I planed on going to Iceland when I was still a teenager, but instead exploring this beautiful island by bike, I saw some pictures of my friend who had to go without me, leaving me in the hospital after a serious knee operation. Finally, about 10 years later it happened that I was looking for a "cheap to get to" vacation place. And there I stumbled over that special ticket of IcelandAir. Of course it had its drawbacks, not only that on board you don't get any alcoholic beverages for free, but also because it actually and literally was still preseason on the island! Meaning, most interior roads were closed to public traffic and thus most spectacular places were not yet accessible.

We noticed this on our first day when we tried to get a bus from Reykjavík to Landmanalaugar. We originally had planed to spend our first week on the Landmanalaugar - Porsmork - Skoga trek, as it has been described to us as one of the most beautiful treks there. Although we had heard from some people that you could still get there by renting one of the bigger 4W Jeeps, we decided to take the bus directly to Þórsmörk which just opened their schedule the day after we arrived. We happened to head there on a weekend, and sure enough the foreboding as given in the Lonely Planet became pure reality when over 200 Icelandic people were driving there new 4Ws into the same valley to party. Luckily, they went to the somewhat bigger Básar Hut as we stayed where the bus dropped us of, the Húsadalur Hut. As its setting is a little bit off the beaten track, we decided to stay for the day and explored the area hiking around, while we left the heavy backpacks down in the tent. Right behind the hut, you can walk up a smaller hill that, once on top, will give rise to a wonderful panorama of Þronga and Krossa river delta and to both glaciers, Eyjafjallajökull and Myrdalsjökull (see pictures below). The next day we hiked to the Básar Hut, passing Þórsmörk Hut and crossing the Krossa river delta without actually crossing any streams here. We did not choose the most direct path along the river but rather followed the Hvanna stream that was leading us behind Rettarfell mountain. Eventually we had to cross the stream and for the first time it is quite amazing how numb your feet and legs feel in that icy water. However, we dried pretty fast and soon felt warm and comfy again. After passing Rettarfell, we turned left up and back down finally reaching Básar Hut.

From here we started several day hikes into Godaland and explored some of Myrdalsjökull's glacier tongues. The tour to Tungnakvislarjokull (am I glad I still have that Utivist map that you get at any of the huts there) turned out to be particular exciting, even though we did not know this when we finally reached the ash gray glacier tongue after an endless walk along the rivers. The weather was a mixture of gray mist and medium rainfall, so any minute we thought of turning back. But since the glacier looked somewhat disappointing and unspectacular, we kept going, climbing up the tongue on its side, somewhat along Blafell mountain. From here we finally had a gorgeous view and were happy to turn the trip into a round tour. After rushing down a fairly steep downhill side, we reached the bottom of  Hrunaa stream that we followed back to the Krossa river. Since no marked trails lead that way, we found ourselves in rather remote terrain, but were lucky with the weather and had a wonderful time in that green and mossy gorge.

The whole time in Þórsmörk and Godaland we had pretty much weather that we had anticipated, cloudy, lots of mist and rain. Since we planed on hiking at least the Þórsmörk to Skoga trek, we were not very pleased, since the pass is known for bad and sudden changes in its whether condition. We were advised to definitely turn around if the whether gets worse once we reached the plateau. And sure enough that's true! Despite this advise we got further bad news about a group that arrived just the day before we planed on going up, that reported knee deep mud plains on the Morinsheidi plateau. Nevertheless, we prepared our trip and all the sudden, the night before we headed on, the clouds broke open and the midnight sunset colored Myrdalsjökull in wonderful tones of orange and yellow. So, early next morning we headed on and after 3 hours we reached Heidarhorn. Following the advise of the owners of Básar Hut, once on top, we headed backwards along the plateau until we reached its end from where we had the most fantastic view over Godaland, Porsmork its valleys and rivers (see panorama below). After a break, we headed on to cross the pass between the both glaciers. After listening to the hikers report of a deep mud plane, we prepared ourselves with gaiters, but fortunately it was merely useful. After all the rain during the last days, the plateau was fairly soaked, but we never encountered mud that was more than shoe deep. Up here I begun to understand why it is a mad place to be if you do not see more than a few meters. There is no natural feature in this place, the few polls placed as trail marks are barley to see under the blue sky we had, and on both sides the plateau stops appruptely, falling steep down into the valleys. The problem finally becomes obvious once we passed the ridge of Heljarkambur where we had to cross thick packed ice and snow fields that connected the two glaciers without interruption. The sun and the snow together gave us a hard time finding the polls that were marking the right trail. But since we had such a gorgeous day and could see all the way down to the Atlantic, we had no problem staying on the straight line. I have a hard time picturing ourselves doing this same hike when thick clouds were covering all sight and loosing the track would become a matter of fact.

After a six hour hike and resting at the basic hut, where we actually had planed to stay overnight if the weather conditions would not have been so fabulous, we continued to make our way all the way down to Skoga. The first hour or two it was a rather boring walk along the 4WD trail but once reached the bridge (follow the small path opposite the strange stairway sign) we left the road and followed the waterfall path. From here it is about 10km till Skoga and these were the most beautiful but also the most exhausting, never ending 10km I experienced on my trip to Iceland. Some when during our ascent I must have hurt my left foot with out noticing. I felt some unpleasant tensions before the descent, but did not pay much attention until it more and more turned into a painful humbling. After enjoying the first couple waterfalls in that totally exotic setting of brown and black lava, shining green moss and glittering white glaciers, I soon turned into a kind of psychotic, mind numb humbling mode. Not until the very end I stayed in this tunnel view and pain regressing mode. We need another six hours of rolling up and down the hills until we reached the top of the last one and could see road No. 1 again. If you ever plan on doing that same kind of trip, make sure you arrive before ten o'clock at night (even though it is day light) if you want to catch a refreshing shower in the nearby motel (is included if you stay on the campground). We were lucky as we got in just before closing time.

Ingmar (July 22, 2002)

I toke the small pocket camera with, that I got as a present from my parents. I thought of taking a bigger one, but than I remembered other trips and decided not to. The reason, a pocket camera fits into you pocket and those you will use it when ever you feel like it: when you see something exciting, something you wanna capture real quick before it is gone or you passed it. A nice, expensive camera you will not take out if you look back and see your partner fighting for the last couple steps to make it to the top. Them you just use the couple extra breath you got to take the camera out of your pocket and capture that one moment. That's why I brought my pocket camera.

Ok, that's not the sad story, that was more an outline of my thoughts of the use of cameras on vacations like this. And maybe also an advice; However, the sad story is, that _this_ pocket camera had a defect, that I had to find out when I got back my eight rolls of film. It did not focus right. Every single picture is out of focus if  the object of interest is more than two meters away. That camera, although set to auto focus, somehow just used portrait settings with the results as you can see yourself. As if that would not be enough, something went wrong with the colors as well. Most pictures are almost colorless, as if they were all over exposed to light. I used two different kinds of film (200 and 400 as I thought Iceland is dark and gray) where the 400 one seems to be especially bad. I know several things could have been wrong (I did not use a sky filter, sometimes I had to shot against the sun, the films were in the checked luggage) but I can't change it anymore. So here they are, unfortunately not reflecting the true powerful impression that we had on site.

Akureyri

Harbor of Husavik

A Minke Whale

Godafoss

Open Fault with Hot Springs

Bike Tour (we had some wind)

Bike Tour to Krafla sites

Mud Pots

Baking Soil

Steaming Vent

Mud Pots, Lava Field and Krafla Vulcano

Krafla Lava Field

Krafla Lava Field from 2001

Our frst Day, our first Glacier

Krossa River Delta and Godaland

Panorama of Markarfljot River from Valahnukur Peak (465m)

Yep, it's Gras!

Krossa Valley with Valahnukur Peak (right)

Myrdalsjökull from Krossa River Valley

Glacier water is COLD!

Day Hike to Myrdalsjökull

Tungnakvislarjokull Glacier Tounge

Panorama into Gudrunartungur Valley with Tungnakvist River (Myrdalsjökull in the back)

Color Spectacel at Midnight sunset over Myrdalsjökull

Right before Heidarhorn Plateau

Panorama view point Heidarhorn

No Clouds, no GPS!

Panorama View from Heidarhorn (780m) down to Godaland and Þórsmörk

On the Pass (1053m) - View down to the Atlantic Ocean

Crossing the snow-packed pass

??

One of dozens of  beatifull waterfalls on the 10km trek down to Skoga

Back to Vegetation

Almost there...

Skogafoss

Exhausted, but Happy