I arrived in Tórshavn in the dark of night, which was unusual for this time of year when the days are so long. I expected the town to be dead at this time, which it was around the ferry, but as I wandered into town I ran into the revellers of Ólavsøka.
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Duration: 17 days
Expenses: AUD$1097 or AUD$65/day
Iceland, the land of fire and ice, black and white, green and grey and sometimes (if you’re really lucky) blue skies. A weird and wonderful place where volcanoes have ruled since it’s creation and, in fact, they were its creation. The ice, wind and water may have carved the landscape, but molten rock put Iceland on the map as the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates pull apart.
Austurland, I like the sound of that of that place. Maybe Vesturland is the same, but the east fjords are really the first time in Iceland that I’ve felt like I was in fjordland. Enormous scale cliffs rise up out of the sea and stretch for tens of kilometres out towards the open sea. The land is green and the mountains trap the clouds, forbidding them to escape. The land is calm and quiet. There are few birds even and it’s easy to find a place where you feel complete solitude.
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Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon is one of my favourite memories of Iceland from my first trip there in 2012. The mind bogglingly enormous Vatnajökull glacier stretches in a 180 arc in front of you and it is responsible for depositing the huge icebergs into the lagoon for your viewing pleasure. Photographs can’t reproduce the same brilliant blues that the glacier creates in the ice.
Skaftafell, a camp and area in southeast Iceland with all sorts of outdoor activities within the Vatnajökull National Park. The national park takes up 14% of Iceland which is insane! It’s actually a very young national park, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on. Hiking, waterfalls, glacier walking, mountaineering, ice caves and the list of outdoor activities goes on.
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Visiting that ‘K’ town to see the canyon starting with ‘F’ because I can’t pronounce either of those names. Actually, after a little practice I can now and it’s hilarious! Tiny little places in the Icelandic scheme of things, but Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon was another one that got away from the last trip to Iceland and Kirkjubæjarklaustur was the nearest and most convenient town to stay in.
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I’m not entirely sure why the black sand beaches around Vik are so famous. So much of Iceland is covered in black sand and so many places in the world have cliff stacks carved by wind and sea. In any case I was in Vik and I wanted to see my rock.
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13-15km
5-6hrs
Waking up at the top of a mountain, I love it! Well maybe not the top in this case, but it wasn’t much further to the snow line. Today was a long, but leisurely stroll down to Skogár past waterfall after waterfall. Oh, and plenty of Icelandic sheep too. A very misty day that added an appropriate mood to the scenery.
13-15km
5-6 hours
Thórsmörk marked the end of the Laugavegur Trek and the beginning of the Fimmvörðuháls Trek over the so named mountain pass. At he pass you are between the Myrdalsjökull and Eyfjallajökull glaciers. Today involved a some day hiking and then up, up, up and out of the valley to the bizarre landscape of lava, snow, ice and volcanoes at Fimmvörðuháls. It literally means ‘eruption’.
4-6km (⅔ walked yesterday)
1-1½ hours
Walking alongside the glaciers, but the views were a bit indifferent. For the first time though you start to see bushes and shrubs before fording the river into Thórsmörk (Thor’s Forest) and seeing a forest and trees for the first time below the commanding glaciers.
hakka xav 