On the early but lovely sunny morning of the 8th of September 2011, a group of 10 international volunteers from Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Italy, Australia, Finland, UK, Germany and Hong Kong loaded a SEEDS minivan with their luggage and headed for their adventure in the West Fjords.

Hours in the minivan passed by quickly while we enjoyed the view of the Icelandic landscape. Our new home was a complex of summer houses, a green house with a swimming pool, 2 outdoor hot pots, horse stables with various horses and a campground at the end of a beautiful fjord with a valley full of mushrooms, berry bushes and birch trees. During the 2 weeks in the West Fjords, we enjoyed sunny and nice weather which made our work much more enjoyable, since we were all the time working outdoors.

We helped to dig out unwanted plants, built the fences for horses and most of the time we spent cementing the walls. Watching all of us after the cement day in our "cement fashion style" clothes was really fun and seeing the result (3 new walls) was really rewarding. Of course the workcamp was also about fun and you bet we had a lot: we enjoyed horseback riding trips in the valley, kayaking around a seal colony, a road trip to a glacier, we went to Ísafjörður and hiked in the nearby hills. A few brave ones went swimming in the fjord and all of us cannot forget watching northern lights from the hot pot. The last evening we had a big campfire and went to bed with amazing memories from this place. We all will miss our hosts, the colourful autumn hills, Kopi (the parrot) and our best dog friend Loki!

Veronika PARICKOVA (SEEDS environmental messenger)