Henry Fletcher

Certified travel blogger

English

Hi! I manage a project in the Westfjords called Wildfjords. I am originally from Suffolk, UK, have trained as a Wilderness Guide in Finland, and have worked as a guide in Iceland, South Africa, Swedish Lapland and the UK. The project exists to share the beautiful Westfjords region with you, with all its wonderful land and seascapes, its many opportunities for adventure and the generous hospitality of the people that live here. We're now in the 4th year of running unique wilderness trips, researching old animal herding and walking routes between Ísafjörður and Látrabjarg, gaining funding to carry out landscape conservation work and dreaming a way forward for the project to bring benefit to the land, local people and visitors. Two main strands to our project are: 1. To develop a printed and online trail resource for local companies and adventurous travellers to make use of 2. To develop and offer unique wilderness experiences that teach new ecological skills and perspectives. Check out my Guide to Iceland Blog for more details.

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Jitter-glitter Guiding in the Westfjords of Iceland

Henry Fletcher

Jitter-glitter Guiding in the Westfjords of Iceland

What's the landscape of the Westfjords of Iceland like? What's it like to explore, walk in the Westfjords? Do I need to get a guide to explore the Westfjords? Látrabjarg, by Tanja Geis I'm going to start this BLOG with a dictionary definition of 'jitters': 1. Feelings of extreme nervousness as in "a bout of the jitters" 2. Slight irregular movement, variation, or unsteadiness, especially in an electrical signal or electronic device. Yeah, based on my recent experiences, I'm throwing it out there that the Westfjords land and seascape has the potential to impart the jitters. No surprise

Henry Fletcher

Icy dip in the Westfjords

A Wild fjord, photo by Gemma Messih The Wildfjords Trail is a new creative adventure trail in the West Fjords. It is over 200km long and passes through some of Iceland's most remote and spectacular landscapes. The West Fjords, as the name implies, are a series of mountainous fjords; fjords are oceanic lagoons, formed by a deep indentation of the land, resulting in a peninsula formation, as shown on the map below. Walking, or driving this landscape can be a tiresome business; you have to circumvent the full length of the fjord, only to find yourself within shouting distance of the opposin

Henry Fletcher

Real Adventure in the Westfjords!

In June and July, we successfully ran our first Wildfjords Trails in the Westfjords region. As our guests quickly found out, the trail isn’t so much a path marked on the ground, but rather a route through some of the region’s roughest and most spectacular landscapes, and an idea to bring people into closer relationship with the land and the sea and themselves. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be using this blog to share our most adventurous, memorable and, at times, toughest moments from the two trails we ran in 2014. The intrepid few begin the first complete Wildfjords Trail, photo by Tanja

Henry Fletcher

We've got balls to challenge any fairy

With the first Wildfjords trail set to start tomorrow, we wanted to tempt you with a few of our sweet toothed treats and relay our excitement for the coming adventure. First up are Mr Crockett’s delicious spirulina protein balls, made with the finest raw ingredients, and which, when shown to a native Icelander received the comment, ‘what’s this, you expect to survive on this? Are you going to sprinkle them with fairy dust?! They’re actually packed full of the most wholesome and energising ingredients. We’ve also managed to make water boil using fire in a treeless landscape using a Kelly

Henry Fletcher

Spring’s Elixir

Ok, I admit it, I didn’t spend the winter up in the Westfjords, but for those that did, it has been pretty gnarly and long-lasting. In my defence I did spend it in the farthest reaches of northern Sweden where light levels were even lower than here and temperatures prohibitively warm for enjoying the winter landscape. I need a defence, because being from the British Isles, I am given to moments of romanticising, even lauding, suffering! When I did arrive in the Westfjords, the snow still heavy and thick on the ground, the people I met with a slightly dazed and shell shocked appearance told

Henry Fletcher

Creativity Coming to the Westfjords!!

We're really excited to announce the names of the artists who will be joining us for the first Wildfjords Artist Residency (WFAR) trail in July 2014. We have great variety and depth of experience and can't wait to welcome them to the Westfjords. We also have two competition winners joining us for the first complete trail in June; please find links to/their winning entries below. THE ARTISTS Kate Angus is a writer of prose and poetry dealing with biology, archetypal motifs and historical narratives. http://therumpus.net/2013/11/salt-a-triptych/ Emma Houlihan is an artist whose work eng

Sometimes you just gotta take it slow..........

Henry Fletcher

Sometimes you just gotta take it slow..........

Wildfjords recently ran a creative competition to offer two people a place on our first trail in June 2014. We are also running an Artist Residency trail in July, which aims to give artists a deepened appreciation of wild spaces. Both the competition and residency link creativity with walking. This post considers why this link might exist. Warning: reading this post might encourage you to move. How long have you been seated? What do your legs feel like? I’ve been seated for 2 hours, my legs are crossed which causes my blood to flow erratically and results in a gentle yet painful swelling.

Henry Fletcher

WIN a trail experience with Wildfjords!

Welcome to Wildfjords! We are running a competition to find two winners who will be offered a place on our 2014 trail - all details below. Wildfjords offers walking and wild camping adventures in Iceland’s Westfjords region. We aim to provide our guests with a first rate service whist providing opportunities for our guests to learn new outdoor skills and to creatively engage with the land and seascape. Our trails contain a colourful mix of wild walking and camping, foraging, fishing, Icelandic pack horses, storytelling, kayaking, swimming, hot pools, local culture and delicious food!

Henry Fletcher

A message from the land, from the sea

I have recently returned from a week on Scotland’s Knoydart peninsula. I was there to take part in a Natural Change facilitation workshop. Natural Change, as led by David Key and Margaret Kerr, is a process of getting people to sense nature, rather than comprehend it with facts and figures and names. To do this, it provides facilitated nature experiences where you are totally immersed in nature and where your sense of identity begins to expand out to include the living and non-living elements of a given land or seascape. When this new way of relating happens, so the theory says, people begin