How many people can actually witness the view of a new island which appeared overnight on our planet? I was so fortunate to see an island that had popped up out of the ocean only 6 years before and was still steaming!
In 1971 I organised some school children to join a large school party from Edinburgh and County Durham, to cruise up the coast of Norway and out to Iceland. It was in the days before the oil crisis (the ship was soon to be taken out of commission) and there was a cold war with Russia, so we had MIG fighters buzzing the plane, as we spent 3 days at sea before we saw land again, having left Sunderland harbour and sailed through the Pentland Firth heading for Iceland.
We had fun on board, with lots of entertainment, and when we actually crossed the Arctic Circle, the staff dressed up in Polar Bear and Ice Queen outfits holding a special ceremony for crossing the circle.
As we approached Iceland, we saw land which was a set of islands,… The Westermanns. They looked like icebergs because there were so many bird droppings on them! Beside them, in total contrast, was a small mound of an island with steam around the edges…it was Surtsey Island which had burst through the surface of the sea after a huge volcano erupted underwater in 1963. I was told that eventually there would be life on this fertile land but it needed the birds to drop seeds down so that vegetation could begin.
When Iceland came nearer, we found that the ship docked outside the port of Reykjavik because the fees were too high to get into the harbour, and so we were lowered into the water via big rubber boats and an officer with a walkie-talkie..an unexpected adventure in itself!
The city had its own central heating system from the natural hot springs and geysers but I noticed a lack of trees….apparently when Erik the Red had invaded, he used the trees for building new ships to go on and invade Greenland! ..and they never managed to renew them.
One of the tours we took was to the Althing, at Thingvellir (the “assembly fields”) which was the first parliament in the world….no special building to see, but the land became the first meeting place for the convening of a parliamentary system of government in 930 AD in the Middle Ages. It is situated 28 miles east of the capital Reykjavik.
We stood at the top of a plateau and looked out on the bare scenery and there in the distance, we saw a snow-covered Mt Hekla. The guide was keen to tell us that it was an extinct volcano…little was he to know that it erupted with a vengeance, 30 years later, in 2000! I looked on the ground and managed to pick up a piece of lava…and my first thought was … we have this at Consett! The Iron Company always spewed out clinker and here I was a thousand miles away, holding what could have been part of the iron and steel industry of Consett!!!
