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.

Fossabrekkur Falls

After a rocky start stopping the bus at Rjúpnavellir, we started our six-day trek heading north-east along the Ranga River under cloudy skies and 12 degrees C. Until the wind picked up clouds of midges invaded our eyes, ears and mouth. An hour after our first picnic lunch in a ravine after the bridge crossing to the barren side of the river, we saw these majestic Fossabrekkur falls from the ridge above the Ranga.

I sat down (beside Chris and his camera), propped my backpack against a rock and took four vertical-format pictures on Av at 100m and f/16 that I stitched together today using PS Elements to achieve this panoramic effect.

Although the lighting is rather flat, I think the photo is still interesting because of the width of this fan-shaped series of small falls separated by dark green vegetation. Certainly it was one of the highlights of our Day One 21 km on the Landmannahellir trail.

PS I ran down the trail you see in the right corner of the photo and filled my boots with volcanic scree! Should have put on my gaiters or taken a more sedate pace down!

Laugavegur Trail

Paulette and I are back from Iceland raving about our adventures. We trekked the Hellismannaleid Trail and the better known Laugavegur Trail for six days. Day 4 dawned wet and windy at the Landmannalaugar Hut. The warden made the rounds telling everybody the route south to Hraftinnusker Hut, 4-6 hours distant, was closed due to high winds on the elevated plateau. Happily we were given the go-ahead to make the hike if we could be ready to leave before 9 am. The winds were reportedly picking up so we needed to cover the 12 km as quickly as possible.

This view of the multicoloured rhyolite mountains does not show the high winds nor the rain at my back. The dark gray band in the foreground is a snowfield covered with a wet, goopy layer of volcanic ash from the nearby eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. Snowfields are regularly stained by blowing volcanic ash but nothing like this year.

I bravely took twelve pictures during our three-and-half-hour dash to the Hraftinnusker Hut where we received a very warm welcome by Kerstin Langenberger, its friendly warden and accomplished photographer.

Although this stormy walk was a test of our mental and physical powers, it has become a memorable highlight, one of the first stories we tell about our trip.

With 2000+ pictures to edit more Iceland posts will follow.