Trek through Landmangular National Park

Day 1, September 6
We came to the head of the trail a little while before noon in a bus with our guides, Rosa and Palli, and what better way to begin a day of hiking than to bathe in a geothermally heated pond? After preparing a lunch in the hut, we set off, wrapping whatever we wanted to keep dry in plastic if we didn’t have a pack cover. The very first part of this days hike consisted of tons of craggy formations followed by a smooth green valley. Rosa informed us that the craggy formations came from a fairly recent lava flow. The smooth, green part of the valley is what the whole valley would have looked like were it not for the lava flow.
Also, the gods seemed to be so pleased with CELL and our group’s environmental ethics that they wanted to invite us into their halls for a feast…actually, we just saw a lot of rainbows. Rosa informed us that in Norse pagan folklore rainbows were bridges to Valhalla, home of the gods and the realm of heroes.
After lots of uphill forging and crossing a plain of rather impressive field of colorful obsidian rocks, we reached our hut where we feasted on veggie stew, rice, and fish balls, which are kind of like meat balls only made with fish.

Day 2, September 7
There are lots of places where you hear the joke, “if you don’t like the weather here just wait 5 minutes.” In Iceland, this is actually true! One would be a fool to hike without raingear.This day’s hike consisted of many ups and downs as well as a rather intense river crossing. But waiting at the end was the greenest valley we had seen since we first started hiking.
Our hut was situated by Swan Lake, which Palli said had a ghost story. The story went that there was a farmer in the area that drowned in the lake. He had apparently wanted to shoot a swan, and though he couldn’t swim decided to ride on horseback into the lake. Legend says that he fell off the horse and drowned, and now some hikers claim that at night one can see his ghost riding on horseback into the lake. Fortunately for us, we didn’t run into the farmer ghost was no where to be found the night we stayed next to the lake.

Day 3, September 8
This day’s hike consisted of two river crossings and was relatively flat. We passed by many canyons as well as a haunted hut. The story we were told was of a hiking group that stayed in the hut for only a few hours. They ended up not wanting to sleep in the hut because the majority of the group simply had a strange unpleasant feeling about place. The trail guide of this group, not being a superstitious man, was not too happy about his group’s decision. However before they left he had to quickly go back and retrieve something he had left in the hut. The story goes that when he came back to the group, he was wet, pale and shaking. He led everyone to the car they were using to transport their belongings and drove all the way back to civilization without saying a word. Once he was calm enough to speak properly, he explained to everyone that when he went back in the hut a wet person came up from behind him and wrapped his arms around him. A shepherd that drowned in the nearby river supposedly haunts the hut.
Scary stories aside, the weather was the most pleasant weather we had the whole hike. Much to our surprise it didn’t rain at all. When we arrived at the hut, the warden was offering samples of pickled sheep parts, including stomach lining, testicles, and head. Reactions from sampling among the group were mixed. The person driving our belongings from hut to hut performed some astonishing tricks for us as he did the previous night, including turning around on a table only using his toes while his hands remained fixed on a bottle resting on the table, as well as sticking two spoons up his nostrils. Since the sky was clear enough, several group members went out after dark to look for the aurora, but sadly there were no where to be found.

Day 4, September 9
The final portion of our journey consisted of hiking through a region known as Thorsmork. We came across our first forest, which started as brush but turned into a lovely, almost fairy-tale like birch forest.
At the end, on the other side of a river, our bus was waiting. And what better way to conclude a long trek through the Icelandic highland than with pizza? Hits the spot every time.

Natalie and Laurel
(Photos by Elizabeth-Anne)