Iceland

Route 208

Monday August 16 I left Vik early in the morning to have grazing light at sunrise, not easy in Iceland. Finally I was there in Langisjor, a very long turquoise glacial lake, surrounded by mountains. In Eldgja I choose the ridge hike to get a panorama seen from the top of the Ofærufoss waterfall. Admittedly, it was a good choice but very difficult both on the way up to reach the ridges and on the way down to reach the banks of the river. The trip includes number 2 in red then dotted and number 1 in blue to find the parking lot, a distance of 5 km completed in 1:55, this is not a selection performance at the Olympics, bah! Cottony legs and capilotades knees I left the national park to find an acceptable bivouac.

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Volcanic desert Flowers

Route 206

Tuesday August 17th, still early in the morning, I took the dirt road 206 to Lakagigar Park to see the Laki volcano which did considerable damage during its eruption in 1873 and the alignment of three emblematic volcanoes. Unfortunately the sky was very overcast and the ascent of Laki was beyond my physical ability now. I was satisfied with the initiation course, a slalom between the blocks of lava arrowed with yellow stakes, of about a given kilometer for 45 minutes, which I completed in ... an hour; I would sometimes sit on the lava blocks to overcome obstacles! On the way back I took the road 207 to bypass the Lakagigar by joining the road 206 then to find a bivouac on the edge of the track.

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Route 1

Wednesday August 18 the weather was foggy all day with a "Breton drizzle" and the temperature ad hoc. Of course the photos were accordingly. The weather forecast for the coming days is grim. The waterfall with the unpronounceable name Fjadrargljufur flows in a breathtaking canyon for its depth and its cutting with a climatic chisel of millions of years, a pity that the visibility was poor to savor the work of nature. Then Route 1 follows a cliff from which escapes many waterfalls including the Foss á Siðu visible from the Dverghamarar fault. Alas, I found a bivouac a few kilometers further on by the Fossalar river.

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Route 1, Fell

Thursday August 19 was dedicated to the glaciers of Vatnajökull National Park. I stopped first at Svartifoss to hike along the glacier to see the waterfall; At the sight of the trip and the physical condition of my lower limbs, I gave up all shame, you have to know reason. I continued my journey on Route 1 at the foot of the National Park. The weather was so soon gloomy and foggy so early with a fleeting brightening of the sun. The frantic round of tourist cars kept going and the parking lots were crowded. At 1:00 p.m. I decided to stop for a frugal lunch and work on the layout of my site.

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Jökulsarlon glacier lagoon

Höfn

On Friday August 20, when I woke up, I discovered that a camper van was installed next to me. Indeed in my first sleep I had heard an engine noise. The braziness of the basic motorhome driver knows no bounds; I was installed behind a pile of black sand in the wilderness camping in the middle of nowhere, the driver stuck his vehicle against mine. This behavior denotes the gregarious instinct of the panurge sheep or the inhabitant who yearns for his low-cost housing as well as the fear of being alone! Tourists are abject and it gets worse with the development of the motorhome.

The immense Vatnajökull for millennia carved tongues in the rock to escape to the sea; with the global warming demonstrated by the interpretive panels these tongues are preceded by glacial lakes where the tour operators offer tourists, in need of emotion, kayaking approaching the glacier, as shown in a photo of the horde in Indian file in boots , caparisoned for boarding with selfies for the slide show on the way back!

Camping-cariste inconvenant, Inappropriate motorhome driver

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A tire pressure monitoring system

Route F980

On Saturday August 21 traveling the Vestrahorn peninsula I was stopped by two vindictive prohibition signs. I turned back to enter a tunnel crossing the mountain. In addition, I had planned to go to Lonsöraefi by the superb gravel road F980 slaloming along the vast glacial valley Jökulsarsandur; alas I was stopped in my tracks by a very wide ford, the depth of which in view of the rapid flow of the river seemed deep to me; alone and without help, I waited for long minutes at the foot of the cairn indicating a possible passage! Wanting to escape the horde of Stakhanovist tourists in order to amortize the cost of renting their vehicle, I came up against natural constraints, being alone. Solo travel has the disadvantages of its advantages and vice versa. Once again I turned back to establish my bivouac a few cables away on the black moraine of the valley.

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Djupivogur

Sunday August 22 I left my soul in pain of not having crossed the ford, bah! On the way I stopped at the Hvalnes lighthouse and then at the Hals viewpoint. Route 1 winds between sea and mountains in a landscape reminiscent of the American west coast of Big Sur, California, USA. Alas, here in Iceland, the weather is very different in the morning the mist descends from the mountain and the glaciers to drown the landscape. I arrived in Djupivogur in the late morning for a quick tour of the city, one of Iceland's first German ports. I ate an excellent Fish & Chips lunch, but the portion was sparse. I sat in the supermarket parking lot.

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A gate on route F980, 9°C