Hello Everyone,
Akureyri is the capital of Northeren Iceland , and don't you feel it !!All the guidebooks say that Lake Myvatn and the rest of northeren iceland are warmer and dryer than the south but I say they're all wrong, mad or malicious! It's fucking cold here and it rains a lot!
I'm staying at the backpacker wing of the Akureyri Hotel , which is a big appartment with 3 bedrooms, 3 or 4 beds in each one , a bathroom with washingmachine (which i am trying out at the moment) and a equiped kitchen. My tent is drying wonderfully and I'm hoping it'll rain 2 days-worth tonight so that tomorrow or the day after I'll be able to go camping again. I must say that for being over 20 years old , my macpack tent has done extermely well so far, I could do with a groundsheet and a new tentbag but the top part of the tent is in great condition !
The 4 day trek from Torsmork to Landmanalaugar was great, the first day I spent 2 hours trying to find the right spot to ford the first river I came to, only to find that the trail is set-up to get you to the river in the exact spot where it is best to cross it. Fortunately none of the rivers were more than knee-deep. All was quiet at the first hut untill the arrival of a German filmcrew that was making a documentary on the area, they came with tons of gear that was brought in by a four-wheel-drive truck. Anyway, I wisely moved from the hut they'd be staying in to another one. The second day was terrible weatherwise and fortunately also the most boring one in terms of landscape, nothing but black lavafields and walking along the road. Then the third day it was sunny and colourfull but climbing up and down those steep slopes was exhausting work. I tried my tent for the first time that night and was very hapy it only rained a little bit. Then the last day it was nice weather again and as far as I was concerned the walk wasn't long enough but really lovely.
In Landmanalaugir I camped again and tried Icelandic Flatbread (bit like burnt pancakes) and smoked fish that had been caught and smoked localy, it tasted great but getting the skin off took some getting used to.The cheese they sold wasn't bad either but a bit like Gauda.
The next day I spent exploring the surrounding valeys and getting into all sorts of trouble 'cause basically I didn't know where I was going, got back to the tent just before it started raining again.
The next day at 8:30 AM the bus tor Myvatn left and stopped at several places along the way but eventually broke down and so we had to wait for another bus to come and rescue us. I saw som huge waterfalls that day but the biggest one I still havn't seen.
Yesterday I walked to a very nice lavafield , across the rim of a volcano and finally to the hot springs/swimmingpool/sauna. Afterwards we found the geothermal crevace and the hot pool inside which was too hot to bathe in. Then on to the pub in town for some Fish&chips , chocolate cake with cream and a rather nice bear (Monu).. This morning was spent mainly in the kitchen-tent trying to keep dry and warm untill the bus would arrive.
Now I'm sitting here, writing while i wait for the washing mashine to finish, hope it'll do so soon because it's already 10 to midnight, no midnight sun here, it's dark outside and it seems the Icelanders also like to cruse around town just for the sake of crusing around.
Ahh, it seems the washing mashine is spindrying so I'll be able to go to bed soon.
Bye for now!
