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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of the lambing season at Brimnes, a farm in the north of Iceland, in April 2008. Sheep farmer Arnar Gústafsson and his girlfriend Edda Björk take shifts watching over the nearly 300 ewes and helping them give birth 24/7 for about two months or until the last lamb is born. In Iceland, the arrival of lambs is synonymous with the arrival of summer. The lambing season is currently at its height.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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The Civil Protection Department announced after a meeting with travel agents at its headquarters in Skógarhlíd in Reykjavík at noon that tourists in Iceland are safe. They discussed the situation that arose after a glacial flood in Mýrdalsjökull tore the bridge across the river Múlakvísl on the Ring Road in south Iceland last night.
Search and rescue are on the alert and assisting people in the danger zone. ICE-SAR trucks during the eruption in Grímsvötn. Photo by Robertas Mickevicius.
However, people should stay away from the defined danger zone at Mýrdalsjökull and the Mýrdalssandur plains. “The security of tourists in the surrounding rural area has been secured; search and rescue team members have traveled there and assisted people,” Íris Marelsdóttir of the Civil Protection Department told ruv.is.
Tourists who are traveling on small vehicles to the east of Múlakvísl and were planning to drive to the west might face some problems. “The Ring Road is torn and people are looking into the consequences for the tourist industry now that there isn’t any bridge across Múlakvísl,” Marelsdóttir said.
It is being looked into whether tourists have to take the Ring Road to the north or whether they can take the highland route Fjallabaksleid nyrdri (F208), in which case they have to have larger 4x4 vehicles.
“The Icelandic Road Administration will meet today and discuss the situation so we will have to wait and see what comes out of that meeting,” Marelsdóttir commented. It could take weeks to repair the bridge.
The activity in the glacier is subsiding but it is still uncertain whether there was a small volcanic eruption underneath the icecap, where the volcano Katla lies, or whether the glacial flood was caused by something else.
The situation is still risky. “We are just on alert right now and would like to lift the danger level and cancel the evacuations as soon as possible. But we don’t think it’s safe yet. We would like the activity to decrease some more first,” Marelsdóttir stated.
This morning, rural areas that were considered to be at a risk of flooding, including Álftaver, were evacuated.
Click here to read more about this story.
Magnús Skarphéðinsson, principal of the Icelandic Elf School, has expressed his concern that Independence Party MP Árni Johnsen may be subject to an accident after relocating a boulder allegedly inhabited by elves to his home in the Westman Islands.
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The first music festival this summer, Reykjavík Live, kicks off with concerts in the center of Iceland’s capital tonight and will carry on through May 20. The venues are Gamli Gaukurinn, Glaumbar, Prikið and Frú Berlaug.
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President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his main rival for the presidential election on June 30, Þóra Arnórsdóttir, are supported by an almost equal number of voters, 41.3 and 43.4 percent, respectively, as indicated in a new survey.
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The West Fjords District Court ruled on Monday that a man found guilty of having drowned a Labrador by tying its front and hind legs, fastening it to car tires and throwing it in the ocean is to pay ISK 100,000 (USD 786, EUR 612) in fine.
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The current issue of the quarterly magazine Iceland Review includes interviews with fashion photographer Saga Sig and conceptual artist Rúrí. Also, we take you to Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum, that desolate land coveted by a Chinese tycoon, and also explore Icelandic archeological remains. We discuss the Icelandic Church, the flourishing gaming industry, debate the future of Iceland’s energy resources and interview the president of the Icelandic National League of North America. Subscribe now and receive a free photo book by IR’s editor Páll Stefánsson of the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions. Click here to subscribe to the magazine and here to buy a gift subscription.
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REVIEWS
The Reykjavík Shorts&Docs was held in Reykjavík from May 6 to 9 in Bíó Paradís, and what an enriching experience it was to attend the festival.
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Shedding light on Iceland’s thousand-year history, as manifested in remains ranging from Viking graves to enchanted sites, Mannvist is a fundamental piece of writing. Ásta Andrésdóttir met with its author, archaeologist Birna Lárusdóttir.
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“The House Project” currently on display in Hafnarborg, the Hafnarfjörður Centre of Culture and Fine Art, is a new artwork by Hreinn Friðfinnsson consisting of a photography series of the three houses. His work is described as “a poetic and philosophical exploration of every day human experience.”
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