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Category: Iceland

25.08.08 – Álftavatn – Emstrur [day 3]
By Garik and Lena

  • We woke up this morning at 06:00 AM, but it was not our clock this time, it belonged to some weird guy who was acting like some soldier. The two French girls woke up with him, probably they all wanted to start early their walk today. From the small window I’ve noticed that he weather was calm and clear! We’ve slept for another hour and than got up on our feet, and that was only after the big and loudly group from yesterday made some room in the hut. After the breakfast we put all our clothes on, our wet rain coats and pans on top, boots were also wet… and off we go!
  • Outside the hut, the view was stunning, clear and sometimes even sunny! Right at the start we lost our way but soon noticed small pole with a yellow mark, indicating the way. Soon after we started our walk, we had to pass a river! Me going first, Lena after me. This time I took a picture of Lena walking through the river, though she didn’t look at the camera. Cold and painful, we dried our feet and continued walking. We passed beautiful green valley, between mountains covered with snow. After two hours or so we reached the second hut of Álftavatn, about 5Km from the one we staid in. After this hut the view changed quite dramatically and quickly! Black sand and lava field all around. 15 minutes later, after we passed the second hut, we had to pass another river! This time much wider and much powerful! Suddenly rain started to pore on us, well, we are getting used to it! I was first again, Lena passed right after, almost crying of being so freezing cold! When she crossed the river, I took care of her feet instead of mine; I felt less cold I guess… I used alcohol, rub it on her feet to make blood run faster, I thought it helps, Lena thought otherwise.
  • When we continued walking, the weather remained harsh, not like this morning. I started to think that the weather is nice only in the early morning hours; this can explain why people start their day so early!  In the after noon, the weather is cold, windy and foggy! We passed another two rivers, this time with bridges! One of them was such a mess structure that I had to take a picture of it! The best Icelandic engineers worked on that bridge I tell you!
  • We remembered that we read on the Internet once, about this hike day, and that we are going to walk through lava field without knowing how much walking is left, while all you see around you is unchanging view! And I’m not speaking about the fact that you can barely see the marked poles! When we started the day, we started it with some group of five tourists from Spain. All the way till now we passed them and they passed  us every half an hour or so, now we lost them. At some point the walk was so monotonous that I started to think to myself, “When are we going to finish this day!!!“.
  • Finally, after 6 hours of walk we reached the hut! Just as it was written in the LP book. We hardly stopped for taking photos almost all entire walk after the second hut, each time it was raining and foggy, alternately. We did manage to finish the day among those who can afford themselves a good place in the hut! The hut was smaller that the last one, though much more cozy! The French girls were there first I think, they got the best places in the hut as usual!
  • Since we got there relatively early, we cooked noodles for lunch. Each of us took a shower, 400 ISK for 5 minutes of hot water! Now this makes me so angry! They have hot water all over their island, free of charge, but they will take 400 ISK for a lousy 5 minutes shower! Plus you have to be precise! You need 4 coins of 100 ISK, otherwise you can’t take a shower, the machine knows how to swallow only 100 ISK coins, isn’t it hilarious!? The machine has a timer so you will know when the time is out, so you can prepare to take a decent dip in cold water, before you turn the water off, staying naked in the shower with shampoo all over you head!
  • Later, we cooked pasta and cheese for dinner. Everybody in the hut, thought that we are hungry and decided to give us some of their leftovers. We felt a bit uncomfortable with such a gesture, specially when we couldn’t afford giving them something, so instead of chocolate, we decided to have crackers and jam for desert.
  • We had a nice chat with some German fellow, really nice guy, he told us about himself a little, about his journey around Iceland. It’s his 5th day on the island and he is heading to Skogar (6 days trek) with his father! He plans to stay on the island till the end of a month, just like us… I though to ask him, how can we pass our Sunday time in Frankfurt (8 hours connection on our way back home), is there something interesting to see or do? He told us “Nothing!” His dad told us the same thing! They tried to think, they suggested some sort of museum, botanical garden, something with dinosaurs. My favorite was a place that commemorates the beginning of German democracy, “WOW…” the German guy said it with a smile on his face and his hands raised up…Ok, now we know that there is nothing to do there… specially when it’s going to be Sunday. He told us that we may take a train from the airport to the city in less than an hour. Also he warned us not to go around pubs near the central station. He suggested us to take a train from there to Nirenberg, where people are strangely funny because they having something like October fest all year! When asked him which beer is the best German beer, he laughs and told me that there are too many! So meanwhile we decided to stay in the airport, see what’s going up there, maybe we’ll go out to the park at the center of the town… The guy told us also that there is a very helpful info center in the airport that we might want to use it.
  • The weather outside was harsh and inside the hut people were snoring. I’m going to listen to some music on my mp3 player and try to sleep, goda nott!
Somewhere near the hut, couse it's too green!!!

Somewhere near the hut, couse it's too green!!!

Brrr...Cold!!!

Brrr...Cold!!!

Best engineers! I told you!

Best engineers! I told you!

The group behind are Spanish, they crossed the river at it's narrowest point, bad idea...

The group behind are Spanish, they crossed the river at it's narrowest point, bad idea...

In the hut.

In the hut.




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