See the Prologue .....

The horizon is alternately disappearing, to re-appear a shining mass of watery sunlit swell.  I am on the ferry, Norrona, nine hours out from Lerwick, on my way to Iceland, a country I've wanted to visit for years.  Below, on the car deck, is my bicycle: transport for the next few weeks.
          Several years ago I cycled from Bergen to Narvik, beyond the Arctic Circle in Norway.  Riding North the landscape became ever more barren, the coastline stark, rocky, spectacular.  It developed from there.  The feeling that Iceland would be a natural sequel.  And whim became "must do". 
          Early retirement, a part time business, a little relief teaching.  For the first time in my life I could decide what to do and, more importantly, when to do it.  The catalyst was a small legacy from an elderly relative.  I wanted to do something with it that would always be there.  My wife suggested that it would go a long way towards funding the Iceland trip.  And memories are for ever.  Outside the mid summer period roads there are often closed by snow.  With a six week time slot in June, July or August lined up and a decision to travel by ferry, my schedule would also include The Shetland, Faroe and Orkney Islands.

Click here to read extracts from "Cold Comfort"