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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.