Hella-F225-Ljotipollur-Landmannalaugar-Blahnukur-Eldgja-Ofaerufoss-Fjadrargljufur-Fagrifoss-Geirland
pictures:
http://www.panoramio.com/user/4350353/tags/day3
video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXPgO6rPl74
It rained the whole night and kept doing so in the morning as well. We had a marvelous breakfast pancakes and other stuff prepared by Nonni and left just after 8am on road 26 going north. For today we planned to see one of the, if not the highlights of Iceland: Landmannalaugar and its surrounding. Weather was not with us at this point: it was drizzling with strong wind and visibility was around 200m. We turned off at F225 which is a pretty scenic route but not in this type of weather. Going east, behind the mountains the weather changed in front of our eyes in around half an hour and finally we had our first river crossing. When reaching Ljotipollur the sun was shining, we could see miles and miles away the strong wind didn’t bother us anymore.
At Landmannalaugar we had what I believe is perfect weather for this place and this was a huuuuge relief because we planned a few hours hiking here. While climbing Blahnukur mountain the scenery took my breath away. Beautiful mountains of unusual colors all around, patches of snow here and there, streams and small rivers in the valleys, rainbows… I ticked an item on my “10 places I wanna see before I die” list. We chose not to fully climb the mountain as we knew we will have a long day so we got back to the campsite which for me seemed to be way overcrowded.
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| Landmannalaugar |
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| Blahnukur mountain path |
At this place a few weeks before our trip I changed our route compared to our original road plan. Early July a glacier melted and water of Amazonas quantity flooded Ring Road and washed away a bridge. This meant that until a temporary replacement bridge was built (in one week!) the only way to reach the eastern part of the country was a detour on mountain road F208. Originally I thought that this road is difficult to handle and didn’t want to risk it but mother nature made me think hard. We had a Terrano after all so let’s give it a try… Also contacted the road office and they told me to go ahead. We drove through breathtaking dreamlike landscapes and had to ford rivers every few minutes or so. Some of them could not even be felt while sitting in the car, some others really changed how the car gripped the road. Have to say Zoli handled them all superbly, never lost his cool.
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| On road F208 |
After crossing around 30 rivers we finally reached Eldgja, the fire canyon which is around 100m deep and several km’s long. Here we had two options: either drive p on the east side towards Gjatindur or drive into the canyon and walk. We tried the first option but very soon we faced a river wider and probably deeper than any other before. After thinking long and hard and assessing the safest route we gave it a try…The engine roof of the car was covered in water, we heard strange noises from below but made it to the other side. Just 100m later we saw that the road is actually in the river for at least 20m. No chance to judge from the outside how deep it is and which path to go so we turned back, did the deep river again, adrenaline was sky high, and drove back into the canyon. Parked the car and after about 40 minutes of walking in beautiful sunny weather along the base of the canyon we reached Ofaerufoss, a double waterfall. There was something in the air in Eldgja as even the GPS refused to work while in here.
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