Useful Information and Planning

Getting there

I flew into Keflavik Airport, which is about 50km SW of Reykjavík. I used flybus to get into the city, tickets cost about 25 euro and are available at https://www.re.is/tour/flybus/. The journey lasts about 45minutes and buses are available every 30-45minutes.

From there I took the number 57 public bus from Mjódd bus terminal to Akureyri. The bus is run by Strætó, Iceland’s public bus company, tickets are available https://www.straeto.is or you can buy them at the station on the day. Currently there are two buses a day, leaving at 9am and 5:30pm, both of which take 6 1/2 hours and are around £60. The bus stops at a few places en route and there is the potential to leave food packages at some of the stops if you were doing a traverse of Iceland as opposed to a N-S crossing.

I then spent the night at a campsite in Akureyri called Tjaldsvæðið which was a short walk from the bus drop off point and about £10 a night. The following morning I caught the 79 bus from Akureyri to Husavik, which has 3 departures a day at 8:21am, 12:28pm and 4pm, and takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Husavik is the closest I could get by public transport to the start of the walk, the previous bus service from Akureyri to Raufarhöfn has now been stopped. So I had to hitchhike the last 130km to Rifstangi. This wasn’t easy with a buggy, but luckily I got picked up by an American guy called Chris who took me all the way to the turn off!!!!!!!

FOOD

Some of the food I brought for the journey.

Basically I ate terribly for the entire trip as I was trying the save money. I brought almost all my food at Bonus Supermarket, Fiskislóð 2 Grandi. I had enough food for 26 days which was only possible to carry due to having the buggy. Otherwise I would have had to make up food parcels.

• For breakfast I brought 2kg oats, a bottle of 375g honey and two 500g bags of raisins.

• Mid morning and mid afternoon snacks consisted of a handful of mixed nuts and a couple of squares of cheap chocolate. For this I brought 10 bars of chocolate and 2 big bags of nuts.

• Lunch was a packet of noodles, with an added stock cube for flavour, some mash potato powered to bulk it up and a couple of cubes of cheese. For this (and dinner) I brought 20 chicken flavour stop cubes, 4 packets of mash potato powder and 52 packets of noodles!!!!!

• Finally dinner was exactly the same as lunch.

To be honest I quite enjoyed the poverty diet I subsisted on for the month. I had enough energy for the entire journey and although I lost a bit of weight, I was never hungry. Carrying 52 packets of instant noodles with me was a bit ridiculous, I emptied them all into the same bag which was MASSIVE, but ultimately it kept costs low. A bit of a negative was having to stop to cook lunch, but this just meant I got to enjoy my surroundings for a bit longer and I loved having warm food inside me.

I brought my gas from Iceland Camping Equipment Rental, Barónsstígur 5 in Reykjavík. But most petrol stations sell gas canisters for stoves.

SAFETY

Ideally you won’t need to use emergency services, but there are precautions you can take to ensure that you are as well prepared as possible to avoid accidents.

1. When in Reykjavik visit the ICE-SAR desk, at tourist information on Bankastræti 2. Here you can tell someone about your plans, find out about renting a PLB if you need one and find out about how swollen rivers are and what different roads are doing.

2. Download the 112 Iceland App. It has 2 functions, one has a special button for use in emergencies which sends a text of your location from your phone to the 112 response centre. Secondly you can check in at various points along your journey so emergency services have a better idea of where you are.

3. Submit a travel plan on https://safetravel.is/travel-plan this allows ICE-SAR to know your plans, it also has a trip monitoring service, which means that if you don’t check out from your travel plan they can activate a search party.

4. Let someone close to you know where you are going and when you expect to be there. Make sure that you give them information on the service to contact and a time frame in case things go wrong.

5. Ensure you have GPS and either a spot tracker, PLB or Garmin Inreach device.

6. Get an Icelandic Sim Card. Simmin has the best coverage in Iceland, about 80% of the country is covered. However this is definitely not to be substituted for one of the devices mentioned above. I paid 2900ISK for a sim card that included 5GB of data, it was then easy to top up.

7. Check the weather forecast before you leave at https://en.vedur.is you can also download the Veður app on google play/the apple app store.

8. When you reach a hut that has wardens e.g. Dreki, Nýidalur or Landmannalaugar, chat to them. They know the local area really well and can advise on terrain, river and weather conditions. I found the wardens at Dreki and Nýidalur especially helpful. They also messaged one another to let them know when to expect me by.

9. Have a map & compass. Know how to use them.

10. Make sure you have the right gear, skills and knowledge for the task. If navigation isn’t your strong point go on a navigation course back home. Iceland’s weather can be incredibly changeable and you don’t want to be stuck in the middle of no where without some idea of what you are doing.

11. Finally ensure you have a couple of extra days worth of rations. I got stuck near Kistufell for 2 days due to a storm but luckily had planned excess food into my budget.

MAPS AND ROUTE PLANNING

Below is an outline of the maps, both paper and online that I used. One difficulty with maps in Iceland is that the smallest scale is around 1:100,000. I was used to 1:25,000 OS maps in the UK so wasn’t used to the lack of detail. Therefore I mainly used online maps for navigation.

• Icelands Cycling Map for 2019. This was used for the general route planning in terms of F roads etc and to get an overview of distances.

• National Geographic Iceland Adventure travel map. 1: 465,000. This was again used for general planning, and is also waterproof and tear resistant.

• Iceland Regional Touring Map Series. 1:300,000. Mal og Manning. Central Highlands Sheet. There are 5 sheets to the scale of 1:300,000 in this series but I only used the central highlands sheet. http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/int/ iceland.htm

• Online maps: I used https://www.gaiagps.com/profile/ this was an invaluable tool, it had all the tiny walking tracks, F roads and contour lines at 10m intervals on. I downloaded the entire route onto my phone and then when I needed to know exactly where I was I could just turn the GPS on my phone on and hey presto I knew where I was. It is paid for on a subscription service.

• https://www.komoot.com/discover This was another invaluable tool. Again I downloaded the maps offline and I also created my route on it and used the route profile to know where the steep uphill and downhill sections were. Again it is paid for on subscription but worth every penny.

WHERE TO STAY

Below is a list of everywhere I stayed on my journey from north to south in chronological order. I camped every night. I have put a (FÍ) by those managed by Ferðafélag Íslands, the Iceland Touring Association. For 2020 all camping sites managed by FÍ are 2300ISK per person per night, for showers it is an additional 500ISK and to use the facilities e.g. toilets but not stay there is it 500ISK. The others were between 1500ISK and 2000ISK a night.

• Kópasker campsite 

• Lundur Campsite

• Grímstunga Camping Ground

• Dreki hut (FÍ)

• Nýidalur Mountain Hut (FÍ)

• Landmannalaugar Camping (FÍ)

• Skógar Camping Ground

POINTS OF INTEREST

• Hraunhafnartangi lighthouse (this used to be the most northernly point in Iceland, but it is still worth seeing.)

• Dettifoss and Selfoss (Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Europe.)

• Walking through the Odadahraun Lava Fields.

• Askja Caldera and Öskjuvatn lake (you have got to swim in the lake!)

• The views of Urðarháls 150m deep crater.

• Swimming in the hot springs at Landmannlaugar.

• Skógafoss waterfall.

USEFUL WEBLINKS

It took a huge amount of planning and research before I felt comfortable walking in Iceland solo. Below is a list of some of the websites and blogs that I found most useful.

Useful Icelandic websites and information:

• https://www.nat.is This formed the basis for all of my information about different places: the Urdarhals, Holuhraun, Kistufell, Dyngjuhals, Herdubreid and the Gaesavotn route.

• https://www.nat.is/the-nine-wonders-of-iceland/highlands/ This webpage has everything you need to know about the highlands.

• https://www.fi.is/en/ The Ferðafélag Íslands, the Iceland Touring Association, (FÍ)manage a lot of the backcountry huts in Iceland. On the website you can look at hut and camping facilities, book huts in advance and read the pages of useful information they have about safety and the different trails.

• http://www.icesar.com Have a read about Iceland’s Association of Search and Rescue. They are a free volunteer organisation dedicated to preventing accidents and saving lives. obviously you don’t ever want to use them but it is fab to know they exist if needed in a genuine emergency.

• https://safetravel.is/travel-plan Use this website to update your travel plans of where you are going and what you are doing.

• https://safetravel.is/112-iceland-app About the emergency 112 app designed by ICE-SAR. Download it.

• https://www.road.is This website is useful for seeing what roads are open, especially the F roads and what current road conditions are like.

• https://www.ultimategearlists.com/destinations/laugavegur-trail-iceland Fab information about the Laugavegur trail.

• https://www.kimkim.com/c/laugavegur-hut-trek-5-days Another fab webpage on the Laugavegur.

• https://www.kimkim.com/c/fimmvorduhals-hike Useful information about the Fimmvörðuháls trail.

Blogs from people who have done similar trips:

• http://viajarapie.info/en/trips/iceland-north-to-south/ This website was the backbone of my research into terrain, camping, logistics, weather, route and gear. Also has a nice diary of the trip.

• http://lukaszsupergan.com/crossing-iceland-traverse-the-route-and-preparations/ This website is awesome, he walked East to West Iceland in 2016. It has lots of information on gear, routes, safety, maps and food deposits.

• https://katiejaneendurance.com/portfolios/solo-traverse-of-iceland/ Fab equipment list and a day by day diary of Katie’s 15.5 day 600km N-S route of Iceland.

• https://andrewskurka.com/adventures/iceland-traverse/ The bible for most people thinking of walking in Iceland, it has a fab gear list but also a wonderful run down of the Laugavegur trail.

• https://willcopestakemedia.com/expeditions/crossing-iceland-2/ Will and his friend Remi walked North to South Iceland in 2011. His website contains lots of useful information about safety, logistics and gear.

• https://www.sidetracked.com/crossing-iceland/ A write up of Will’s 2011 crossing of Iceland.

Gear List

After a bit of rumination and route planning I decided that by taking 4 by 4 tracks all the way to Landmannalaugar I would be able to carry all my things in a buggy. Thus avoiding destroying my back with gear, water and food. It also meant I could avoid having to organise food drop offs and just take all the food I would need for 26 days with me.

I opted for a Thule Chariot Cheetah 1 bike trailer which has a front jogger wheel attachment. The buggy easily proved its worth, meaning that I could happily carry days and days worth of water without much consideration for the added weight. There were a few cons; think fording rivers, pushing through occasional sand and looking like a very irresponsible parent but overall the pros won out.

Having the buggy did mean I had to carry a bike repair kit with me: spare inner tubes for the 2 different wheel sizes, a small bike pump and puncture repair kit, as well as some tyre levers. Luckily I didn’t have a single puncture, but it was nice to know I had the kit if I needed it.

The kind park rangers at Landmannalaugar let me keep the buggy and a few accessory items I didn’t need for the onward journey in their tool shed, meaning that I could spend the final 5 days trekking with my backpack. Later on I returned with a rental car and picked up the buggy, before finding a bike box in Reykjavík and packing it up on a plane ready to return to the UK.

Sleeping

• Elixir 1 MSR tent

• Sea to Summit Voyager VY3 Sleeping Bag

• Sea to Summit Reactor Extreme Liner

• Sea to Summit Aeros Premium Pillow Deluxe

• Thermarest Neoair Xtherm

Cooking and water

• MSR Windburner Stove

• Spork, lighter and matches

• 2 big gas canisters

• 10L MSR Dromedary bag, 3L Platypus Reservoir, 2L Platypus Collapsible Water Bottle

• Oasis Water purification Tablets

ELECTRICAL DEVICES

• Kindle

• Anker PowerCore 20100

• Anker PowerPort Solar 21W

• 2 × Anker USB cables and a Europlug wall charger

• Phone (Samsung S7, I took all my photos on my phone, as well as using it for maps and GPS)

• Alpkit Qark Rechargeable Head torch

Outerwear

• A massive down jacket brought from a knock off shop in Kathmandu, Nepal. I used this for sleeping in.

• Paramo Velez Adventure Smock

• Altura Waterproof Cycling Trousers

• Sea to Summit Feathertop Gaiters

• Rab Powerstretch Gloves

• Hat and Buff

clothing and shoes

• Vivobarefoot Trackers

• Vivobarefoot Ultra 3 Water Shoes

• 2 × Leggings

• 2 × Helly Hansen long sleeved base layers

• 1 × Helly Hansen short sleeved base layers

• Alpkit Griffon Mid Layer

• Socks, Underwear and Sports Bra

• Swimming Costume

• Microfibre Towel

Washing stuff

• Wet Wipes

• Toothbrush and Paste

• 2 in 1 shampoo, conditioner and shower gel

• Soap

• Tampons

• Toilet Paper

• Suncream

• Lipbalm

• Tweezers and Nail Clippers

• Razor

• Hair Comb

Miscellaneous

• Card and Cash

• Sunglasses

• Notepad and Pen

• Maps

• Trowel

First Aid Kit and repairs

• Tenacious Tape

• Victorinox Army Knife Camper

• Dioralyte Sachets

• Sudafed, Priton, Ibuprofen, Paracetamol

• Variety of Plasters and Dressings

• Zinc Oxide Tape

• Antiseptic

• Small Sewing Kit

Buggy Repair

• Spare Inner Tubes in different sizes

• Bike Pump

• Puncture Repair Kit

• Levers

storage

• A variety of Exped dry bags

• Osprey Kyte 66

• Thule Chariot Cheetah 1

Section 1. Rifstangi - F88

This section contains information about the first 5 days of walking, totalling 131km. This was by far the most civilised 5 days of the trip, with a few campsites and amenities en route.

Firstly, I started by pushing the buggy down a rough track that led to the end of the Rifstangi Peninsula. It was raining, of course, but the buggy did admirably well. After a quick photo, I returned down the same track and onto the dirt 870 that leads towards Kopasker.

The 870, about 15km north of Kopasker

Walking along the paved 85 road

I had started relatively late in the day, so the first night was a wild camp beside the 870. The next day consisted of farmland and barren landscapes pushing the buggy all the way to Kopasker where I knew there was a basic campsite. After a day and a half of heavy rain the shower facilities were much appreciated, as was the basic store which had a place to sit, buy coffee and eat chips. The next day I again slept in luxury. After walking alongside the paved 85 road I reached the small settlement of Lundur which consisted of only 5 buildings, 2 of which were a swimming pool and a school. There was yet again a basic campsite but I was told it wasn’t open as the water wasn’t working, so I was allowed to camp for free. Deciding to treat myself I ended up using the local swimming pool, and even had a beer by the side with the guy that ran it!

South of Lundur by 5km is Asbyrgi which has a gas station, camp site, information centre, cafe and a small shop. I spent my morning in there the next day, drinking copious amounts of coffee and reading a book, sheltering from the rain. From here I had a choice; the apparently better F862 to the west of Dettifoss and Selfoss, or the slightly more gnarly 864 to the east. I chose the 864, I had been a little bored on the paved 85 earlier and wanted to experience a little of the Icelandic harshness. A 300m push uphill brought me out onto a semi plateau and I happily rolled along in the rain smiling at passing cars, who I sincerely hoped wouldn’t think I had a baby in the buggy!

A strong wind came along that evening making finding a sheltered camp spot difficult. A small depression on an old lava flow did the job and the next morning I took a short detour to see the wonders of Dettifoss and Selfoss waterfalls. By this point I was rather soaked through, so upon arriving at Grimstunga Camping Ground I spent an hour and a half sat in the toilet, reading a book and trying to dry my clothes. Not my finest moment, but it worked and after a good night sleep with a fully charged power bank I made my way towards the ring road and the F88. From here on, civilisation ended and the real adventure began!

The Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, the second longest river in Iceland! I followed this river for almost its entire 206km course.

Dettifoss Waterfall.

The slightly more battered 864 road.

Section 2. F88 - Dreki Huts

Camping on the F88. Moon plains!!!!

This next section covers the area from where the F88 leaves the ring road to Dreki Huts at the foot of Askja. It was 91km in total and took 2 1/2 days of walking, followed by a half day exploring Askja caldera and swimming in the thermally heated Öskjuvatn lake.

I followed the F88 for 59km until Thorsteinsskáli Hut. Then continued along the F88 for another 20km until it meets the F910, from which it is just 12km to Dreki.

From the ring road the landscape changed dramatically, a vast expanse of lava and ash as far as the eye could see. Wild camping the first night was magical. I had never heard silence like it and it was comforting to know that there wasn’t a soul around for miles in any one direction.

The few days were filled with plodding along taking in all the sights and sounds around me. Time was interspersed by huge distance mountains, fabulous rivers, unusual rock formations and a couple of river crossings (the deepest of which was probably knee height) as well as copious amounts of endless sand.

An actual day of sun! Managed to burn my nose and the solar panel worked!

Gorgeous scenery. Wherever there is water there is moss and a few hardy plants.

Herðubreið (queen of the mountains) in the distance.

Logistically it isn’t a particularly difficult area, the track is well formed and there are between 10-20 vehicles a day. Being on the road for 2 1/2 days meant that I often saw the same tour guides every day driving to and from Askja. I got friendly with a few of them, they would stop to chat and tell me I was making good progress and a couple of times I was given treats like chocolate or at one point a boil in the bag sticky toffee pudding. In terms of water, I was able to make do with what I was carrying with me but it is possible to top up at Thorsteinsskáli Hut and the rivers looked fast flowing enough that the water would be safe to drink.

After 91km of walking I came to Dreki Huts, where I paid for camping and then promptly managed to hitch a ride to the top of the crater (its a 16km round trip otherwise). I got lucky and managed to get a lift with an Icelandic tour guide in his super jeep! He had two clients with him but they seemed happy to have me along for the last bit of their journey. Once we got up to Öskjuvatn lake we all stripped off and went for a swim in the 20 degrees geothermally heated waters. You have to be careful there though, as in 2014 there were some pretty big landslides around the rim of the lake.

Before leaving Dreki Huts I visited the on site wardens and got some up to date advice. Some people seemed to think that there was going to be deep snow on the route to Kistufell, but this was later disproven by a vehicle that had recently come along the route. I also submitted a travel plan on https://safetravel.is/travel-plan just so that people would be aware of where I was going. The wardens were really helpful, they informed the warden at Nýidalur that I was on my way and gave a time frame of 5 days in case of bad weather. I also messaged my mum and best friend back home that if they hadn’t heard from me in 5 days time they should contact ICE-SAR. The only reason I took this many precautions was that this part of the route would be the most remote and I wouldn’t have any mobile phone signal.

Jökulsá á Fjöllum which I had seen enter the ocean earlier in the trip.

More moon plains.

Actually looks like Mars! I was lost for words at the scenery in this area.

Another night wild camping, not far from where the F88 meets the F910.

Section 3. Dreki Huts to Nýidalur

From Dreki huts it was 124km to Nýidalur this took 5 days. Two of which were rest days, as a storm hit forcing me to stop.

After a 5km of walking on fairly compact ground the F910 turned to dust, making walking for the next 30km quite difficult! For a while I pushed to the side of the road as it was slightly easier but felt guilty as you were able to see every footprint and wheel mark imprinted behind you. After 1km I chose to suffer more and pushed on the main track again.

This section covers the 124km from Dreki huts to Nýidalur hut. It was by far the most isolated section of the trip especially as the weather turned bad which meant that there were no vehicles for 2 days. I also didn’t speak to another human for 3 days straight after leaving the F910 towards Kistufell.

It was compressed track for the first 5km out of of Dreki, which was easy to push along. The next 30km however were the most difficult of the entire trip. Pushing a buggy along in 3cm deep black sand is not an easy task.

Sand! Which made for a hard 30km!

Largest ice cap in Iceland in the distance! Vatnajökull ice cap covers 8% of Iceland’s landmass and is the largest ice cap in Europe.

Wild camp spot at the second turn off towards Kistufell hut roughly 32km out of Askja. Note the ice cap in the distance!

There are 2 options in terms of tracks to get to Kistufell; both of which lead to the Gæsavatnaleið route. The first heads towards a flat alluvial plain, to the west of the Holuhraun lava field. Here there are tracks but they are frequently washed away and so having a GPS or compass is handy. The water can occasionally get quite deep and some vehicles have ended up stuck here in the boggy sand; the wardens had warned me about this and I decided that it wasn’t worth it with the buggy.

Instead I took the second turn off towards Kistufell which follows large sand hills with fantastic views of Vatnajökull in the distance. Upon reaching the very edge of the glacier the track takes a westerly direction, turning into loose lumps of rock and climbing for 150m. I walked through the Urðarháls and discovered the most amazing 170m hole in the earth filled with sand. I still don’t know how it was formed but seeing as the Urðarháls are the remnants of an old dolerite shield volcano I assume that the crater has a volcanic background.

From here it wasn’t far to Kistufell hut, which I had planned on sleeping in as I had been told at Dreki that the weather was meant to turn bad overnight. I had to un board the hut to enter it and found that inside it was quite cosy with beds, blankets and a desk and chair to sit at. I made myself comfy and listened to the wind howl through the night. The storm that was predicted had come in. Trying to leave the next morning I was battered by wind and sand, and soon decided that it was worth having a rest day instead. The heavy wooden boards that were used to board up the windows and doors had been blow about 10m away from the hut and I had to store them inside for fear of them doing damage to the building if they were left outside again.

I took the second turn off towards the Urðarháls and the old Gæsavatnaleið Route.

Track turned to rock: nice!

Kistufell mountain to the left. The road reaches a plateau just before Kistufell hut.

In Kistufel hut keeping warm during the storm.

After the day off at Kistufell hut I was going slightly stir crazy and despite the weather still being bad I decided to start walking again. Bad idea; the sand ripped across the plain in front of me. My eyes streamed in the wind, the ash gathering in the wet patches, making it look like I had rather terrible stage make up on. After about two hours the wind picked up even more creating swirling sand storms, perhaps it was time to camp?

The track leading towards Kistufell hut

Having to rock barricade the tent on the 2nd day of the storm so it didn't blow away

I camped in the shelter of a large volcanic boulder and had to rock barricade the tent, so that it wouldn’t rip up and fly away. Being new and volcanic the rocks were incredibly sharp and pierced holes into my fly sheet. Once inside I could see the fly sheet struggling in the wind, and no matter how hard I tried sand kept blowing in creating a fine dusting on top of everything I owned. I even found bits of black ash in my noodles that night!

The following morning it snowed but the wind had calmed down considerably and I was able to push 45km in one day! The idea of reaching Nýidalur was sharp in my mind and I was also coming up to the end of my 5th day away from Askja, so I wanted to contact family to let them know I had made it ok.

The 45km day was far from easy though, 6 river fords in 1 day! Most of which were totally fine, but there was one just east of Öxl (1036m) that in parts came up to my thighs, it was also quite fast flowing. Not ideal, especially with the buggy which caught in the flow of the water, creating a drag which wanted to pull me downstream. Eventually, after a long day I came out at the F26, the main route through the centre of Iceland. I had made it through the most isolated section and couldn’t wait to have a shower and conversation at Nýidalur!

Stunning rainbows over one of the 6 rivers I had to ford in just 33km of walking. These fords are between the Skjálfandafljót river, where the track meets the F910 again and Nýidalur hut.

Nýidalur hut in the distance after a 45km day!

Tungnafell mountain with glacier. A perfect end to what was quite a long day.

Section 4. Nýidalur - Landmannalaugar

Wild camping 2 days out of Nýidalur

This section covers the 147km, 4 days of walking, from Nýidalur hut to Landmannlaugar, I ended up adding a few km by taking a detour to Hrauneyjar Highland Center.

After the excitement of the Gæsavatnaleið Route, this part of the journey was actually a little dull. So I am not going to go into too much detail. There were some pretty cool views of Hofsjökull glacier (the 3rd largest in Iceland) to the west and of Þórisvatn (the largest lake in Iceland) to the east. But on the whole it was rather featureless and barren. Not to say that it wasn’t pretty, but with the Gæsavatnaleið route behind me and the Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls trails to look forward too, I was keen to get off the main track and begin exploring again.

I wild camped for the 3 nights en-route and then camped at Landmannlaugar, the popular starting point of the Laugavegur hiking route. The warden was nice enough to let me leave the buggy in the tool shed and from here on in it would just be me and my pack; all the way to the sea!

Hofsjökull glacier to the west in the distance!

Hrauneyjalon Lake about 8.5km from Hrauneyjar Highland Centre on the F208

The light hitting the mountains on the F208 towards Landmannalaugar was beautiful

Section 5. Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls trails - Reynisfjara

The full 80km from Landmannalaugar to Skógar. This takes between 4-6 days.

This section combines the Laugavegur route (55km)and the Fimmvörðuháls route (25km). I added a final day of walking 36km to Reynisfjara in order to make it a full N-S crossing of Iceland.

The final 36km to the sea. The whole day was spent trying not to walk on the main road and instead I ended up thigh deep in a bog.

The Laugavegur trail is the most famous trek in Iceland. It usually takes 4 days but I did it in 3 as I ended up walking day 1 and day 2 together. The traditional itinerary is:

• Day 1: Landmannalaugar- Hrafntinnusker. 12km. 4-5 hours.

• Day 2: Hrafntinnusker- Álftavatn. 12km. 4-5 hours.

• Day 3: Álftavatn- Emstrur. 15km. 6-7 hours.

• Day 4: Emstrur- Þórsmörk. 15km. 6-7 hours.

You can then choose to add on the Fimmvörðuháls route. This is usually done in 1-2 days.

• Day 5: Þórsmörk- Skógar. 25km. 9 hours. 1000m of ascent.

You can choose to break this up into two days by staying at either Balsvinsskáli hut owned by Ferðafélag Íslands (Iceland Touring Association, FÍ) or Fimmvörðuskáli hut owned by the Útivist touring club.

Looking towards Brennisteinsalda over the lava fields, having just left Landmannalaugar.

The view from the foot of Brennisteinsalda volcano, looking out over the obsidian lava fields, back towards Landmannalaugar.

First day on the trail, ridiculously happy!

Hrafntinnusker hut in the distance, this photo was taken in early September and as you can see there was already a fair amount of snow about.

This is the section between Hrafntinnusker hut and Álftavatn. The route was quite up and down with some of the ascents and descents being very steep, especially with a big pack in the snow.

Little bit later on the track between Hrafntinnusker hut and Álftavatn. Still ridiculously happy.

Stunning views on the way towards Álftavatn.

One of the most photographed sections of the Laugavegur. The route goes from 1000m above sea level to 530m at Álftavatn lake. This is where the hut and camp site are :)

I didn’t take so many photos in the next couple of days towards Þórsmörk. I ended up making a pal on the walk and spent my time talking to him instead of getting lots of pictures. The scenery was still fabulous though and the days went by fast. Eventually we ended up at Þórsmörk and departed, but only after a few beers at volcano huts.

Emstrur campsite and hut, also known as Botnar.

The river Þröngá, the last river crossing before arriving at Þórsmörk Skagfjörðsskáli hut. Skagfjörðsskáli is over in the next valley, just behind the hill.

The next day I set off on the Fimmvörðuháls route, about 25km of walking, starting at 220m at Skagfjörðsskáli, reaching a maximum of 1020m on the trail up near Modi and Magni before finishing at 10m at Skógar.

The uphill walk in the morning was fairly demanding but absolutely stunning, above 900m it turned to snow and ice and there was a small section that was so steep a chain had been put in place to make it easier to walk up. At the top of the pass you reach the Goðahraun lava fields, which were created during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption. You also pass by Móði and Magni, named after the sons of Thor, they translate as ‘Courage’ and ‘Mighty’, also created by the 2010 eruption they are two of the youngest craters in Iceland.

The descent is gradual and easy on the knees, you follow the river Skógá all the way down to Skógar, passing over 20 waterfalls, all of which are equally dramatic in their own unique way. The finale is Skógafoss waterfall, a huge 25m across veil of water, plunging 60m to cover those at the bottom in spray. I spent that evening camping at Skógar campsite, before pressing on the next day for the last 36km to complete the walk!

Views looking back towards Þórsmörk, about 31/2 hours walking from Skagfjörðsskáli.

One of the many waterfalls on the Skógá river, which you follow for the entirety of your descent towards Skógar.

Back at 10m above sea level at the small village and tourist settlement of Skógar. Bearing in mind that the max height of the

6th of September 2019 was my last day of walking! It was a little underwhelming as most of it was spent trying to get off the ring road as much as possible, despite the route mainly following the road. At one point I took what I thought would be a short cut across Hvammsá stream, but it turned out the entire section was bog and I ended up thigh deep wading through water at times. It was the dirtiest I had been in the entire 20 days, and so it was that stinking, filthy but happy I reached the edge of Reynisfjara.

The whole journey covered 610km, taking 20 walking days with 3 rest days in between, and I can honestly say that they were the most relaxing, thoughtful and fulfilling 20 days of my life so far. With that in mind, what’s stopping you from doing the same!

Reynisfjara peninsula, you can see the point I was aiming for!

The most southernly point of the Icelandic mainland, with the famous Reynisdrangar basaltic sea stacks in the background.