Sandur

A sandur is the outwash plain formed by meltwater rivers carrying sediment away from glaciers. The sandur in front of the Virkis glacier is where I've mostly been working in Iceland. I spent nearly a month out there last summer, and most of the last week too. It's a completely different environment for me. A wide, flat, empty expanse of stony ground, stretching about 10km to the sea, but so flat the sea isn't visible except on a really windy day when you can see the spray from waves breaking on the horizon. And yet if you turn around the view is to 2km high mountains topped by an ice cap with glaciers flowing towards you.

Two views on the sandur

Close to the river the ground is bare stones and old, dry river channels with only a patch of moss here and there; further away it's covered in moss and grass and scrub vegetation - dwarf willow on which the first fluffy, palest green catkins are just out, blaeberries, the first tiny pink flowers just appearing.

When you're on your own out there and it's not windy, and you're far enough away from the meltwater river that you can't hear the rushing water, it's so quiet it makes your ears ring. Except the occasional birds calling - skeins of geese recently arrived back from wintering in the south, great skuas gliding low overhead, curlew calling, and snipes and ptarmigan flying up from almost under my feet. The ptarmigan are still in their pure white winter colours and perfectly camoflauged for the snowy mornings we've been having.



Geese flying over Öræfajökull

Ptargmigan in winter clothes



In the summer it can be warm and lush; on a day like today it's a tundra-like expanse of snow, and when the wind blows it's harsh and wild. And it does a great line in dramatic clouds rushing across the sky. The birds thrive there, and sheep and horses graze, and although it feels remote, I've loved spending days there on my own enjoying the views, the silence and the sounds, and the sandur soap opera. Last summer I spent a whole lunchtime watching a great skua tenaciously kill a large gull, pluck it and eat it - gruesome but strangely compelling. Hmmm. Maybe it's not such a good thing to spend too long out there with noone to talk to....

Virkisjokull sandur