FEATURE I DAINESE EXPEDITION MASTERS ICELAND
P88
IMPOSSIBLE
BEAUTY
CERTAIN LANDSCAPES MAKE
YOU GLAD YOU'RE ALIVE. ICELAND
IS COVERED IN THEM
T
he winds are incredible.
They have stopped us dead
in our tracks. We are tra-
versing the black sand singletrack
that leads up the side of the Hekla
Volcano, one of the most active in
a land that can count 130 volcanos
within its borders.
During 1300-1500, the time
known as the Middle Ages, the
Icelandic Norse called Hekla the
"Gateway to Hell," and today,
Hekla is mad.
Hekla has a landscape so far
removed from anything I've ever
seen I may as well be on Mars.
Charred rock that was once molten
lava rippled from the wind that
stretches a thousand years lies on
either side of the track as we at-
tempt to turn our Ducati Multistrada
V4 S machines around and back
down to the starting point. We've
been made very aware that Helka
doesn't want us to go any further.
It's times like these you realize
your own insignificance. It's a feel-
ing I remember from when I went
out to the center of Australia—the
real Outback—with the world's big-
gest skies. Mother Nature has a
way of humbling man.
Luca Bono heads
the group past yet
another breathtaking
Icelandic vista. If
you stopped and
took pictures of
everything you
wanted, the tour
would take five times
as long to complete.
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCO MARINI
