Sunday 18 July 1999
The rain drizzles down and makes it impossible for me to put on my contact lenses. For the first time on this trip I will have to wear my glasses instead. When eating oatmeal for breakfast we have with Hagen who spent the night in the hut next to the campsite. His tent leaks and is nearly over. Yesterday evening we heard very beautiful trumpet music outside. It turned out that is was our bus driver who gave the concert as an entertainment from one of the small hills. It’s a busy morning and everybody is in a hurry getting packed to be ready at the bus 8.15am. It’s cold and dank, but all are curious to explore the last day of the hike towards the volcano ”Askja”.
This will be another 150 km drive and when going 30 km/h in average it will definitely take hours. Nevertheless we praise our bus driver for his skills. Off-road is really “off” here. Paris-Dakar might be the right standard of reference here. The bus rocks and tilts as the winding and bendy ruts are followed. The permanent 4-wheel-drive is not luxury, but a simple a requisite here. It’s nice massage for ones back but also very hard to drive like this for hours.
After two hours driving we arrive to the “Aksja” plateau where we easily spot the dark lava tongue from the last eruption in 1961 in contrast to the hundred year old light lava around. The old lava is simply covered with lichen and to us it’s impressive that anything can grow in this lava desert. “Askja” is the world largest volcano massive and as we passes the 45 square kilometre wide crater, we realize that giant forces lies below us.
The walk starts after we have pushed the bus through very thick snow and our destination for the walk is farther away than any of us thought. We bring towels and swimsuit as we have sensed what to expect even if a swim seems crazy in the cold wind and snowy surroundings. We walk in snow for approximately 4 km passing the crater. It’s an indescribable area.
The “Askja” crater is thousands of years old. It’s present shape was formed in 1875 when two cubic kilometer material was thrown out from the volcano and caused disruption on roads as far as the southern Europe. One of the eruptions caused an explosion that created the crater “Viti”, which is short for the Icelandic word “Helviti” – that means hell. The bottom of “Viti” is still filled with 30 degrees hot water. The following 30 years after the eruption that volcano was still active and culminated with a collapse that exposed a 11 square kilometre and 300 meter deep crater. Shortly after was the crater filled with meltwater and the deepest lake in Iceland – the “Ôskjuvatn” was born.
We see it all as we approaches the place. On our way we have seen black lava with the most beautiful colors reflecting in the black crystals formations in the lava. It was also a nice relax from the tough walk in deep snow. The “Viti” appears with steamy milk-white water in the bottom with slopes of fat muddy clay. The scenario itself is impressive with rocks, lava and ice surrounding the hot water. Our guide tells us that the safest way down the slope is via a very steep brook and we succeed walking downwards very concentrated. Not all of the participants like the idea of a hot swim in this icy place, but for us there is no discussion, this is a “one-of-a-lifetime” experience.
So off we go. By the water’s edge it stinks of sulfur and steam rises from the crater wall. The beach sand is muddy brown clay, but I succeed finding a nice warm stone near the brook. My jacket is actually being dried here and boots and feet are easy to clean in the brook after walking in the clay. But first of all we must swim. Børge is first in the water followed by Martin, two Belgians and I shortly after.
The toughest looking guys in military-dress from Finland, Germany and Belgium give up and suffer apparently of hydrophobia. We don’t understand why they omit the opportunity to get an extra kick out of this trip. The water is very warm and it turns really deep when swimming into the middle of the crater. It requires some balancing skills to dry one and get dressed with nothing to lean on in the muddy clay. After the moistly clothes are on it goes really easy, also getting up running by the brook, just like the guide predicted.
The drizzle starts as we walk back to the bus in snow and on knotty lava. It’s very photogenic, but impossible to catch the nice subjects in the lava that looks like dragons and monsters by camera. This place is simply to great for photos, it’s a place to experience yourself. Quite tired we continue the bus drive passing “Drekagil” which means the “dragon ravine”. The ravine is named like this because of two dragon-like formations on the cliff.
The walk into the ravine is fantastic and makes of feel small yet again. In the bottom of the ravine a tall waterfall meets magma and snow. We climb the slopes, testing our balance on rocks and try to enjoy the heavy rain. When get visit a small hut nearby for shelter, we can see that the water supply is simply a carried from a hole in the cliff to the hut by a tube. The pressure is well and the water quality probably world class here.
The bus continues and we expect to go straight back home. But there is more in it for the money and yet again we must admit that this 3-day hike do better than we expect for the EUR 180 bill. This time we make a stop by a oasis at the volcano “Herdubreid”, which also is known as the queen of the Icelandic desert. It is a table-volcano that during the ice age was shaped upwards to 1,862 meters to the edge of the ice cap, where it cooled off. Today the top is real flat as a table. The size of it is absolutely staggering also because it stands in lonely majesty in the desert; hence the stylish title.
It seems incomprehensible to imagine that the ice cap has been at the top of the volcano in 1,862-meter altitude. As a vast contrast we visit the oasis in the middle of this rock desert. It is green grass, lovely flowers and small plants. The brooks are filled with lively birds, insects and fish. Compared with the salt-water rivers brown flood, this indicates life and harmony. We walk around the lake and watch a duck with small ducklings fighting there way upwards the steam. The ducklings can’t keep up, are falling down, get up and continues. The bus honks to indicate it is time to move on and my trance is interrupted.
The trip faces the end and we are on the way back to “Myvatn”. We are in a bit of a hurry, as one of the participants must catch an airplane. Hagen gets off at “Myvatn” to fetch the woolen sweater that is ordered by measure. Hopefully it would be ready even if he request to have it a day in advance. He really would like to follow us to “Akureyri” and when he realizes that the sweater is being washed, he dropped the sweater and continued together with us. He didn’t felt that sorry not buying the ordered sweater as it was in normal size, but in an sold out model. They will undoubtedly be able to sell it to some other tourist. We continues by bus towards “Húsavik” to pickup additional passengers and as some of the passengers gets off at the “Godafoss” we also gets a 2 minute view over the powerful waterfall.
It is about 9.30pm when we pass the defile between “Húsavik” and “Akureyri” in an area that looks remarkable much like the Faeroe Islands with its hilly green landscape. It is not hard to understand why the first Norwegians choose to settle here when they first conquered Iceland. By the way it was a result of the cynical Norwegian state King Harald Hårfager’s (Harald Hairless) victory in a sea battle at Stavanger that led Norwegian refugees to settle on Iceland in year 890 AD.
The fjord into “Akureyri” appears as a long wide river with grassy hills and snow-covered mountains surrounding it. We watch a small airplane on it’s way over the fjord to the city. The bus crosses the embankment and stops at the tourist office in the city. We squickly find the campsite and put up the wet tent, makes and eats dinner with Hagen just to hit the bed early to get some rest.