Last summer my partner Conni and I spent three weeks in Iceland. One of our goals was to walk a trek we had read about on the Icelandic Guides portfolio. Apart from their succinct description of the guided tour we could find little information about the trail, the most comprehensive reports being that of Dieter Graser’s (in German) and David Abadie’s (in French) very useful websites. From their stories we knew that the trek wouldn’t be an easy endeavor. We’d have to do some glacier traverses, river crossings and we would have to navigate in untouched areas.
The trek fulfilled all our expectations: it was a truly wild adventure rewarded with wonderful landscapes.
Disclaimer: We decided to write a description of our itinerary here, and trekkers might find this information useful. However, we’d like to emphasize that this information is given with no warranty. The walk isn’t technically difficult, but is remote and engaged (we didn’t see any other human being during the seven days of our trip). The conditions in Iceland are very variable, and the glacier and river crossings can be significantly more challenging in bad weather conditions. The glacier traverse, in particular, has changed considerably in comparison to Dieter Graser’s description in 2006 and the accelerated melting of the glacier won’t make things easier in the future.
- Preparation
- Day One: from Skaftafell to Blátindur
- Day Two: from Blátindur to Skeiðarárjökull
- Day Three: from Skeiðarárjökull to Grænalón
- Day Four: from Grænalón to Eldgígur
- Day Five: from Eldgîgur to Brúarárbotnar
- Day Six: from Brúarárbotnar to Hverfisfljót
- Day Seven: from Hverfisfljót to the Ring Road