Iceland 2016 - Land of Fire and Ice

Jocelyn Timmermans
May 18, 2021
6 min read

Updated: May 24, 2021

August 29 - September 10, 2016

It was Phil & Liz's dream to one day go to Iceland. Do a few hikes together and you get to know eachother fairly well. Do lots of hikes together and you become good and lasting friends. We united in their dream and I put this trip together for them. It was a challenge, trying to get as many as the highlights of the country in one trip, while trying to keep the costs reasonable. We did 6 days of sightseeing and 5 consecutive days of hiking. Here is the itinerary I put together:

Day 1, Aug. 29: The Blue Lagoon

The majority of Iceland's homes are heated by geothermal water, as are the streets. They also all have internet and are built with iron so as to be earthquake proof. Iceland runs on nearly 100% sustainable green energy. 75% of the nation's electricity is generated by hydro-electric power, 25% from geothermal and only 1% from fossil fuels.

Iceland's population is 330,000 of which 60% live in the capital city of Rekjavik. They have 157 prisoners (only 2 of them are women). Main income: 1 - tourism, 2 - fishing & 3 - aluminum. Biggest import: fossil fuels

Hallgrims Kirkja.

The Harpa Cultural Cenre.

Folklore abounds in Iceland.

The Solfar Sculpture. The settlement of Iceland began in 871 in Rekjavik. It wasn't till the 18th century that a small town began to grow thanks to Skuli Magnusson who opened wool mills in an effort to modernize the economy.

Day 2, Aug. 30: The Gold Circle Tour

Our guide is showing us where we'll be hiking on the map.

Standing between the two continents.

Our COC group at the Kerio Crater which was formed about 6500 years ago: me & Case, Terry, Allana, Margaret, Maureen & John, Phil & Liz, John + Vern.

The depth of water at the bottom of the 55m deep crater flexuates from 7 to 14m.

Icelanders pay 37 - 46% income tax. But they do not pay for health care or education.

Strokkur Geysir erupts once every 4 - 8 minutes and reaches a height of about 15 - 20m.

There's about 80,000 icelandic horses in Iceland. Importing is forbidden. This minimizes the risk of disease. They're the size of ponies and have 5 gaits (2 extra). They're also the most colorful horses in the world.

Gulfoss waterfall is 30m high where it plunges into the 70m deep canyon.

The upper falls of Golfoss.

Pingvellir - the famous rift Almannagja where the America and Eurasian tectonic plates are pulling apart by a few centimeters each year.

Pinmgvellir was the founding place of Iceland's parliament in 930 and the venue for annual parliament meetings in 1798. It's also the place where Icland declared independence from Denmark in 1944.

Pinvallavatin Lake, the largest lake in Iceland.

Day 3, Aug. 31 - The Laugavegur to Porsmork Trek

It was a 4 hour drive from Rekjavik to the trailhead and information centre.

Route for day one is the first red dot (low centre) to the next red dot.

Trekking day 1: From Landmannalaugar to Hrafntinnusker / 12 km / 470m gain The entire route is displayed in the map above.

It was busy on the first day on the trail, mostly because of day hikers.

Looking back at our starting point.

Boiling hot water was spouting from this Storihver hotspring.

Beware of the trolls!

Bubbling boiling puddles along the path.

There's over 7000 species of moss in Iceland.

Crossing the Obsidian desert.

We arrive at the first of 4 cabins. 1100m high. 17 of us slept in this one room. Good thing we had ear plugs with us.

The campsites were all located by the huts. A member of our club had done this trek 2 weeks before us. She had more snow mid August than we did in the beginning of September.

Not only did our guides, Ibi & Stewie have to lead us on the trail, but they also had to prepare dinner. So we helped clean up.

Trekking day 2: Harafntinnhusker to Altavatn Lake. 12 km / 490m gain

The Rejkjafjoll mountains.

Perfect circles created by algae.

Jokultungur area.

Iron has turned this ground orange.

Iceland is warmer than most European capital cities. It's average temperature is 0 degress celsius.

There were 6 other hikers in our group.

It was a steep descent into the Fjallabak area. Our next cabin was by the Alftavatn Lake.

Looking back at the moutains we'd just come from.

I wonder what Case said that go me to point at him like that. I'm sure it was some comment designed to get my hackles up. I'm also noticing he's wearing his Sunday shoes!

Trekking day 3: Alftavatn Lake to Emstrur - 15 km

Liz talking to our porter. He transported all our big luggage to the next hut.

A selfless selfie.

This river crossing knocked the breath right out of us. It was bitterly cold. We couldn't cross fast enough.

Odd rock formations caused by eruptions under the glacier.

11% of Iceland is made up of lava which is 1/3 of all the lava on earth.

Ibi said the bridge is built this high because in the summer the water will "lick" the bridge.

pic 1) Pink Flox 4) Sea Campion 5) Alsike Clover

Hiking through the black glacial desert of Maelifellssandur.

Eyjafjallajokull Glacier.

Storasula Volcano. There are 200 volcanoes in Iceland. 120 are active. There's an eruption every 4 years on average.

Myrdalsjokull Glacier.

The Markarfljotsglufur Canyon is 200m deep. A few of us hiked this after dinner.

See the joker face?

Also in our group were: Oliver from Belgium, Lucia from Edmonton + Judy from Texas.

We made a group of young men very happy when we gave them our leftovers. They were camping and used our picnic tables. Amanda from Scotland was also in our group.

Trekking day 4: Emstrur to Thormork Valley -- 15 km / 300m loss

Einhyrningur Mt.

This was the only day it rained. We did not have much wind throught the entire hike.

Most of us did not bother to take our boots off since we were soaking wet at this point (about 2/3 way into the hike).

This last cabin was the largest. We spent 2 nights here. It felt soooo good to get those cold wet clothes off.

Trekking day 5: To Magni & Mooi Volcanoes -- 16 km / 800m gain

A birch forest. There are no tall trees in Iceland.

There were a few exposed sections on this hike.

Magni Peak. Magni & Mooi are Iceland's youngest volcanos, having erupted only 5 years prior in 2011.

Magni erupted for 4 months. a few days after it stopped, Mooi began to erupt.

On top of Magni.

A wall of lava formed in the 2010 eruption.

Traditional Icelandic grilled lamb for our last dinner.

Ryan & Nicole from New Jersey (left).

This is the report I wrote for our monthly newsletter called: The Tripper, from our hiking club:

Day 8:

It rained the day when we had to travel back. Unbelievable how this tour bus drove through this river. The current was very strong.

The bus stopped at Seljalandsfoss Falls.

We picked up two rental cars in Selfoss and then drove east to these cabins in Horgsland. This is a more remote area along the south coast.

Day 9 we drove several hours further east along the south coast to this glacier lagoon Jokulsarslon.

11% of iceland is made up of glaciers.

Heading back west we stopped in at the visitor centre and did a short walk to this Shaftafell Glacier.

Skogafoss Falls.

There's 200 man-made caves in 90 farms in southern Iceland. Most were used for storage of feed and some for human habitation.

Day 10: We took an early 1.5 hour flight to Aukureyri by the coast, in mid northern Iceland.

This is a 12 pic slider of Laufas in Eyjafjorour. This 1867 farm is a good example of a wealthy vicarage in earlier times.

The botanical garden is the oldest garden in Iceland and grows over 7000 species and varieties of plants.

Strolling through the quaint town of Azureyri.

Day 11: In the year 1000, when Icelanders adopted the Christian faith, chieftain, Porgeir threw all his pagan gods into this waterfall and then named if Godafoss Falls.

Only 1% of Iceland's land can be used for growing crops, 20% for farming and 8% for housing.

After driving along Lake Myvatn, we visited Namafjall. The strong smell of sulpur was overpowering.

Cold water seeps down to magma intrusions where its heated, transformed into steam and then comes back to the surface along with fumarole gas which contains sulphur hydroxide.

In mud pots fumarole gas rise through surface water producing sulphuric acid. Rock and soil dissolve in this acid water, producing mud.

Dettifoss Falls are the largest in all of Europe.

Selfoss Falls are just a 10 minute walk upstream from Dettifoss.

Jokulsa Canyon in Asbyrgi.

Its believed that enormous flash floods caused by an earthquake or eruptions under the Vatnajokull Glacier about 5000 years ago, created this box canyon.