Iceland adventure
ON MONDAY, September 18, Sileby Photographic Society hosted a talk by Paul Bingham entitled “Iceland 4WD Adventure”.
Paul’s adventures around the world with his wife, exploring mountainous landscapes and his passion for bird photography provided the backdrop for an entertaining evening. His talk and presentation was about the adventure they experienced crossing the interior of Iceland.
As the majority of Iceland’s population live around the coastal areas, the interior is a vast area of mountains, glaciers and volcanic regions which Paul and his wife planned to explore using the only possible means of transport, a 4WD vehicle.
Their starting location was Reykjavik, meaning the “Bay of Smoke”, this provided Paul with opportunities to capture the history of the area, with images of the old whaling ships and colourful timber houses, to the modern splendid Hallgrimskirkja church.
Heading towards the vast interior, they pass Hveragerði, a geothermal area providing much of the heating to vast greenhouses, the centre for Icelandic horticulture.
Then the tarmac ends, and Paul begins their journey through Iceland’s hidden highlands. His images captured the stark grey landscape on the 250km single track ash road, with a background of colourful rhyolite mountains. During his presentation Paul’s talk highlighted the experiences they had crossing over the melt water rivers along their route, and the inevitable punctures they had to deal with along the way. The road is only passable in summer, but his images were not only of the stunning multicoloured mountain peaks but highly colourful views of the varied moss covered slopes and varied alpine plants.
Arriving at Akureyri with its outstanding natural harbour, Paul presented a number of images of the unique bird life he captured in the area. Then it was on to the Godafoss waterfall, a popular tourist attraction, but Paul captured