Walking through bubbling, rock strewn landscapes proved to be the perfect holiday for practised rambler, Paul McCarthy, who is already planning his return to the ‘land of fire and ice’.

The mother of pop diva Bjork said today she was frail but determined after three weeks of a hunger strike aimed at persuading the world’s largest aluminium producer to abandon a three billion US dollar (€3bn) project in the Icelandic highlands.

The world’s largest ice cap outside the polar regions could almost disappear by the end of this century if global warming develops according to the worst-case scenario.