It is pretty late. After a day in the fog on the glacier at 80km/h (ski-doos are pretty cool!) I want to reach Landsmannalaugar, the starting point for “one of the most beautiful walks on Earth” (quoting my Lonely Planet guide). The walk links Landsmannalaugar and Porsmörk and takes four days. Four days for 64 kilometres? “Well, for tourists, but certainly not for world-travellers” or so I thought.
However, the first problem was not the walk as a such. The roads in the interior were still closed. And if I would leave the car in the South at Porsmörk, there would be no bus bringing me back after I had reached my Northern destination, Landsmannalaugar.

I studied the map and decided that the F210 mountain road should be sort of drivable to at least the middle of the walk. Only after this point (Alftavatn) the real mountains started. I left the ring-road (Iceland’s only big road around the whole island) and drove in direction of Porsmörk. Finally I could cross rivers! It was great fun and for once I did net get stuck once. And even after 10 crossings my feet were still dry . The only thing which deviated a bit from my plan was of minor concern: reaching the end of the beautiful valley which reminded me a lot of Bilbo Bagging’s home in “Lord of the Rings” I found myself on the wrong side of the BIG river. Actually a river a bit too big to cross. I talked with the landlady of the beautifully situated farm at the end of the valley (she had a smile like Cameron Diaz and I considered to stay for a night) and she told me that I had to drive back to the ring road. Well then, to see that scenery it has been worth it.

After another trial and while ignoring the “LOAKED” signs (means “no way for nobody” in Icelandic) the car climbed higher and higher. The soil was black, the mountains black and light green – even though it was 11pm, the view was breath-taking.

To my surprise and after driving for more than 1 hour there was a guy walking in the light of my head-lights. At close to midnight? Far from civilization? He must be a super-hero or at least an Austrian. Well, no. He came from Germany and told me that he was doing the whole walk of 64km without a single stop. I conclude: German super-heroes do exist.

I reached the lake of Alftavatn  at 5 past midnight. This was the hut exactly in the middle of the track. So, on the next day I would walk to Landsmannalaugar and on the day after back to Alftavatn and my car.


The next day it rained lightly. I cost me quite an effort to pack my rucksack and leave the cosy roof-tent. At the beginning it was steep. And my backpack was sort of heavy. After 2 hours of climbing it was very steep, there was snow and somebody must have secretly filled stones in my backpack. The snow had a tendency to be crushed-ice for Mojitos. I thought of Alex, a friend and my favourite cocktail mixer in Switzerland. I thought of all the parties we had on our roof-terrace and the 30 degrees they had in Zurich right now. Like in the mountain-bike races earlier in my life I started to ask myself why I was doing this when I could sit in a cosy bar sipping my drink.

Well, the hot springs a bit later gave me an answer. Beautiful! In the middle of tons of snow I saw a steaming soil in all colours of the rainbow. Amazing. Simply amazing.

After 3.5 hours of hiking I reached the first hut. I was really cold now and the wind was blowing strong. In the hut - what do you guess? - Swiss and German folks gathered. I cooked my instant noodles and melted some snow to refill my drinking bottle. Later a group of 20 very loud Americans joint and I took this as a signal to walk on.
The walk continued and at 8pm I reached to superb hut in Landsmannalaugar. Being there, a Spanish couple shared their beans with me, which was really nice since I was running out of food (poor planning, I know, but I thought the track would be somewhat easier). I went to bed a 9pm and started my return trip at 7am the next day.
For a change it was raining lightly. Better even, the wind had clearly freshened up. Four hours later, completely wet and with my life passing in front of my eyes I reached the same hut as the day before. Luckily, the group was gone and I could use the only gas-oven in the hut to dry my clothes. Eating my last instant pasta and the rest of the toast bread the Canadian girls had given me in Reykjavik. I wondered how I would reach Alftavatn.

I somehow did. Completely exhausted. Fighting against wind strong enough to blow me of the track for a couple of times. Wet. Cold. But somehow pretty proud to have done a four-day hike in two days only.

Well, in any other country here the story would be finished, but not so in Iceland where the adventure was about to start. Remember, I had chosen a closed road to reach Alftavatn. And somehow there was not so much Diesel left. I followed the track. And reached a snow field. Remembering my previous experiences with Icelandic snow, I decided that it would be a bud idea to get stuck in the middle of nowhere on a closed road with no mobile connection. Carefully, the Land-Cruiser found its way through. But then: where am I? Suddenly there were junctions which were not marked on my map. And of course, there were no street signs. After one hour driving and with the light for the fuel reserve blinking in a perilously red colour, all of a sudden I found myself in front of Hekla - which I knew from postcards (it is the most active Icelandic volcano). This was not were I was supposed to be, but at least an indication. After more rivers to cross and the car powered by hope only I reached a bigger street (or, a street at all). And at the filling station some 12 kilometres later I filled the tank with 92 litres Diesel (content: 95 litres).

But, let me point this out: For the fun of it I certainly would do it again.

PS: I did not write about Southern Iceland – but go there and you will see ice cubes dropping of Europe’s biggest glacier Vatnajökull