Iceland is a bit of a misnomer in summer when
I'm told the story changes dramatically in winter.
GETTING THERE
I surprisingly have good memories of my days as an articled clerk at the firm of accountants Ernst and Young. I suppose as long as I worked on senior partners' jobs, life was good. Sadly the same could not be said of junior partners' jobs. Junior partners were generally insecure and appeared bent on impressing, if not appeasing, senior partners. For that reason their jobs were endless nightmares. In contrast senior partners were self assured and did not need to prove anything. So working on their jobs was a breeze.
Similar dynamics seem to apply to the European Union. Two years ago I applied for a Schengen visa through the German embassy and it was a breeze. However applying for the same visa through junior members of the EU can be a nightmare but the Danish embassy in London turned out to be a notable exception.
My quest for a Schengen visa this year was a right obstacle course that appeared insurmountable at times. For a start there is no Iceland embassy in Zimbawe. Apparently the Norwegian embassy in Harare used to process visas for Iceland but the embassy was closed this year (possibly as part of cost cutting measures in response to the drop in oil prices). Visas for Norway are now processed by the Dutch embassy in Harare. So I tried them and they were none too helpful.
To cut a long story short, my trek eventually led me to the Danish Embassy in Knightbridge, London where I found an extremely helpful consular officer. She was like a breath of fresh air and processed my Schengen visa in the nick of time.
My total expenditure on visas and attempted visa applications for the holiday came to US$310. Murombo haarove chine nguwo! (...whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them)
PACK HALF AS MANY CLOTHES AND TWICE AS MUCH MONEY
Both Johannesburg and Nairobi airports have lost my luggage before. So I naturally chose to fly through DUBAI. Then guess what?! This time I had to live out of an Asda carrier bag for three days. Apparently there had been a crash landing in Dubai that had messed up their baggage handling systems. That was the the explanation I was given anyway. It nevertheless reminded me that it is possible to survive on a lot less clothes than the tonnes we usually pack. The need to buy emergency underwear underlined Murphy's Law: Anything that can gobble up your spending money will do.
Fortunately I had a few days between flights in London. So I was re-united with my luggage before proceeding to Iceland.
GEOLOGY
Every holiday destination has a core attraction. In Africa it is wildlife(zoology) while in Israel it is archeology. In the Black Forest it is botany in the form of Northern Forests. In Thailand it is fornication even. Thankfully in Iceland it is only geology.
In fact Iceland is a geologist's feast.
In geological terms, Iceland is considered to be a relatively young landmass. In fact it is home to the youngest island in the world, Surtsey that was born in volcanic eruptions in the sixties.
To get a glimpse of the eruptions please visit https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e73uesIwOLc
Because of its young age, Iceland hasn't had enough history to accumulate substantial weathering (soil) let alone sedimentary deposits like salt and hydrocarbons.
Because the average soil layer is so thin, tree cover is also thin.
However there are still 150 varieties of plants.
But vast areas are bare rock with just moss cover.
In other places there are moonscapes. 
Because of their volcanic pedigree, the soils are dark.
Even the sand on most beaches is black. 
The bulk of the Iceland landscape is made up of igneous rock
or derivatives thereof. 
The Great Dyke in Zimbabwe is also an igneous intrusion
similar to Iceland rock. That suggests Iceland must be rich in platinum group metals too. However I did not see any evidence of mining activity in Iceland.
Interesting variations on the igneous theme crop up from place to place:
Iceland has many active volcanoes.
Hekla 
gave a false alarm only two months before we visited.
Another active volcano Eyjafjallajokull paralysed air travel across Europe when it spewed ash into the stratosphere in 2010.
Even without an actual eruption, steam vents
and geysers 
are constant reminders of geological volatility.
In school geography we did encounter volcanoes, geothermal energy and geysers, but they were all largely confined to the theoretical speculative realm in much the same way as dinosaurs in biology. On this expedition they sprang to life (excluding the dinosaurs of course).
Living with active volcanoes is a double edged sword. It must be unsettling to say the least.
Furthermore, horrendous floods accompany volcanic eruptions that occur under glaciers.
However there is bound to be a net payoff, otherwise nobody would be living there.
There is an abundance of geothermal fields with steam vents all over the place.
Around 25% of Iceland's electricity comes from geothermal power stations harnessing such thermal fields 
Notice that there are no cooling towers at that power station. The condensate is piped as hot water to urban areas for heating purposes. 
The remaining 75% of their electricity comes from hydroelectric plants. Which is just as well considering nuclear power stations would be a daunting prospect on such an unstable geological crust.
Other spinoffs are 1. Volcanic ash, which enhances the fertility of farmland. 
2. In Westman Islands, solidified magma from a 1973 volcanic eruption left the harbour better protected, albeit after a desperate fight. 
3. Tephra, which is a useful filler on civil engineering projects. 
Tephra is the solid matter that explosive volcanoes belch out over and above ash.
4. Not to mention tourism.
Paradoxically, tourism appears to be booming in spite of the extremely high cost of living. 
For 9950 Icelandic Krona I had the most expensive lunch I've ever paid for all my life.
That was equivalent to £67 or US$85 at the exchange rates ruling on the day. It was naughty but nice, even though it wasn't a full plate.
Thankfully thereafter all my meals were covered by the package holiday. Oak Hall put together an amazingly good value package deal for such an expensive environment. And a good crowd too. The crowd's age range was 11 to >70 but still got on well together. 
Although sometimes the young were clearly reluctant to listen to the wisdom of the old. 
As usual for Oak Hall holidays, great evening Bible studies were part of the package. This time we had the privilege of Angus, a highly qualified vicar, for a speaker. 
ARCHITECTURE
Viking houses were built to last. 
Needless to say they are no longer practical for modern man's needs. Modern cosmopolitan architecture has taken over, at least in Reykjavik 
A vibrant city, judging by the incidence of construction cranes.
Some modern Icelandic dwellings 
are reminiscent of styles I saw in Denmark on a visit in my student days. Not surprising considering they were a colony of Denmark until 1944.
In Africa corrugated iron sheets are a poor man's building material. Not in Iceland! They make remarkable commercial, residential, industrial and farm buildings out of the humble corrugated iron sheet.
Which confirms what I've always suspected: that Africa's poverty has its roots more in lack of skills than lack of materials. We will have to arrange attachments in Iceland for some of our apprentices.
CHITSVA CHIRI MURUTSOKA (TRENDS THAT WERE NEW ON ME)
1. A walk-in supermarket cold room.
A lot less fuss than this:
2. British rail fares are now extortionate!
For the distance involved that worked out at 80pence per mile!
After that I hired a car and covered 1200 miles at a "landed cost" of only 17pence per mile! That's excluding the parking fines:)
I'd be bankrupt if I had done all those miles on the trains!
3.After spending a fortune on Tom Tom, I discovered that Google Maps 
is more user-friendly than Tom Tom and is free too! For some reason Google Maps is not that well known in Southern Africa but works perfectly here too, at least in Harare.
4. Wide mouth juice bottles were a delight, especially when one is ravenous. Much less frustrating than cans and standard bottles.
5.
6. The Dartford Crossing is now a toll road without toll gates. Those "C" figures painted on the road are about all there is to say you've got to pay online. If someone hadn't told me I would never have guessed!
7. Forget the fancy boutiques! Sartorial elegance can now be found in a hardware store near you.
My "diversity suit" cost only US$4 at Mica Hardware, Harare. 
Even my safety shoes came from Mining and Industrial Supplies, Harare.
With jagged volcanic debris on some walks, safety shoes were in their element. 
Icelandic cod "biltong" and the tool required to split it!
Overall impression: this was easily one of the best holidays I've ever had.
PHOTO GALLERY
Our brilliant Iceland host Kristjan
Ice 1 looks like more fun than Zim 1
A musical boat captain who obviously made a career mistake.
The hair alone could have easily secured a place for him in a rock band!
An extreme tour guide who specialises in expeditions to places other vehicles cannot reach
The Rift Valley where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet.
The rocks have parted. Maybe the Israelites once passed through here!
My verdict: the East Coast is awesome but some inland chippies are not too far behind.
UK STOPOVER
I was changing flights in London so I took the opportunity of a brief stopover with two objectives: to catch up with some friends and to go on a gastronomic tour of the East Coast. During the Zimbabwe famine of 2008, whenever I was hungry my fantasies would revolve around Olde English fish and chips with thick cut soggy chips. That was my idea of heaven. So for some years it has been my desire to go and sample authentic traditional fish and chips in situ. On the basis of a number of recommendations I settled on the East Coast from The Wash to Whitby.
I was very well fed on this trip:
It is little wonder that I put on 4kg in less than 4 weeks!
Even walking it off did not seem to help too much.
