 to 2065. Why
are they leaving? The weather? Job
opportunities? Inundation of tour-
ists? Your guess is as good as ours.
Wanting to keep their flights figura-
tively—rather than literally—explo-
sive, Wow Air and Icelandair have
both banned the Samsung Galaxy
Note 7 from all their planes, in both
carry-on and checked baggage. The
phone, the release of which was
highly anticipated, is having a few
problems with not blowing up in
users’ hands. So far there’ve been
100 reported cases of the phone
spontaneously combusting, with
users seeking damages. But what’s
going on? Much like the infamous
exploding hoverboards, the lithium
ion batteries of the Samsung phones
are short-circuiting, which heats up
the flammable liquid electrolyte in
the core of the battery, creating a
heck of a blow. Samsung has issued
a total recall on all Galaxy 7 models.
But don’t fret. There’s one place
you’ll be safe: your flight to Iceland.
One of the most popular stops on
Iceland’s ring road is the Jökulsár-
lón glacial lagoon. The icy waters
attract thousands of tourists a year
for sightseeing, boat rides between
the icebergs and photo opportunities.
Unfortunately, the landmark lagoon
gained a new inhabitant only days
ago, when a tourist couple’s rental car
rolled down from the parking lot and
straight into the icy water. It’s still
unclear how exactly the car ended up
moving unattended, but some sus-
pect the handbrake wasn’t engaged.
“Is that our car?” the tourists were
quoted as saying while they watched
their luggage, passport, travel docu-
ments, and rental car security car
deposit disappear under hundreds of
years-old icebergs. Park safe, y’hear?
TRAVEL
NEWS
IN BRIEF
Dr. Huw Lewis-Jones
Tashi and Nungshi Malik Dr. Meenakshi Wadhwa,
astrogeologist.
Scott Prazynsky
with President
of Iceland Guðni
Th. Jóhannesson