Downstream from Eden

There is a river flowing through Bethlehem, but not one that you’ll find on any map or satellite imagery of the West Bank. But it’s a vital river all the same. Let me explain.

The Story of the Bible is book-ended by two beautiful river scenes, the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem. They introduce and give crescendo to the grand story of God’s ‘River of the Water of Life’ that flows through the entire drama of the Bible and the stories, songs and water observations featured in this blog.

The story of Eden describes the paradisal first home of the human family. Every kind of beautiful and fruitful vegetation flourished.

Eastern Hospitality

Centuries before the magi visited Bethlehem bringing exquisite gifts fit for a king, a desert sheik spotted three strangers lingering a short distance from his tents. With the vigor characteristic of middle-eastern hospitality, he hurried over to them and offered them a quick drink of water.

In the conventions of hospitality, you make the initial offer so small that to refuse would be an insult. Then,

In Praise of Amniotic Fluid

The amazing gift of water completely surrounds us long before we draw our first breath. And the wonder of it all dazzled me afresh each time I watched one of my children being born!

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

Psalm 139:13-15 NLT

When my wife was in labor with our first daughter, her nurse, who was also a friend and a seasoned midwife, whispered to her after several fruitless hours of labor, ‘I’m going to break your water, that will get things moving.’

All Streams Flow to the Sea

Qoheleth, the world-weary narrator of Ecclesiastes, often thought to be the voice of Solomon, Israel’s sage king, looked on the phenomenon of rivers flowing to the sea and saw in them evidence of the tedium and futility of life.

All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

there they return again.

All things are wearisome,

more than one can say.

Ecclesiastes 1:7-8

The Sound of Mountain Water

All earth brims with his glory.

Yes and Yes and Yes.

Psalm 72:19 The Message

A friend recently introduced me to the writings of Wallace Stegner, (1909-1993) an American writer, educator and conservationist. In one of his books on the western wilderness, The Sound of Mountain Water, Stegner recounts his earliest experience of a river at the age of eleven. His words resonate with the Biblical theme that “all the earth brims with God’s glory.”

Stegner writes:

Getting Carried Away

Guest Writer – Kathy Legg

His voice was like the roar of rushing waters

 and the land was radiant with his glory. Ezekiel 43:2

The Singapore afternoon hung hot and muggy. But the green tangled rainforest where Kevin and I walked was refreshingly cool and full of moist, earthy smells. This 3 hour trek around McRitchie Reservoir was a favorite hike of his. We carried day packs with provisions: bottled water, dried mangoes, sketch books, money for the tea hut at the journey’s end. But long before the journey’s end we learned firsthand about rushing waters: the roar and the glory.

Snow Like Wool

Psalm 147 links the wonders of creation with God’s providence and grace. The previous post focused on the first part of the psalm, especially v 7-9 that urges us to sing our thanksgiving to God for the gift of rain that sustains all living things.

The closing verses of this psalm swing to the opposite season with a sharp reminder of winter – the irresistible onslaught of cold winds, frosted windows, drifting snow and ice-pellets.

He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.
He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast?

A Psalm of Water for Thanksgiving

This week-end I will be in New England to celebrate an early Christmas with my three children and six grand-children.

We will have turkey and potatoes and an abundance of food – and, no doubt, a glass of wine to mark the occasion. And we will pause before we eat to do something very important.

From "The Horse and His Boy"

In honor of C.S. Lewis who died forty-eight years ago today, November 22, 1963,  . . . here are a couple of water references from The Chronicles of Narnia.

In The Horse and His Boy, Shasta is travelling across a desert at night. He is thirsty, hungry, tired and lost. . . and feeling very sorry for himself. Suddenly he discovers that someone or something is walking beside him. In his fear he tries to ignore it, but finally whispers, “Who are you?” The unwelcome fellow traveler replies, “One who has waited long for you to speak.”

Our 200th Post

Today we celebrate the 200th post since this blog began in July 2010.

I stand today even more in awe and wonder of our Creator-God than when I first logged on to share my thoughts with an unseen audience around the world.

Every day since I began, the hydrologic cycle has performed flawlessly, and water has continued to flow over the crest of Niagara like a never-failing stream - not because of my blog, admittedly, but in illustration of God’s unfailing love, infinite wisdom and astounding beauty that I have attempted to portray in each unique post.

The Scent of Water - Wells of Hope

In Job 14, the beleaguered wise man asks a lot of questions trying to solve the riddle of life and death.

Using a string of similes, Job ponders our human mortality – we’re like flowers that wither, fleeting shadows, day laborers (here today, gone tomorrow), lakes and rivers that evaporate, soil and stone eroded by running water.

But knotted into this string of death images is the intriguing thing called hope. Is it a mirage? Is it a false dream, a futile longing, that our lives have meaning and significance? Or does the world contain hints that point to a reality bigger than death?

At the Scent of Water

One of the signs of global climate change is that many places in the world are becoming drier by the year, though not always a result of decisions as reckless as the Aral Sea (see last week's post). Climate change is taking its toll and desertification is encroaching on many communities around the world.

It’s not just happening in Africa, Australia and California. Climatologists and meteorologists in central Europe have said that the region is seeing more and more extreme weather including long periods of dry and hot weather in the summer, severe flooding and bitter winter weather.

Your Troops Will Be Willing

In honor of Remembrance Day, here is a quote from Psalm 110 - verse 3

Your troops will be willing

on your day of battle.

Arrayed in holy splendor,

your young men will come to you

like dew from the morning’s womb.

As my brother said in an early morning e-mail today - "enjoy a wonderful day of Freedom - and remember that it wasn't free".

I'll resume my reflections (see yesterday's post) on Job's insights on life and death in the next post.

Poppy Photo - Flanders Fields Music

The Aral Sea Disaster

The Aral Sea stands as one of the monstrous environmental catastrophes of the 20th Century.

Before 1960, it was the world's fourth largest inland sea – behind Asia’s Caspian Sea, North America’s Lake Superior and Africa’s Lake Victoria – with an area of 68,000 km². It had a vibrant fishing industry employing 40,000 people. Today discarded fishing boats lie on the sand 20 kilometers from shore.

In the 1950’s and 60’s Soviet engineers began diverting its two major inflowing rivers to irrigate cotton fields. As a result Uzbekistan has become one of the world’s major cotton producers. But this drawdown had a disastrous result as the sea lost most of the inflow of its source waters. The mighty Aral Sea began shrinking – and shrank steadily until, in 2004 it was only 25% of its original surface area, and by 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size.

Gihon Spring and Spiritual Disciplines

In the past two posts we looked at the Gihon spring on the lower east side of Jerusalem and the some of the ancient and historic engineering strategies by Jerusalem’s inhabitants to protect the spring from invaders and to channel the spring water down to the Pool of Siloam in the south part of the city for easier access by Jerusalem’s citizens. Hezekiah’s tunnel and the Siloam pool are still being used today tourists can walk the length of it and archeological excavations continue to uncover its marvels.

Hezekiah illustrates the partnership between nature and human development. Every city, no matter how blessed it is with natural resources, needs human ingenuity to protect and develop it. This partnership shows up in many areas of life where natural gifts must be supplemented by human initiative.

Gihon Spring and Hezekiah's Tunnel

In the previous post we looked at the Gihon spring on the lower east side of Jerusalem and the shaft used by ancient residents to access the water. During Solomon’s reign another passage, the Siloam channel, was excavated channeling Gihon water to the south of the city, but still outside the city walls.

Three centuries after Solomon, Jerusalem found itself in dire straights. The Assyrians who had already defeated the northern kingdom were threatening the cities of Judah. King Hezekiah (715-687 BCE) understood that without a secure water source, Jerusalem could not withstand a long siege.

The Gihon Spring

You would expect Jerusalem to be a dry city. With no river and very little rainfall how has it survived as a vital urban center for more than three millennia?

Since ancient times, Jerusalem has relied on two natural springs: En-Rogel in the Kidron Valley on the south side of the city, and the more important one, the Gihon spring on the east side of the hill of Jerusalem. The Gihon is a karst spring fed by groundwater that accumulates in a subterranean cave; whenever the space fills to the brim, it empties through cracks in the rock and is siphoned to the surface. But that surface is still well below the level of the city.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses

Tomorrow is All Saints Day, when the church remembers and pays tribute to its spiritual ancestors.

In Hebrews 12 they are called “a cloud of witnesses”, a great throng that grows larger every day and that provides huge motivation for us who are still alive and struggling to finish our race.

Hallowe’en is the secular precursor where kids dress up to impersonate (or scare off) the ghosts of the departed - or simply to play make-believe for a night.

A Garden Fountain

In recent posts we’ve been considering the significance of the Garden of Eden for human vocation and environmental stewardship.

Eden is also the Bible's original setting where a man and woman first set eyes on each other. So it is entirely fitting that the Song of Songs, which is full of extravagant poetic description, uses garden and water imagery to depict the intimacy and vibrancy of marital love.

Dear lover and friend,
you're a secret garden,
a private and pure fountain.
Body and soul, you are paradise, . . .
A garden fountain, sparkling and splashing,
fed by spring waters from the Lebanon mountains.
Song of Songs 4:12-15 MSG


In the exotic language of this song, this is an extended metaphor of sexual intimacy.

River-bank Righteousness

The vivid river imagery of Eden shows up again and again in the Bible. It's simply the imagery of Life.

Israel’s first psalm uses it to depict the flourishing of people rooted in God’s life-giving torah. (See my blog-post Feb 25/2011.) This song impressed itself on Israel’s great weeping prophet. Jeremiah expanded the contrast of the river-nourished life and preached it amid the political upheaval and moral decadence of his world.

To Serve and Protect

In the Garden of Eden story in Genesis 2:5-15, Adam’s priestly task also included a protective role. He was to ‘tend’ the garden and to ‘watch over’ it. Other translations say to ‘keep’ it or ‘take care of’ it.

The Hebrew word for ‘keep’, samar, is a military term. It is exactly the same word used in the next chapter when the angel with a flaming sword ‘guards’ the way to the tree of life against intruders. It is used again in the fourth chapter in Cain’s retort, “Am I my brother’s keeper?

Royal Priests

In the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:5-15, when Adam comes to the garden "to work it and care for it" we naturally assume the task of farming, tending the trees and plants, caring for the ecology of the garden.

The Hebrew word ‘abad’ in v.5 and 15 is a common word for agriculture and working a field, but in fact, it is more frequently used for the work of a priest.

Partnering with the Creator

The Garden of Eden story in Genesis 2:5-15 illustrates how we human beings were created to serve our Creator as partners-in residence.

The narrator notes two critical agents necessary for sustaining a fruitful landscape – the human and the divine, the gift of rain and the effort of grounds-keepers. Ecology is a partnership in which the Creator initiates and the human creature responds and both depend on the other. The Creator won’t initiate the process until his partner is ready.

Garden of Eden - Vocation

Before the Garden of Eden was planted, the Book of Genesis describes the world as barren and uncultivated: “neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the LORD God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land." Genesis 2:5-6 NLT

Great potential was going to waste. Parts of the earth were dry from lack of rain and other parts were drenched by the inundation of streams, but neither had yet been cultivated because there was no one to harness the waters and apply them to any useful agriculture.

Contentment

It can probably be argued that the wealthy King Solomon was a victim of his own success. His capacity to produce fed an almost bottomless craving for more. But at least he had the insight to recognize the power of greed. His collections of proverbs includes this gem:

"There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, 'Enough!':
the grave, the barren womb,
land which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, 'Enough!'
Proverbs 30:15-16

Think about these four places in Nature where demand is fierce and insistent with an insatiable craving for more:

CSI - Ancient Israel Water Ritual

What should you do if a dead body is found in a field, and your basic detective work cannot discover a killer? Here is an ancient water ritual that ensured that cold cases didn’t just suffer the indignity of civil neglect.

You can read the extended ritual in Deuteronomy 21:1-9. Here is a brief summary:

Drinking It In

Thanksgiving Gratitude Edition

Guest Writer - Kathy Legg

Land that drinks in rain often falling on it and produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. Hebrews 6:7

I live in a semi-arid zone, where rain does not often fall. And when it does the hard dry clay soil may not be well able to drink it in! It pools and puddles on the surface, or runs off in rivulets.

Harvest Providence

This week-end is Canadian Thanksgiving. . .

And this word from Psalm 65 seems like the perfect 'water' text for the occasion

You care for the land

and water it;

you enrich it abundantly.

The streams of God

are filled with water to

provide the people with grain,

You drench its furrows

and level its ridges;

you soften it with showers

and bless its crops.

Psalm 65:9-10

A Floating Ax-head

There’s a water story about Elisha that frankly stretches my credulity.

The school of prophets which Elisha led was clearing trees in the Jordan River valley to build a larger place to live. Suddenly someone’s ax-head flew off and fell into the river. What’s worse than losing your tools is losing a tool you borrowed from somebody else. So the poor man turned to the master and explained his plight.

“Where did it fall?” the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at that spot. Then the ax head floated to the surface. 2 Kings 6:6

Salty Pools

In my post last week I wrote about the positive influence of salt. It reminded me of a post last month about the proverb that you can’t draw fresh water from a salt-water well. That was about the inconsistency of praising God in one breath and cursing people with the next. Today I want to link the two with another story about remediating wells.

When wells become brackish or saline, they become useless. This is what happened after the tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The day after Christmas 2004 when a tsunami struck the coast of Sumatra Island, large boats were hurled inland and thousands of people were washed out to sea – and some 30,000 shallow wells suddenly became saline.

A Pinch of Salt

Near the ancient ruins of Old Jericho, a spring burbles out of the ground, just as it did long before the famous city walls came tumblin down. It’s called Ain-es Sultan or Elisha’s Fountain. The story associated with this spring is told in 2 Kings 2.

The men of Jericho said to Elisha, "Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive." "Bring me a new bowl," he said, "and put salt in it." So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, "This is what the LORD says: 'I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.'" And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken 2 Kings 2:19-22.

Dew in the Diaspora

It was misty when my wife and I went for our early morning run, but before we had even left our yard we were arrested by an extraordinary beauty. During the night spiders had woven nets from every bush and railing they could find – and captured the dew in necklaces that sparkled like diamonds in the early morning sun.

For half an hour photography trumped exercise, but when I got running I got thinking about what the prophet Micah wrote about the dew in Micah Ch. 5.

Micah lived in a harsh dog-eat-dog world where wealthy land-owners were devouring their poor neighbors. He saw beyond the injustices and the grim exile that it would bring about. He foresaw a ruler who will come forth from the same obscure village where king David was born (Micah 5:2). He will shepherd Israel like a flock, protecting them from both aggressors and from their own aggressiveness. They will be a ‘remnant’, ‘a purged and select company’ (v.7 MSG) who ‘will live among the nations like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass.’ (Micah 5:7)

The Paradox of Rivers

"All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full!"  Ecclesiastes 1:7

Isn’t that an amazing thought? We could stand in awe at the mouth of Amazon, the Yangtze, the Danube and Brahmaputra, the Mississippi, Thames and Congo, the Mekong, Volga and Rhine, the Columbia and a thousand other rivers, large and small, pouring themselves day and night into the sea, and marvel at the paradox of the sea never getting filled to capacity.

It’s fascinating how this world seems to be a perpetual motion machine.

With Palestine at the UN

The halls of the United Nations today are buzzing as the Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas asks the world to recognize his people as a nation. Some are excited by the prospect and others are incensed at the audacity of what they consider a publicity stunt.

I don’t know if this request is an effective diplomatic move, but my sympathies are certainly with a people who have been denied a homeland for far too long.

Both the Old and New Testaments echo an ancient wisdom that says
“If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.
Proverbs 25:21 and Romans 12:20

And make no mistake, the Palestinian people are thirsty.

Presence

I think one of the most memorable lines in all of Isaiah’s inspiring 8th century prophecy is this –

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.
Isaiah 43:2.

These words occur in the part of Isaiah that describes Israel’s release from exile and return to their homeland, but they also convey God’s promise to sustain Israel through the ordeal of exile, which was truly a deep water trauma. It was an upheaval so jarring and disorienting, many Jews doubtless lost what little faith they had. It seemed obvious that God had abandoned them and broken covenant with them.

Laver - God's Peace

When King Solomon replaced the Israel’s primitive tabernacle with a magnificent temple, he had a huge water-reservoir built to serve as the laver for the purification for the priests (1 Kings 7:23 and 2 Chronicles 4:2-6) It was so large – 15 feet across, 45 feet circumference and holding 16,500 gallons – that it was called a “sea”. This grandiose symbolic ocean illustrated the expansive dimensions of God’s grace and forgiveness.

But it also conveyed another level of meaning. Since the sea for Israel represented the chaotic forces of evil opposed to God, this artifact probably also symbolized “the forces of chaos that have been subdued and brought to order by the Lord who is creator of the world”(1) It affirmed that Yahweh was supreme over the Canaanite deities Yamm and Baal, gods of sea and storm.

Laver - God's Purity

If the first function of water is for human survival – for drinking and irrigating crops, the second function of water is for washing. Washing faces, hands and clothes is both hygienic and pleasing to the senses. It also symbolizes inner cleansing, purifying of the spirit.

Every culture and religion has its rituals of ablution – ceremonial cleansing. Hindus bathe in the Ganges, Cherokee in the Southern US have a ‘going to water’ ceremony; other indigenous people believe the body’s own sweat purifies them, The Qur’an tells the faithful to wash before prayers and if water isn’t available, they can ‘wash’ their hands in sand or earth. (Surah 5:6) The Jews also had a complex system of washings, and the rabbis of the Second Temple period around the time of Christ had mastered the art of complex washings.

River Director

In many parts of the world, small farmers irrigate their fields or rice paddies by means of small channels which divert water from a reservoir or stream, a pond or well. The farmer opens or shuts sluice gates to direct water where he or she wants it to go. In larger operations, a variety of irrigation systems are used to ensure that the crops that need water, get it when they need it. Farmers meddle with nature to boost the productivity of their fields. A Hebrew proverb draws a parallel between this agricultural practice and the influence of God on the practices of earthly rulers.

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD;

he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

Proverbs 21:1

Drip, Drip, Drip

That’s not the sound of early morning coffee, it’s the slow eroding of a marriage.

There’s lots of ways to wreck a marriage - infidelity, booze, sloth and indifference are a few of the standard poisons, but the Book of Proverbs has a choice little evocative analogy for another form of domestic vice guaranteed to breed discontent - 'a quarrelsome spouse is like a constant dripping on a rainy day' Proverbs 27:15.

Three Things that Amaze – No, Make that Four!

Near the end of a book written to teach us wisdom, comes a portrait of four things that can leave you in awe. Proverbs 30:18-19 says,

There are three things that amaze me—

no, four things that I don’t understand:

how an eagle glides through the sky,

how a snake slithers on a rock,

how a ship navigates the ocean,

how a man loves a woman.

Well-spring of Life

The Book of Proverbs is more than just a collection of witty observations about life. It is a passionate plea to adopt the best path – and that begins at the source. “Above all else,” the teacher says, “guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23. The heart is a deep aquifer from which everything flows, my motives, my speech, my actions, passions and decisions. As these ‘waters’ flow out of my heart they have the potential to aggravate or enrich the people around me.

For a fully embodied wisdom, the teacher urges us in this text to guard my ears, eyes, lips and feet, all of which express externally what the heart devises.

Words of the Wise

Springs and fountains are wonderful gifts of nature that give access to the underground aquatic treasure of the earth. They can serve as apt metaphors of what  flows out of the human heart.

For example, Proverbs 10:11 says, ‘the words of the godly are a life-giving fountain, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence' . 

Our world is awash in words - tweets, blogs, books, whispers, broadcasts, advertizing, sermons, lectures. 

Sea of Glass and Fire

The Book of Revelation overflows with strange scenes. In Chapter 15 verse 2, the narrator John sees a crowd of people standing on the shore of the sea that looks like ‘glass mixed with fire’. If we didn’t know better this might appear to us as a glorious sunset on the water.

But in Revelation, as in common Old Testament imagery, the sea is the domain of evil and everything hostile against God. The Beast who assaults God’s people rises from the sea. But this crowd stands triumphant beside the sea, not frightened in the least. The fire glistening on the water is a sign that the evil has been judged.

Queen of Many Waters

In the last post, Desert, Torrent and Sea, we looked at a puzzling portrait of a woman who had taken refuge in the desert from a beastly assailant who pursued her.

In Revelation 17, we meet another woman, a glittering prostitute who ‘sits on many waters’ (v.1). This description echoes Jeremiah’s description of Babylon, the city surrounded by rivers and canals (Jeremiah 51:13) and shows her to be a formidable force. In the symbolism of Revelation, ‘sitting on many waters’ means that she has influence over ‘many peoples, multitudes, nations and languages’ (17:15). This presents her as a parody of the Church which is also comprised of people from many languages and nations.

Desert, Torrent and Sea

Woven throughout the puzzling images of the Book of Revelation are the twin themes of victory and suffering.

Half-way through the book, in Chapter 12, John sees ‘a great and wondrous sign’ that illustrates this double truth.

A pregnant woman is on the verge of giving birth, but a fierce red dragon stands in front of her ready to pounce on her infant the moment she delivers. It’s a bizarre picture to be sure, but it's a symbolic portrait of the cosmic battle under-lying the history of the human race.

The woman is a composite of Eve, the mother of all living (who was stalked by the serpent) and Mary, the mother of Jesus, stalked by Herod after Jesus was born. The new-born boy-child, we’re told, “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” So we know this is about the reign of Jesus and the hostility of the evil one who seeks to destroy him. The child is no sooner born than he is “snatched up to God and to his throne” (v.5). The story leaps from the birth of Jesus to his ascension to heaven.

Paul’s Shipwreck

The Book of Acts finishes with a crackling good story of shipwreck.

Since the time of Homer 1000 years before Jesus, Greek sea-faring stories invariably included the great adventures of the perils of the sea travel. Such stories not only entertained well, but served as metaphors of the challenge and uncertainties of human life, especially the precarious risk facing human beings pitted against nature and whatever divine powers, friendly or sinister, were thought to over-lap with the natural world.

The Book of Acts takes it place alongside these stories.

Waters of Unity

In the first twenty years after the resurrection of Jesus, thousands of people expressed their faith in him through the water-ritual of baptism. Baptism is laced with connotations of cleansing, forgiveness, repentance, resurrection and new life.

One early story of baptism adds another dimension that speaks especially into our fragmented globalized world.  Acts 8 tells about an African government official who had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was now travelling home by chariot, reading the prophecy of Isaiah. By coincidence he met a Christian named Philip who just happened to be on the same road. He offered Philip a ride and asked him about the text he was trying to decipher.

Geo-Thermal Springs

Among the many wonders of Icelandic waters I experienced the past ten days – glaciers, geysers, waterfalls, rivers and ocean, the one that caught me most by surprise was the geo-thermal springs.

It is a strange sight to behold. Hiking in the hills and seeing steam rising from a hole in the ground. A pungent sulphurous odor pours out with the steam. A few meters away, another steam vent, and on up the mountain, pools of bubbling boiling water or mud – and three kilometers further up the chilly valley between mountains, the reward of a hot-water river with pools that invite leisurely bathing.

To Infinity and Beyond

Yesterday we had a brush with infinity. My wife and I were hiking along the Skógá River above Skogafoss, one of Iceland’s most striking waterfalls.

The falls are post-card perfect – an impressive 60 meter sheer drop (higher than Niagara) into a thundering pool (often with a double rainbow effect). The rugged rocks on either side and the jet-black sand on the flat plain along the river below the falls give a dramatic framing. No wonder legends of buried Viking gold grew up around this place; no wonder tourists shoot a zillion photos.

Climbing 380 steps to see the falls from above drew us into an adventure of discovery. A stile over a fence at the top beckoned us further up and further in. Little did we know the wonders that awaited.

Icelandic Geyser

Last week I promised regular posts from Iceland on the wonder of water, but unfortunately the wonders of technology failed me.

Now that I’m back on-line, here’s a glimpse of one of Iceland’s most famous landmarks – a hot-water spring in the town of Geysir. That name comes from the Icelandic word for ‘gush’ – and gives its name to all geysers on earth.

Geysers occur when geo-thermally heated water becomes trapped in narrow fissures deep in the earth. Cool surface water flows down on top of this hot water and pressurizes it. The super-heated steam builds to the bursting point and then gushes upward, blasting out whatever volume of water lies above it.