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https://grapevine.is/mag/cover-feature/2026/07/17/french-tourists-permanently-scar-icelandic-nature-for-laughs/>
"“I think that the French should know about this, and I think that hopefully
they will also get reprimanded when they get back to France. If there is
something about this in the French media, then it’s very important that people
understand, it’s actually a healthy reminder for anybody. You don’t go to
another country and just say ‘Fuck You!’ right?”
Þór Tulinius speaks these words to me in an exhausted panic. Þór is an
outstanding Icelandic actor, but he also works as a tour guide. He reached out
to me because, years ago, we contributed stories to
Agence France-Presse, the
AFP.
What do the French need to know about? The actions of a gentleman named Luc
Haudeville, who travelled by ferry to Iceland with two extremely well-equipped
Land Rover Defenders, and, like a 1980s Mountain Dew commercial cosplayer,
proceeded to drive the Land Rovers over protected areas throughout the
countryside, scarring the land and destroying vegetation. He was actually
proudly broadcasting the damage on social media before he received his first
fine, 300.000 ISK for destroying the landscape.
His response to that fine? Immediately resuming destroying the landscape.
“These are not tourists. They are grizzlies,” celebrated photographer Páll
Stefánsson tells me when we talk on the phone about the damage. He is
heartbroken by what has been done. “They say they are adventurers. And they
document their travelling in unspoiled nature, but they have no respect for
nature. I cannot understand this.”
“In the high north, it is so different from, I don’t know, Massachusetts. It
takes decades for moss to heal. The sand, when you think it’s just a desert.
It’s a tundra. It’s very slow to heal. This is forever, this damage,” Páll
explains. He still can’t truly wrap his head around the damage.
Þór gives a more pleasant spin on it. “People are amazed with this country.
It’s just that it’s a very, very rewarding job to be a guide in Iceland,
because it is so different, and there’s so much spaciousness, and there are so
many places that are untouched. The nature is just bubbling with energy. You
can really feel when travelling around Iceland that it’s a land or a country
being created.”
“Therefore, people have an easy time understanding that you follow the path.
You don’t walk on the moss. The country kind of calls upon a certain, certain
amount of respect,” Þór goes on, reminding me, and seemingly himself, how
tourists usually behave, how they should behave. “But this… I haven’t seen
something like this.”"
Via Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
