|
The moss-covered wonderland ends abruptly about 30 kilometres further east when the road enters the huge Skeišarįrsandur alluvium. The following 25 kilometres through this vast black void I met two oncoming cars. The sky was grey now and sent the odd rain shower, so I kept going past the glaciers until I reached Mordor.
Or something very much resembling it, especially under the current sullen light. The black sand and gravel coastal plain adjoins the steep dark black mountain flanks of the Hvannadalshnśkur, Iceland’s highest summit, sticking out of the Öręfajökull which is part of the massive Vatnajökull glacier. Black is the dominating colour here and even the lichen covering the plain and the sparse dots of grass and bushes at the mountain flanks now only managed to penetrate the blackness with a faint grey-green. Even the mighty glacier tongue of the Öręfajökull, which dramatically carves its way through the mountain flanks, only added some faded white with a bit of blue in between.
The landscape had a hostile aura but nevertheless had some fascination. So, I left the ring road and drove on a gravel road leading to sort of a parking lot in front of a shallow but wide crater. I followed a footpath through the plain for about a kilometre until I reached the mountain flanks. Not knowing where the – now barely visible – path would lead and now finally a bit intimidated by the hostile surrounding I stopped and returned to the car but marked this place in my mind for another visit.
continue >>>
For more impressions from Mordor check this gallery
|
