Sign-In
Cart
Iceland by Kayak: The First Circumnavigation of Iceland by Kayak
Paperback
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 1736420321
ISBN13: 9781736420324
Publisher: Nigel Kayaks
Published: Oct 18 2023
Pages: 382
Weight: 1.23
Height: 0.85 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
ISBN13: 9781736420324
Publisher: Nigel Kayaks
Published: Oct 18 2023
Pages: 382
Weight: 1.23
Height: 0.85 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In 1976, Nigel Foster had no idea he would attempt to circumnavigate Iceland by kayak the following year. A chance meeting with a well-known expedition kayaker in the Scottish Isles changed all that. While others scoffed, he made plans, using the technology of the day: calling people on rotary dial telephones, visiting public libraries, consulting travel agents, folding letters into envelopes to be stamped and carried to the mail box. Slowly, as Foster learned about Iceland, he began to realize the difficulties ahead.
Nobody had circled Iceland by kayak before. So, was it a foolhardy escapade? Possibly, but Foster describes how his earlier adventures made him optimistic. When the small team he first envisions dwindles to two, he has misgivings, but the project seems to take on an energy beyond his control. In June of 1977, he finds himself with Geoff Hunter on the heaving deck of a ferry bound for Iceland with snow dashed mountains rising before them.
Despite contrasting personalities, Foster and Hunter have compatible goals. Together, they enrich their adventure, forgoing speed of travel to better experience Iceland. Icelanders welcome them with touching generosity. Their encounters are often outright hilarious. Ashore, the two hike up steaming volcanic peaks, not missing the opportunity to bask in mountain hot springs, or in contrast explore glaciers and ice-filled lakes. They camp on black sand beaches, eat seagulls and puffins, and deal with malfunctioning gear. Afloat, it is the moody ocean that pervades all, with its heaving shore-breaks and numbing chill. Here are towering cliffs, cacophonous seabird colonies, whales, driftwood logs from Siberia, and storm-whipped islands. As they forge ahead, their story becomes interwoven with threads, historical and geological, that enrich the narrative, making it a valuable resource for any traveler to Iceland.
This is a story of Iceland as experienced in the 1970s. It reveals the atmosphere and character of the land and people at that time. There is a freshness untouched by high tech, which makes the recounting of this major accomplishment, the first circumnavigation of Iceland by kayak, a delight to read.
Despite contrasting personalities, Foster and Hunter have compatible goals. Together, they enrich their adventure, forgoing speed of travel to better experience Iceland. Icelanders welcome them with touching generosity. Their encounters are often outright hilarious. Ashore, the two hike up steaming volcanic peaks, not missing the opportunity to bask in mountain hot springs, or in contrast explore glaciers and ice-filled lakes. They camp on black sand beaches, eat seagulls and puffins, and deal with malfunctioning gear. Afloat, it is the moody ocean that pervades all, with its heaving shore-breaks and numbing chill. Here are towering cliffs, cacophonous seabird colonies, whales, driftwood logs from Siberia, and storm-whipped islands. As they forge ahead, their story becomes interwoven with threads, historical and geological, that enrich the narrative, making it a valuable resource for any traveler to Iceland.
This is a story of Iceland as experienced in the 1970s. It reveals the atmosphere and character of the land and people at that time. There is a freshness untouched by high tech, which makes the recounting of this major accomplishment, the first circumnavigation of Iceland by kayak, a delight to read.
Also in
Adventurers & Explorers
The Little Book of Big Explorations: Adventures Into the Unknown That Changed Everything
Osman, Jheni
Paperback
$9.99
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
$19.80
The Everest Mystery: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest
Summers, Julie
Hemmleb, Jochen
Hardcover
$27.90
Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America's Love for the Wild
Hansman, Heather
Hardcover
$29.44
Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail
Swift, Earl
Hardcover
$28.80
The Traveler: One Man's Quest for Humanity from the South Seas to Revolutionary Paris
Wulf, Andrea
Hardcover
$34.20
North of Ordinary: How One Woman Left It All Behind for Wilderness and Wonder in Alaska's Frozen Frontier
Aikens, Sue
Hardcover
$25.19
Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire
Sancton, Julian
Hardcover
$29.70
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
Ambrose, Stephen E.
Paperback
From $10.99
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Sides, Hampton
Paperback
$18.05
Earthrise: Inside Artemis II, the Groundbreaking Human Mission Into Deep Space
Larsen, John
Hansen, Jeremy
Hardcover
$32.30
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Hardcover
From $17.99
Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon
Sevigny, Melissa L.
Paperback
$17.09
The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America
Letts, Elizabeth
Paperback
$19.00
Warden Force: Night Rider and Other True Game Warden Adventures: Episodes 1-13
Hodges, Terry
Paperback
$14.20
Warden Force: Delta Ghosts and Other True Game Warden Adventures: Episodes 27-38
Hodges, Terry
Paperback
$14.20
Warden Force: Grim Witness and Other True Game Warden Adventures: Episodes 14-26
Hodges, Terry
Paperback
$14.20
The National Geographic Story: Legendary Photographs, Artifacts, Adventures, and Discoveries That Changed the World
National Geographic
Hardcover
$47.50
The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down
Woodard, Colin
Paperback
$18.99
Warden Force: Ordeal at Skull Canyon and Other True Game Warden Adventures: Episodes 63-75
Hodges, Terry
Paperback
$14.20
Things We Found in the Ground: Discovering the History Buried Beneath Our Feet
Gray, Lucie
Bruce, Ellie
Paperback
$17.99
Warden Force: Masters of Destruction and Other True Game Warden Adventures: Episodes 88-100
Hodges, Terry
Paperback
$14.20
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
Egan, Timothy
Paperback
From $9.99
Warden Force: Deadly Intent and Other True Game Warden Adventures: Episodes 76 - 87
Hodges, Terry
Paperback
$14.20
Go Quiet on the Mountain: The Power of Stepping Away from a World That Never Stops
Jenkins, Jedidiah
Hardcover
$26.60
Warden Force: Cold, Cold Hearts and Other True Game Warden Adventures: Episodes 39 - 49
Hodges, Terry
Paperback
$14.20
Graveyard of the Pacific: Shipwreck and Survival on America's Deadliest Waterway
Sullivan, Randall
Paperback
$17.10
Mountain Man: John Colter, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and the Call of the American West
Marshall, David Weston
Paperback
$16.10
Alive: Sixteen Men, Seventy-Two Days, and Insurmountable Odds--The Classic Adventure of Survival in the Andes
Read, Piers Paul
Paperback
$18.99
Where the Green Light Shines: A Fifty-Year Odyssey from the Boundary Waters to the Far North
Rodgers, Ryan
Hardcover
$26.96
Warden Force: Delta Ambush and Other True Game Warden Adventures: Episodes 50-62
Hodges, Terry
Paperback
$14.20
The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing
Hammer, Joshua
Paperback
$18.00
The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness
Kaufman, Kenn
Paperback
$19.00
Miscalculated Risks: Attacked, Crippled, Paralyzed, Drowning, Unconscious and Freezing in The Wild (Just Not All at Once)
Cooper, Michael
Paperback
$18.04
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
Millard, Candice
Paperback
$18.05
Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire (Large Print Edition)
Sancton, Julian
Paperback
$33.25
The First to Go West: American Ambition, Bloody Conquest, and the Fateful Journey of Jedediah Smith
Clavin, Tom
Drury, Bob
Paperback
$19.95
Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women's Ascent of Denali
Randall, Cassidy
Hardcover
$26.60
Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women's Ascent of Denali
Randall, Cassidy
Paperback
$16.20
In the Field with National Geographic: The Inside Story of Legendary Explorers, Educators, Scientists, and Storytellers
National Geographic
Paperback
$14.24
River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana and the Deadly First Voyage Through the Amazon
Levy, Buddy
Paperback
$18.99
Alone in Wonderland: Longing for Connection and Adventure in the Shadow of Mount Rainier -- A Memoir
Reed, Christine E.
Paperback
$23.75
Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight
Teitel, Amy Shira
Paperback
From $10.99
Let the Water Do the Work: Stories of First Descents & the Soulful Art of Rowing Whitewater
Fox, Peter
Paperback
$17.10
Adrift [Movie Tie-In]: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea
Ashcraft, Tami Oldham
Paperback
$15.19
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West
Stegner, Wallace
Paperback
$17.10
Death In Big Bend: True Stories of Death & Rescue in the Big Bend National Park
Parent, Laurence
Paperback
$18.95
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Sides, Hampton
Hardcover
From $12.99
The Earl and the Pharaoh: From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun
The Countess of Carnarvon
Paperback
$20.89
River Master: John Wesley Powell's Legendary Exploration of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon
Kuhne, Cecil
Paperback
$16.10
The Space Shuttle: A Mission-By-Mission Celebration of Nasa's Extraordinary Spaceflight Program
Miller, Roland
Hardcover
$57.00
Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines
Frank, Matthew Gavin
Paperback
$18.00
Born to Fly: The inspiring Story of an Australian Teenagers Record-Breaking Flight Around the World
Campbell, Ryan
Paperback
$18.99
The Explorers Club Presents: Letters from the Edge: Stories of Curiosity, Bravery, and Discovery
Wilser, Jeff
The Explorers Club
Hardcover
$30.40
Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home
Rause, Vince
Parrado, Nando
Paperback
$20.90
The Real Captain Norm Isaacs: My Life of Big Game Fishing, Flying and Addiction
Isaacs, Norm
Paperback
$20.85
Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer
Roberts, David
Paperback
From $7.99
Hush of the Land: A Lifetime in the Bob Marshall Wilderness
Maggi, Eva-Maria
Elser, Arnold Smoke
Paperback
$20.85
True Spirit: The True Story of a 16-Year-Old Australian Who Sailed Solo, Nonstop, and Unassisted Around the World
Watson, Jessica
Paperback
$19.95
Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut
Hernández, José M.
Hardcover
$28.50
Van of Valor: A 27,000-Mile Journey Through American Sacrifice
Wallace, Kevin P.
Wallace, L. Wright
Paperback
$24.99
Natural Rivals: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the Creation of America's Public Lands
Clayton, John
Paperback
$17.05
Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley
Underwood, Brent
Hardcover
$26.60
The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World's Oldest Writing
Hammer, Joshua
Hardcover
$28.49
Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime
Purja, Nims
Paperback
$22.00
Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11
Donovan, James
Paperback
$23.74
The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi: My Journey Into the Heart of Scriptural Faith and the Land Where It All Began
Gifford, Kathie Lee
Paperback
$18.99