{"id":65450,"date":"2026-01-11T07:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T06:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etendues-sauvages.com\/actualites\/2026\/01\/11\/iceland-a-pact-between-ice-and-fire-ep-2-2\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T07:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T06:06:18","slug":"iceland-a-pact-between-ice-and-fire-ep-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etendues-sauvages.com\/en\/news\/2026\/01\/11\/iceland-a-pact-between-ice-and-fire-ep-2-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Iceland, a pact between ice and fire (ep. 2\/2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read part one.<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul spent six months in Iceland, from February to August 2023, on an internship at \u00d6ssur, one of the world’s leading prosthetics manufacturers. With his weekends and a total of fifteen days off to explore the country, he studied the maps and built himself a tailor-made programme of excursions, from the most touristic to the most adventurous, to take in as much of Iceland’s nature as possible.<\/p>\n

\"Iceland<\/p>\n

Among the three major zones one must have explored, our student also cites the Sn\u00e6fellsnes peninsula, \u201ca miniature Iceland, barely two hours from Reykjavik, which I discovered in early March, at -15\u00b0C, standing in snow under a stormy sky. The light was extraordinary, and I was completely alone\u201d \u2014 and of course the majestic Westfjords. \u201cIt’s a very special place, with a harsh climate. One of the most sparsely populated areas in the country. It’s only accessible from spring to autumn. In winter, it’s almost entirely cut off from the world. I discovered it in July, with a friend who joined me for the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the standout moments of this exploration?
\n\u201cThe landscapes there are breathtaking too, with monumental fjords carving the coastline into a lace of peninsulas. But if I had to pick two places, I’d say Vatnaj\u00f6kull National Park with the Sv\u00ednafellsj\u00f6kull glacier<\/a>, and also the Dynjandi waterfall tucked away at the end of Arnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur<\/a>. It has an unusual shape, cascading down a mountain in stepped tiers for a hundred metres before fanning out at the bottom to nearly sixty metres wide. A sheer marvel on a bed of fluorescent moss! Then there’s L\u00e1trabjarg fjord with its gigantic cliffs plunging into the Greenland Sea. Atlantic puffins nest there. The best time to see them is early evening, when the birds return from fishing. In summer, the sun stays up until midnight \u2014 we spent over two hours watching them. The light was extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adventure… Paul wasn’t about to leave Iceland without experiencing it.
\nOn the programme: a six-day self-sufficient trek through the Highlands, the wildest part of the island and one of the largest uninhabited regions in Europe. \u201cThat’s where you grasp the scale of it all. The panoramas there are towering, unreal, majestic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul discovered Iceland’s high plateaus on a first trek in late June, on the famous Laugavegur Trail, ranked among the top twenty treks in the world by National Geographic.
\nThree days of walking, nights camping, and sheer wonder at every turn \u2014 from Landmannalaugar, land of coloured mountains and geothermal fields, to the Sk\u00f3gafoss waterfall, passing through \u00de\u00f3rsm\u00f6rk, \u201cThor’s forest\u201d.
\n\u201cThe first two days are an explosion of colour, in landscapes where the black of obsidian cuts against the yellows, rust and caramel tones of rhyolite, sulphur and other minerals,\u201d says the young explorer.
\n\u201cOn the third day, an oasis of green emerges from these infernal landscapes. A forest of dwarf birch, in a valley carpeted with volcanic moss. All of it hemmed in between the two immense glaciers of M\u00fdrdalsj\u00f6kull and Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kull, at the foot of vast lava fields. Fabulous.\u201d
\nBut demanding as this trek is, it’s still too crowded for anyone dreaming of a solo hike through these vast expanses. An adventure that takes careful preparation.<\/p>\n