13
Jul 15

Landmannalaugar

Landmannalaugar Campsite

Landmannalaugar Campsite

Trailhead

Trailhead

There was a lot of rain at night, so far our tent is holding up nicely, so we slept until after nine. Got us a map of local hikes (shittiest map ever btw, looks like it was hand-painted by a local schoolchild, with no regard for topography or scale), and decided to walk up to Ljótipollur – a small lake in a red volcanic crater. The walk was really nice, we spiced it up by walking over a couple of ridges. When we got back, we made some hot chocolate and got us a little book for the Laugavegur trek ahead of us for the next few days.

Frostastadavatn - lake

Frostastadavatn – lake

Hills of Landmannalaugar

Hills of Landmannalaugar

Landmannalaugar

Landmannalaugar

Iest along the ridge

Iest along the ridge

Gina in the Hills

Gina in the Hills

"Which way Gins?"

“Which way Gins?”

Frostastadavatn

Frostastadavatn

I went to the local hot springs afterwards, which Iest didn’t feel like as it was a bit cold (I would say that would be the reason to actually got to hot springs, but what do I know). We both took a nice hot shower and had a dinner and just headed to bed as indeed it was a bit chilly.

Ljótipollur

Ljótipollur

Hot springs of Landmannalaugar

Hot springs of Landmannalaugar


12
Jul 15

Skaftafell – Landmannalaugar

We woke up into a bit of rain and low cloud, and decided to head over to Landmannalaugar today. That meant we had some time for a lazy morning as the bus was not leaving until half 11. By that time the weather cleared up quite nicely, so we dried the tent and soaked up some sun. Our bus driver turned out the same chatty guy from Höfn, which was nice. The route to Landmannalaugar from the east we originally wanted to take was still closed, the summer this year is really late, so we had to go all the way to Hella (with a couple of waterfall stops on the way, who even cares by now; for the second one we didn’t even bother to get out of the bus anymore; and also a stop in rainy Vík’s black sand beach), and switch to an off-road bus to Landmannalaugar from there. Off-road bus it really was, and the road was pretty rough for the last about 60 kms, including a few river crossings. We arrived in Landmannalaugar at about half eight in a slight drizzle. After pitching the tent and making a nice couscous dinner we went to have a look at the local hot springs where a few people were bathing (we’ll do that tomorrow), and then straight to bed.

Vik under heavy rain

Vik under heavy rain


11
Jul 15

Skaftafell

Decided to finally sleep in, so no alarm, and we woke up about half eight. It had been raining at night quite a bit but in the morning it was all gone, though still a bit of a grey start to the day. After breakfast we set out for our hike for the day, the nice little Skaftafellsheiði loop on the ridge between the two glacier tongues, with nice vistas on both sides. Unfortunately the short but exciting addition on the loop to reach the top of Kristínartindar was still closed at this time, and Iest didn’t let me go there ‘cause he’s just such goodie two shoes. It was a lovely walk nevertheless, and we did some more sketching on the way down. We also saw more exciting birds – what we think was an arctic skua with impressive wing spread, and also a redwing. By the time we were down it was also sunny and quite hot.

Gina heading up Skaftafellsheiði

Gina heading up Skaftafellsheiði

Iest and the flat plains

Iest and the flat plains

Looking towards Morsárdalur

Looking towards Morsárdalur

Looking towards Morsárdalur

Looking towards Morsárdalur

Arctic Skua

Arctic Skua

Gina and the Skaftafellsjokull Glacier

Gina and the Skaftafellsjokull Glacier

Skaftafellsjokull glacier

Skaftafellsjokull glacier

Skaftafellsjokull Glacier panorama

Skaftafellsjokull Glacier panorama

We got a couple of nice sandwiches in the café, and decided it was also time for a shower today. Managed to get, write and send postcards too, so overall a very productive day.

Icelandic Flora

Icelandic Flora

Icelandic Flora

Icelandic Flora


10
Jul 15

Höfn – Skaftafell

6am alarm again – I tried to convince Iest to just stay a day in Höfn and sleep but he unmercifully ordered to get up, so it was. Fortunately it was quite warm and even sunny, so I made my peace with it and went to make us oatmeal for breakfast.

Our bus with Sterna had a wifi and a chatty driver, who was talking almost non-stop along the way, showing us all kinds of interesting stuff and explaining about Icelandic history.

We stopped over at Jökulsárlón lagoon, where we had over an hour to admire the beautiful floaty iceberg sculptures in the sun, and despite it being quite a touristy spot, it was rather an amazing experience.

Jökulsárlón lagoon

Jökulsárlón lagoon

Gina at Jökulsárlón

Gina at Jökulsárlón

Us at Jökulsárlón

Us at Jökulsárlón

Jökulsárlón

Jökulsárlón

Jökulsárlón

Jökulsárlón

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

07_Viewpoint

Random, epic viewpoint

We were in Skaftafell, our gateway to the Vatnajökull National Park, by midday. We decided to have a relaxing afternoon with a few short hikes/walks and some sketching. First, we went on a short stroll to the face of the Skaftafelljökull glacier tongue, together with geological info spots on the way, which explained a lot about the volcanic rocks, glacier moraines, dikes, tuffs and all that. We sat for a quick sketch on the glacier lagoon, where I got me my first fans/admirers of my art.

Skaftafell campsite

Skaftafell campsite

Iest, the tour guide

Iest, the tour guide

Iest and the Glacier

Iest and the glacier tongue

Gina and the glacier

Gina and the glacier tongue

Gina skeching

Gina skeching

A 50mm beard

A 50mm beard

Afterwards, we headed to the other direction via a tourist highway frankly, to the Svartifoss waterfall, famous for its setting within a wall of black basalt columns. I did another quick sketch while Iest played around with his camera to take some nice pics.

Don't look down!

Don’t look down!

Svartifoss waterfall

Svartifoss waterfall

Gina and the vast views

Gina and the vast views

Our last destination for the day was Sel, a traditional turf-roofed farmhouse turned to a museum, and a spot for our last sketch of the day.

Sell

Sel – turfed roof houses

Sell

Sel – turfed roof houses

Sketching at Sell

Sketching at Sell

Nice filling dinner of mushroom soup ramen, and a quick sit in the warm café to charge our phones and write the journal. What a beautiful setting this place is! We got an email back from the people over at Landmannalaugar trek saying that it is doable, if snowy, so we will probably give it a go once we’re down there.


09
Jul 15

Mývatn – Höfn

Our alarm went off at 7am, we’re getting up way too early on this trip. Also, Iest woke up with dried boogers all over his face, owing to some kind of explosion at night. We had a hearty breakfast and headed to ‘town’ to wait for our bus. We had plenty of time so got us a few things for the trip in the small supermarket and went to the visitor centre to find our what the bird was we saw the day before. Turns out it was a Whimbrel.

Our bus came on time, was almost empty, and we cosied up by the window for our long trip for the day. It took us through Egilsstaðir down to the Icelandic eastern coast and then through various small villages and deep fjords along the coast. The weather was nice, and so we had some amazing views on the way.

Campsite at Höfn

Campsite at Höfn

We arrived in Höfn for about half five, pitched a tent under a rainbow, and went to the local visitor centre to get some travel info – we still don’t know whether our planned hike trail in a couple days time is already open and passable. This was the nicest visitor centre we’d seen so far, made up inside like an old Icelandic cottage.

We took a short stroll along the harbour and dropped in the local greasy eatery – for me to get the local speciality (langoustine baguette), while Iest got a plain old junk burger and fries. We bought more fuel on the way back and took a very unsatisfying shower before diving into our sleeping bags. It was the warmest night in a long time, it’s clear we’re back down from the north!


08
Jul 15

Mývatn

This day we wanted to explore the Mývatn area and its main sights. Unfortunately, while not far away, they are still a little bit too much spread out to walk around all of them in a day. There’s a bus making the round trip between 12 and 16:30 or so, but we thought it was quite expensive for what it was, and even more importantly, it would not give us the opportunity to walk around the short trails at the places we wanted to see.

Morning view from camp!

Morning view from camp!

So we decided to try our luck hitching rides for the day, especially since without our big packs we thought we should be ok. We waited on the road out of town to the direction of Hverir where we wanted to go first, and initially didn’t have much luck, because we were only second in line after a couple of hippies with big bags nobody wanted to take. Nevertheless, after about half hour (and increasing our distance from the hobos) we were picked up by a very nice French guy and his mum, who were touring Iceland together – they took us all the way to Hverir parking lot, bingo!

Hverir

Hverir

Mud cauldron at Hverir

Mud cauldron at Hverir

At Hverir, we marvelled at the beauty of yet another sulphur-stinking geothermal areas, as our guide puts it “magical, ochre-toned world of Hverir is a lunar-like landscape of mud cauldrons, steaming vents, radiant mineral deposits and piping fumaroles.” Quite so.

Hverir

A piping fumaroles, Hverir

Gina and the mud cauldron

Gina and the mud cauldron

Radiant mineral deposits

Radiant mineral deposits

We walked a short circular trail over the nearest ridge, which was a great choice because not only did we discover more steaming fields bur also we got to see the whole area from up top, with amazing views all the way back to lake Mývatn on the other side.

Looking down on Hverir

Looking down on Hverir

Gina and the lunar landscape

Gina and the lunar landscape

Us at Hverir

Us at Hverir

Gina 50mm'd

Gina 50mm’d

Iest 50mm'd

Iest 50mm’d

After getting down, we went back on the road and walked over to the turnoff to Krafla, where we got lucky already with the second car going up – a young US couple.

Krafla

Krafla

Gina 'thumbing' like a pro

Gina ‘thumbing’ like a pro

At Krafla, we went first to the Víti explosion crater, which is now filled with turquoise water. From there, we walked over to the Leirhnjúkur lava field, which was created through a series of nine eruptions as recent as the 1970s and 80s – a very impressive trail of blackness and fumes again!

Víti explosion crater

Víti explosion crater

Gina at the Víti explosion crater

Gina at the Víti explosion crater

Leirhnjúkur lava field

Leirhnjúkur lava field

Gina at the Leirhnjúkur lava fields

Gina at the Leirhnjúkur lava fields

Mighty awesome atmosphere

Mighty awesome atmosphere

Leirhnjúkur lava field

Leirhnjúkur lava field

It was beginning to be a bit chilly and we also hadn’t eaten the whole day, so we were ready to have a late lunch and warm ourselves up in the local nature baths – just to get there. But we were lucky again, taken down to the main road by an English guy, and from there in a bit by a nice French family all the way to the baths. We had a light lunch in the café, and then we were ready to jump in. The baths are not huge but two good sized connected pools, the cooler of which with amazing views over the lava fields all the way to Mývatn in the distance.

Mývatn Nature Baths

Mývatn Nature Baths

Needless to say, we stayed mostly in the hotter one, and enjoyed it immensely. The milky steaming waters were supremely relaxing, and the floating heads of other people had an otherworldly beauty to them – the steam worked like a soft focus lens. We stayed soaking for about an hour until we were all wrinkly and then reluctantly left. Despite being all relaxed and soft, we decided to walk back to the lake on a trail, which was nice, and we saw some new lava formations too. Once we hit the main road by the lake we found Daddi’s pizza and treated ourselves in this small but popular spot to a couple of pizzas, which were surely too big but delicious. I went for the house special – with smoked trout and pine nuts – delish! Iest had his fave Icelandic beer too.


07
Jul 15

Vesturdalur – Mývatn

We woke up to a light drizzle but by the time we got up it was over. We made a nice breakfast and packed up and were ready to go, when Iest noticed that the clip from his chest strap is missing. (For the record, Osprey backpacks are the worst designed backpacks I have ever seen in every possible aspect. Iest was struggling with the piece of sh*t for the whole trip.) Fortunately we managed to find the clip in the grass, which was just pure luck, really, and were ready to go.

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Gina & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Gina & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Iest & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Iest & Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

The way along the canyon was maybe even more spectacular than the day before, because we had plenty of side waterfalls to enjoy, and and also one river crossing – icy cold, straight from the glacier no less. We fancied that.

River Crossing

River Crossing

River Crossing

River Crossing

Waterfall

Waterfall

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

We arrived at the Dettifoss waterfall after 4pm, via the campsite which unlike what we thought was not actually by the waterfall but a nice grassy spot within a lava field a little way off. There were no facilities save for a wooden table and a tank of water in the campsite.

Detifoss

Dettifoss

Dettifoss itself was quite impressive indeed, with apparently the largest volume of water roaring through of any European waterfall. After we had enough of looking at it, and were also quite wet from its mighty spray, we headed back to the campsite to pitch our home for the night. Our bus was supposed to go at 1pm the next day. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot, and also a tour bus – that’s where I thought may be it would be going to Mývatn as well, and could give us a lift to save us half a day, and may be we could even have a shower already today.

Gina and Dettifoss

Gina and Detifoss

Gina and Dettifoss

Gina and Dettifoss

The bus driver indeed confirmed that he was going to Mývatn afterwards but we had to wait for the tour guide to decide whether we could take a ride with them. Fortunately she was kind, and there were two spots left on the bus, so soon enough we found ourselves in the nice company of a Spanish group on our way to Mývatn – we were quite happy!

In Reykjahlíð we saw a nice camp right on the shores of the lake, so we went in to check-in; but alas, the woman said their card machine was not working. It would not be such a big problem, we could pitch a tent, and go to the ATM nearby – but we were quite unhappy with how unpleasant and sour-faced the woman was altogether; that’s no way to treat customers, and we are not used to that here in Iceland – everyone so far has been extremely nice. She was not Icelandic either, and I would be willing to bet she was Czech. Anyway, thinking we had no other option we went to ‘town’ to get the money. While there, we met our German friends we saw at a couple of places before, and they told us there was another campsite further down the road – so we decided to make the move. This meant we had to pack our tent and bags again, then we told the sour-faced b*tch where to stick it, and walked over to the other place. The young woman in the reception was over-the-top nice as if wanting to compensate, and we had our mojo back.

We pitched the tent with a beautiful view of the lake and mountains on the horizon, and we were super happy with our long hot shower. Made a delish dinner of pasta and sauce, and were mighty tired already.

Campsite at Reykjahlíð

Campsite at


06
Jul 15

Akureyri – Vesturdalur

There was some rain at night but when we were getting up at 6am it was just greyish with no rain any more. We packed up efficiently and moved over to the cooking area to make our breakfast. Then it was about time to go down to the bus station for our bus to Ásbyrgi.

For change this was a small bus, and there were only about six or seven of us on it. Despite the grey weather we had some beautiful scenery on the way, as it is probably the norm in Iceland. The bus made a stop at Goðafoss, a mighty waterfall, and then only in Húsavík, where we had 15 minutes and managed to see it all in ten. Afterwards it was finally Ásbyrgi, where we got half hour before schedule.

Goðafoss

Goðafoss

Leaving Ásbyrgi

Leaving Ásbyrgi

After getting our bags ready for the hike and buying a map in the pretty info centre, we set out on out first multiday hike down the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. It is part of the Vatnajökull National Park – North, Europe’s largest protected reserve.

Iest and the view

Iest and the view

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

The walk started through some nice arctic vegetation with prolific birdlife, before opening views over the massive canyon. There were some pretty incredible sights as we made our way along, and the weather was getting progressively better too, so we had some sun for most of the afternoon.

Canyon

Canyon


We arrived in Vesturdalur campsite at about 4pm, and made a nice couscous dinner. The campsite was very basic, just a flat spot by a small ranger station with very limited facilities, but very beautiful setting. Mighty tired we went to bed early as we tend to do, also because it was quickly becoming the chilliest evening we’d had so far.

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Jökulsárgljúfur canyon

Our campsite

Vesturdalur campsite


05
Jul 15

Kerlingarfjöll – Akureyri

We slept in until about 7:30, when we woke up after healthy 10-11 hrs sleep, all refreshed. We packed our bags and made a delish oatmeal breakfast. Then we went for a short but nice walk through our river canyon to the closest hot pot into which we didn’t dip but only tested it by hand and it was really warm indeed. We went back to be there in time for our bus up North. We were a bit concerned when we learned that the obnoxious French group is also planning to take the same bus, as we didn’t have our tickets booked and were worried we might not be able to get on. Fortunately, the awesome SBA company who runs the buses actually sent two of them, after learning that the stupid group hogged most of the spaces the day before. So we were on a bus with only a few other people, with a cool driver and no French.

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Canyon walk

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Kerlingarfjöll campsite

The ride was as epic as the day before and n about an hour we stopped at Hveravellir geothermal field, full of fumaroles and hot springs, and a nice wooden catwalk through it. We also had a nice lunch there at the café, tuna-melt sammich!

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Gina on the boardwalk

Hveravellir

Hveravellir

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Hveravellir

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Turf roof house at Hveravellir

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Hveravellir

Then we continued up north with only a couple of short stops, arriving in Akureyri at about half six. After pitching our tent at the city campsite, we set out for a nice stroll around the town.

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Botanical bee

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Botanical gardens

Akureyri has a great botanical garden/park with signposted floral species from Iceland and the Arctic, and in the evening sun it made for a very pleasant walk. Then we discovered the marina and port, where there was a huge cruise ship parked, and the local town centre which was very nice. Iest got a coupon for a free beer at a nice Akureyri pub in from a bloke in Kerlingarfjöll, and since we were already there, we also got us dinner. Then just a quick shower and sleep (it was almost midnight anyway!), for an early start tomorrow.

Akureyri port

Akureyri port

Akureyri

Akureyri

Akureyri backpackers

Akureyri backpackers


04
Jul 15

Reykjavik – Kerlingarfjöll

We got up before six, and started packing to catch a bus to the bus station, which was supposed to leave at 7:15. The bus driver said we would not be leaving before 7:30 though, which should still be fine for our 8am bus from BSI. We used the little time to buy breakfast at the adjacent hostel, which was a great idea – we did not have enough time to take full advantage of the fresh buffet selection but we tried our best to stuff ourselves and still took some sandwiches and coffee for the road. At the bus station we found our bus immediately, as it was the one with the rough terrain wheels – monster bus!
With us the bus was full of French tourists going to the same place as us, as an organised group. They were super annoying, and we thought it was very inconsiderate of the company to use public bus as their personal transport for their groups. On the couple of stops along the way where people wanted to get in, they had problems accommodating them.

Strokkur

Strokkur

Geysir

Geysir

The bus stopped at the sights of Geysir and Gulfoss – the most famous (and touristy) geyser and waterfall near Reykjavik. We were happy to see them just on our way somewhere else, so we didn’t have to spend much time and still check them out. At Geysir, there was actually a whole field of geysers and spouts, and despite all the people it was pretty nice. Gulfoss was indeed pretty mighty and roaring, and there was a nice viewing point up above it all.

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

Gullfoss

Afterwards, the bus got on the (only very recently opened) highland route 35 to Kerlingarfjöll. The weather was amazing and sunny and we had beautiful views of the landscape and mountains on the horizon, including Hekla, and glaciers, while around us there was some surreal moon-like terrain with snowfield still aplenty. We were getting terribly excited. The bus was doing great on the dirt road, with occasional river crossings and all.

Kerlingarfjöll Camp

Kerlingarfjöll Camp

Hiking towards Hveradalir

Hiking towards Hveradalir

We arrived in Kerlingarfjöll at about 1pm, and the place was awesome. It was beautifully set in a valley of a glacier river, surrounded by mountains with still a lot of snow. There were a few huts (those apparently need to be booked long time ahead for the short summer season they get), and a great selection of spots to pitch. When we checked-in for our tent, we also got a small map with the local hikes, but were also informed that there is more snow than usual for the time of the year, and some of the trails might not be clear. We didn’t care because we’re awesome, slapped a lot of sunscreen on, and set out through the first snowfield towards the Hveradalir geothermal area located in a glacier river canyon.

12_Iest
13_Gina_NoShades

The trail was as scenic as it gets and in about 75 minutes we saw a first spot of spouting sulphuric steam. Once we got to it a whole canyon opened beneath us and it was truly epic – yellowy-orange rock with snowfields, spouts of steam and hot water at various place forming colourful patters on the rocks. We followed the trail on the south side of the river for about half hour until we reached a spot where we saw directly down, and realised that the bridge from our side was gone (with some remains still around) and since the river was quite wide and we didn’t know how deep it would be, we decided to backtrack to the spot of the first steam spout and took the trail on the north side of the river instead. We didn’t regret this detour on bit because it took us through a different branch of the canyon still, may be even wilder than the first one. And with unlimited daylight and stable sunny weather, there was no better place to be.

Hveradalir

Hveradalir

Hveradalir - Gina & halo

Hveradalir – Gina & halo

Gina at Hveradalir

Gina at Hveradalir

Hveradalir

Hveradalir

Once we got back to the same spot we were before, just on the other side of the river, we met again the couple we briefly spoke with before, who did manage to get across the river – turns out that despite being wide it was only about mid-thigh deep (and pretty cold of course). We had some last fun at the bubbling sulphurous mud, and then hiked up the canyon on the other side than we came down and took a nice trail down to our campsite again.

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24_Kerlingarfjoll

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Altogether a nice leisurely 5-hour hike in the sun with some surreal sights. What a way to start our trip! Is it going all downhill from here? Because this will be hard to top.
We took a shower (finally!), made a nice pot of hot ramen noodles, split a beer, and crawled into our sleeping bags at around 8pm already, completely exhausted given our lack of sleep the night before, and also it was getting cold very fast.

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31_Kerlingarfjoll
32_Kerlingarfjoll
34_Kerlingarfjoll