For a very very wet country, Iceland felt very similar to some of the many deserts we’ve visited over the years.

In large part, though for obviously different reasons, it felt very barren and obviously very empty. The almost complete lack of anyone else around us as we made our way around the country still surprises.

Driving through the uplands, across the lava fields with nothing and no one in sight, just reminded us of countless drives across the salt flats of Etosha, Namibia or Uyuni, Bolivia

Or long ago, across the desert in Yemen.

We even found the remains of trees, very reminiscent of Namibia. Iceland was essentially deforested with the original influx of people from Scandinavia.

Perhaps it was just the scale of the landscape, the huge empty spaces and vast skies.

But there was also a surprising overlap in terms of the cliffs in the Negev and the cliffs of Iceland.

Or even the mountains of the Yemen or Namibian hills.

And obviously there are signs of volcanic activity across many of the parts of the world we’ve visited.

Even the glaciers reminded me of the dunes carving their way through the African landscape.

There is something mesmerising about empty landscape, something very very beautiful. I’m not sure many of us would be comfortable in that stark landscape, aside from the obvious difficulties of surviving the environment but it’s certainly an environment plenty of us find very satisfying to visit.