Iceland is a great pull for the landscape photographer, as it’s a very unique and visually dramatic place. I’ve wanted to go for several years, drawn by photos I’ve seen online and after hearing about the island from friends and acquaintances who’ve been there.
However, increasingly affordable tourist access over the last few years means that the island is massively more popular than ever before. Following on from my post last week about the effects of popularity on the north-western coast of Italy, news from Iceland indicates that the locals are slowly having to adapt the island to accommodate the sheer number of visitors.
One of the most-photographed spots on the island – a wrecked DC-3 on the southern coast – has received so many visitors recently that the access “road” (an unpaved track for off-road vehicles) has now been closed to vehicular access by the land-owner. Mainly because even though he has attempted to protect the surrounding land by putting up clear route markers, many visitors ignore them and just head “cross-country” with no respect for the landscape.
Leave a Reply