Ahhh! Landmannalaugar

As I mentioned last post we took the "easy" way to our hut down and across the Vondugil valley. Turning back the way we came, thick dark gray clouds were building on the horizon while crisp sunlight highlighted these eroded hills. What a jumble of shapes! What a variety of colours! What a sight!

Landmannalaugar's rhyolite ridges seem to exude an inner glow that doesn't require an external light source for its beauty to shine under all atmospheric conditions (as we witnessed the next two days of cloudy and then stormy skies).

Stay tuned!

Picnic Place

Trek, Day 3, 17 km towards Landmannalaugar. We walked around this lake, Lifrafjallavatn, watching the the cloudy sky and the rays of sun shining through. We stopped for a long, languid lunch at the crest of the ridge where I took this photo. I especially like the reflections in the calm surface of the lake and the mysterious horizontal band of turquoise or aquamarine blue running from the highlighted headline on the right. It disappeared after only a few minutes.

After another long steady climb after crossing route F225 (F routes are only open to fully-equipped four-wheel super Jeeps) we took the easy route to the Landmannalaugar Hut down through the Vondugil Valley and through the Laugarhraun laval field. An exhilarating 8 1/4 hour day.

Landmannahellir

Beautiful, warm, sunny day with clouds, variable winds and sometimes annoying flies.

Immediate climb up from Afangagil along a trail deeply-rutted by horse traffic and down to traverse a flat plain of volcanic sand. Several more passes come and go. We take two long lunch breaks to consume sandwiches of cold cuts and cheese and to snooze in the warm sunshine. We cross a 1913 lava field at its narrowest, skirt a bright red/green crater and make a final climb to a ridge overlooking the lake Herbjarnarfellsvatn.

At this point Paulette's heal blister cries out for attention. From experience on the Camino de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle, we are well equipped with blister first-aid treatment (including needle and thread for draining a blister) and various cushioned band-aids. So all was well.

A short climb to the final ridge and we see the Landmannahellir huts on the green valley below. A cozy, bright, fully-equipped hut with adjacent hot showers is most welcome after our ten-hour day on the trail.