My fifth trip to Iceland. And as I pretty much knew all the major touristic destinations, I wanted to visit some really remote areas this time. And this is best done by foot. Especially I found some rather impressing photos from the area around the not-yet-complete hydroelectric powerplant at Kárahnjúkar, and thought by myself, I have to go there. And as on the other hand I have lots of friends in and around Akureyri, who I wanted to visit at the end of my trip, the main direction of the journey was already predefined.
Upon arrival I almost immediatelly took a domestic flight from Reykjavík to Höfn, and from there I took the next bus into the interior, to Lónsöræfi. I slightly changed the usual hiking trail from there to Snæfell due to the very bad weather, and so I hiked along the Eyjabakkar and around Snæfell in the north. The hut at Snæfell was my first intermediate goal and to there I had sent some food supplies ahead of me.
On I went straight through the Vesturöræfi towards the new bridge across Jökla and then back southwards along the river up to Kringílsá. Without any paths I continued to Grágæsadalur, then northwards through Fagridalur and parallel to the river Kreppá to the next bridge. My next intermediate goal and my next food supplies was at Askja, so I only had to hike onwards on the usual jeeptrack across Krepputunga and a bit farther.
From Askja I followed the well known Öskjuvegur back towards civilisation, and so after three days I reached the first farm I had seen in weeks. As to continue the last bit to Akureyri I first followed Bárðardalur, until a small hiking trail turned off to Fnjóskadalur and from there it was just one more day into Eyjafjörður.
I knew pretty much everything in Akureyri, but in Svarfaðardalur I made some more photos. And when I flew to Reykjavík on my way back home and had one and a half days left there, I just "filled up the remaining films". As I understand it the real end of my tour was already in Akureyri.
The weather was altogether very rainy and cold, but I hope I made at least some nice pictures anyway. A completely new experience to me however were the slowlyness and the lonelieness and the touring without any path through the nothing, so despite the weather I really enjoyed the holidays. There is a small map of the tour, and I also have GPS coordinates which are also available in a revised form with only the valueable data included for recycling. Furthermore, like for all my tours, I have a list of all the photos, and this time it got 504 of them... yet they are not labeled and only sorted by date... so good luck... :)
05-00-04-flug.jpg(26332 bytes): Breiðarmerkurjökull, Esjufjöll and Kverkfjöll behind
05-00-06-flug.jpg(25642 bytes): Öræfajökull and Hvannadalshnjúkur, the highest point in Iceland
