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Category: Iceland

28.08.08 – Skaftafell
By Garik and Lena

We woke up in the morning, yet another time it was cold! Lena didn’t enjoy her sleeping time tonight and I felt the cold ground all night long , because I didn’t inflate my mattress well the evening before. The weather seemed to be calm this morning, of course this has nothing to say about the rest of day!

Right after we finished light breakfast, we headed to the park. It should take us 5 to 6 hours to accomplish the hike. Why shouldn’t we kill our selves in the last days of our trip in Iceland, like we didn’t do till now…? First thing first – ascending, no power in our feet, exhausted already! The weather was chilly and we saw few small waterfalls before we reached Svartifoss. It had hexagonal black basalt columns. From there we continued to Nyrdrihnaukur (706m), walking on wet muddy ground. We were a little disappointed with the place; Lena had more expectation of it. Maybe it was the cloudy and fogy day that made it that way, maybe the gray color surroundings instead of green fields as it was described in LP, I don’t know. After three hours we passed approximately half way. From the place we stood, we could see the highest mountain (1126m) that we could climb on, but we decided to pass it this time. We won’t see much today from there anyway and it’s not worth killing ourselves further. We did see people going down from the mountain; I wonder when they started their hike… As we continue our hike, we reached the side of the park, from where we could see the Vatnjokull iceberg tip called Skaftafelljokull, how predictable! From there, it’s a long way back descending toward the camping ground. If you ask me, I prefer ascending, that way your knees don’t hurt!Lena is the opposite! So we concluded that I have bigger lungs and she has stronger legs!

Suddenly I realized I’ve lost my hat! Man, this is bummer! When we came back to the tent, I checked all over the place and couldn’t find it! Most of all, I couldn’t recall when was the last time I saw it! Probably it was yesterday, in the BSI bus or in Les, I don’t know. All I could do is ask in the “lost and found” the next day, in Reykjavik, in the central bus station.

When we came back, we bought hot soup in the info center for 1900 ISK. We wanted to take another bowl of soup but didn’t know whether it’s free refill. We saw people refilling several times while we were sitting there, and taking more water and bread, but we didn’t see them pay for. So we decided that there is not going to be another chance like this and took second round too! At the end we bought ourselves two sandwiches and a bag of cookies for 1900 ISK to make sure we’re not going to sleep hungry today.

We saw the movie today; again we had much more expectations! The info center itself is much more interesting. Lena slept during almost all the movie. Then we were back to the tent, having an hour nap after which we took shower! This time it cost only 4×50 ISK for 5 minutes, at least the tap with the cold water was for free. I think I saw the Dutch couple taking a shower together, not a bad idea at all! Today as yesterday we had noodles for dinner, today were mushroom tasted noodles. Soon we’ll go to sleep; it’s really dark outside now, and cold! I think this night we’ll wear every piece of clothes we have! The rain started pouring as we entered the tent, so it’s not going to be easy to pack our staff tomorrow… Goda nott!