Adventures in Iceland

September 7th: As soon as we wake up we open the tent door with hope. We are disappointed to see that it's raining and fully cloudy. We can't wait anymore. Today we must decide. The last bus of the year leaves at 13:30. If we don't take it we will be stuck here. We go to the hut to ask about the weather forecast. The warden says the whether forecast is even worse and a big storm is approaching Iceland. The 2 German girls decide to quit, as well as the Israeli girls. We talk with the Belgian couple and fix with them that we will decide together at noon. Meanwhile we go to the hot spring and enjoy the sharp contrast in the temperatures of the water and the outside. At noon we talk with the Belgian couple, Erik and Nicole. They are in Iceland only for 10 days. They booked already from Belgium a one day tour to the Vatnajokull (the biggest glacier in Europe) and enjoyed an exceptionally good weather. The only more thing they want to do here is to walk this trek. As us, they will feel more than disappointed if they don't do it. We decide to go together. The warden says to us that we're nuts and if we want to kill ourselves it's easier done with a gun. We ignore him and start to walk, upset from the situation. It's completely cloudy but the visibility is very good. The first section is a large black lava field. We have one last glance at the hut and the bus that is just leaving now. Now it's final. Nobody has remained in the site (the warden also went with the bus). We're on our own.

September 8th: At last we get a fairly good weather in the morning. We don't waste time and start to walk, seeing Hekla volcano on the way. We're gaining height. In the first big snow field Erik takes out of his rucksack a rope and wants to tie all 4 of us together. We tell him that the situation is not justifying it for the moment. We reach the pass which is the highest point in the day. I start to take a panoramic picture of the pass. Clouds are coming and soon we are covered with clouds. It's raining. We hurry up and start our way down. Every time the rain stops we think of having a pause for lunch, but are chased away by the rain which starts again. We have the break only when reaching to the final destination of the day, Alftavatn hut. We reckon that we had today a kind of a mini-marathon. From the morning we walked for hours without a break. We're happy to be in the hut since the "promised" storm has arrived. During the night it's raining hard and it looks like the wind is trying to take the hut (with us inside...) into the sky. We thank God we're here in the cozy hut and not outside....

September 10th: Today is the Jewish new years eve. It's very windy, hardly cloudy, but raining steadily. As we have only 4 hours until Thorsmork at 200 m', we wait and play cards meanwhile. Only at 3 p.m. the rain stops and we leave the hut. An hour later the weather deteriorates and the rain returns. Not only we get wet, we have another river crossing to do. A shear suffering. We think about our families at home, who right now eat the holiday meal. What a difference from what we do here... We get to a junction where we need to choose between Langidalur which is on the way to Skogar and Husadalur hut which is a detour, but is equipped with a sauna. Needless to say that we choose the longer (but warmer !) possibility... In the nearby shop we buy some honey and one apple, as an addition to the apple we carry with us all the way from Reykjavik. We eat apples with honey as is customary in the Jewish new years day. This old apple is very tasty. Tali says that "There is a blessing in it, it is very tasty".