Friday 16 July 1999
We rise early and pack the tent. Several other tourists for the hike is waiting for the bus that shows up timely. Shortly after we meet Hagen from Düsseldorf with whom we get along very well. He had announced for traveling companions in a newspaper and found three very young girls who also want to explore the wild Iceland. Apparently the three-day hike was too wild for them; hence Hagen was going alone and joined our company instead. We remembered that the girl in the tourist information in ”Egilsstadir” warned us against this trip being too wild and demanding, which of course only encouraged us even more to go.
Hagen is an IT project manager in a company that develops the car parking systems that we see in European cities. Previously he has traveled around in Croatia, Slovenia, Bavaria and Schwitzerland by bike. So it was not surprisingly that he already had explored the area around the volcano ”Krala” by bicycle and we considered doing the same later on.
The bus is bound for South with a short stop at a very lonely church that we also saw on our way from ”Egilsstadir”. This time we get the story behind the small church with 70 km to nearest house, except for the two surrounding buildings. The farmer who lived here needed a church closer on and built with help from the local authorities this tiny church with room for less than ten persons. He evidently painted the altarpiece himself.
At the adjacent graveyard we count approximately ten tombs. On the opposite side at the road a small store was selling coffee and cookies at a reasonable price, which wasn’t the case about their slide films that was about EUR 14. Here I meet a Danish family from Roskilde who does nearly the same route as us. We continue by bus into what looks like a lunar landscape, gray, rocky and very deserted.
Slowly we realize that the first day of the hike will be spent on just reaching the ”Vatnajökull” glacier. The paved road turns into paths and later on to tracks and sand banks. Now and then the bus tips a lot up and down and from side to side. Surprisingly fast we adjust well to the shaky movements. Crossing a hefty stream is also now real challenge for the 4-whell-drive Mercedes bus.
We stops at points from which there are a view and go for quite a walk as the guide lead us to some old manmade caves where outlaws took shelter in the 1700’s running away from the sad fate being imprisoned in Copenhagen. It’s said that the most notorious criminal in Iceland lived here with his family for nearly 20 years with no fire and without that many animals to hunt for. The farmers out here was of course scared of these outlaws and lost probably a fair share of their animals on that account.
We reach the glacier at the end of the afternoon and put up the tent just at the foot of it. Here a hostel is situated as well, but we choose to camp as we have free access to a shower and toilet anyway. The sun is really sharp here and the wind very cold passing over the ”Vatnajökull” glacier. We climb the neighboring mountain of rocks and ashes, a trip that took one hour to the top. The view is staggering and we think our view reach several hundred miles away.
In the far distance we see a huge sand storm and behind we examine the 1,860-meter high ”Kverkfjöll” glacier and volcano that is the peak of the huge ”Vatnajökull” and our destination for tomorrows hike. We get some nice photos from up here and ”enjoys” the trip down accompanied by Børges rich coloring narrative about a friends tragic accident in the exact same kind of rocky foundation. The friend lost a foot and the story really keeps us observant, as the track is only marked very weak. Far below we see other hikers as tiny shadows and must admit that these proportions are almost more that we can grasp. After dinner and very tired we hit the sleeping bags immediately, excited on tomorrows hike to ”Kverkfjöll”.