ICELAND
H
ooves thundered along the beach,
kicking up a storm of black sand.
Clinging tightly to the reins,
I looked up as a squadron of pink
-footed geese flew over northern
Iceland’s Skagafjörður Bay. Across
the ocean, breaks in the cloud
threw patches of sunlight onto the
long, curved back of Tindastóll mountain in the distance.
“Icelanders are very proud of their horses,” my guide,
Johanna Dirks, interjected as we slowed the pace of our horses.
“When the Vikings came from Norway, they could only
conquer Iceland because they brought their strongest horses.
There are only these horses in Iceland and they’re very strong.”
Riding an Icelandic horse along a black sand beach is
about as Icelandic an experience as you can get, short of
the northern lights appearing and Björk providing a live
soundtrack. But this was also – one hairy moment aside –
one of the most peaceful and memorable experiences I’ve
had on a horse, not least because of the wild setting and the
absence of any other people.Heading north
I’d come to Iceland to drive the new Arctic Coast Way and find
the north’s remote landscapes. The route, which launched in
June last year, runs between Hvammstangi on the north-west
coast to Bakkafjörður in the even quieter, sparsely populated
north-east. Like Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way and Scotland’s
North Coast 500, it was created to shine a light on lesser-
known, less-visited parts of the country.
Iceland has around 350,000 inhabitants (and 460,000 sheep),
but receives over two million tourists each year. Most of that’s
concentrated around Reykjavik, the Golden Circle and the
south-west, which can mean overcrowding and heavy traffic.
But there’s plenty of space to explore along the Arctic Coast
Way’s 900km of coastal roads, as you loop around rugged
peninsulas close to the Arctic Circle, taking in fishing villages,
farmland, mountains, bizarre rock formations, quirky‘Riding an Icelandic horse along a black
sand beach is about as Icelandic
an experience you can get’
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