A Swiss man who is touring Europe on a tractor has arrived in Iceland for the next leg of his journey.
Retired theatre technician Reiner Huttasch is fulfilling a lifelong dream by travelling around the continent on his 54-year-old Buhler tractor. He arrived at the North Atlantic island’s port of Seyðisfjörður after taking the ferry from Denmark, and now intends to circumnavigate the country’s picturesque coastal road.
He has spent the past 10 weeks driving across Germany and Denmark, and his journey will take him through the UK, Belgium and France before he arrives back in his homeland. Speaking to Icelandic reporters, he said he estimates that he will be in the country for as long as six weeks because his tractor only averages around 20km/h.
Huttasch spends all day driving and does not even require a hotel at nighttime because he has a small wooden house, which took him three years to build, that he tows behind him. He told Swiss reporters that northern Europe has always fascinated him because of its “untamed nature”, adding that he would prefer to spend his summer holiday in a warm jumper than by the seaside in Spain.
Icelandic media has taken a particular interest in Hattasch’s bizarre trip, with the country’s tourism guide association posting his story on its website. However, one disgruntled reader left a comment saying that Europeans in off-road vehicles with sleeping quarters and food bring nothing to the economy and can leave deep tracks in the landscape. Others have noted that many locals go off-road on a regular basis, and that such a vehicle is unlikely to cause too much damage.