Above Landmannalaugar

I am up early-ish, preparing for a possibly exciting day. It is overcast and spitting drizzle in Reykjavik, but I hope the weather will improve. I call Jon Karl to see about the prospects for a flight today. He is a retired Icelandair pilot, the son of an Icelandair pilot, and the proud father of a third Icelandair pilot, so I feel like I am in good hands. He says, sure, come out to his airstrip in Hella - about 90 minutes East of Reykjavik. The volcano near him is out and the glacier near him is clear too with some partly overcast skys. The rent-a-car process is tedious but I am on the way soon enough.

Route 1 is the the main ring road and I go through volcanic countryside that is familiar and reminds me of The Big Island of  Hawaii in some ways - lava flows of differing ages and differing vegetation cover - but no trees to be seen. Lumpy carpeting. Jon Karl's summer compound is a bit difficult to find but cell phones save the day. He greets me and introduces me to his wife and two young children - oh, and the bunny that they just caught. Over coffee and chocolate, he asks where I might want to go and I mumble something like "oh the place you suggested sounds perfect". I am not going to even try to pronounce it - it is a long word, and looks easy enough, but when he says it it is very different. I admit that I have difficulty with Icelandic pronunciation and he smiles and says really? you must be the only one that does. So we walk out to his 4 seat plane (like a VW bug has 4 seats), and taxi down his grass airstrip, gain a little altitude and head northeast.

The landscape gradually changes to a wonderful jumble of volcanic stuff from the recently active Hekla Volcano, mixed up with streams and lakes produced from the large glaciers to the East. Colors and textures and shadows keep changing as we weave along, with him banking the plane to get better photographing angles for me.

I am a kid in a candy shop, but I have to remember to take my eye out of the viewfinder from time to time and just soak in the amazing landscape. Much of it is inaccessible, but there are gravel tracks and we do see fishermen and the likes working their way around parts of the countryside.

After a spectacular couple of hours we land again at his compound and I get a photo of Jon Karl and his beloved plane, with Hekla Volcano peeking over the ridge behind. In his house we are greeted with more coffee and chocolate and have a short comfortable chat on the porch before I hit the road again. I have not met anyone in Iceland who does not speak excellent English, and I appreciate the chance to be comfortable with conversation in a foreign place. Don't think I mentioned this, but I was introduced to Jon Karl by his brother Haukur (Hawk), who I will see tomorrow for the next chapter of my visit - photo tour!