The highlands to Askja and further South
The highland adventure starts the moment we drive onto the F910. The road zigzags upwards and within a few kilometers it goes to 600 meters. It is windy, it rains and once at altitude the temperature drops to 0°C, yes 3 August 0°C. I have never experienced this on August 3rd. We make it cozy and especially warm inside.
The next day starts as the previous one ended, wet, cold and windy. We follow the F910 further and once past the power station of the Jökla reservoir it really becomes F road driving. To keep it short, from the power station to Askja it’s 110 kilometers, which takes us more than 7 to 8 hours, shaking, rattling and shifting a lot. After dinner I crawl under the wool, I’m exhausted. Tomorrow we will stay for a day to walk to the crater of Askja. The weather reports already say that the weather will be beautiful.
After a good night’s sleep, it is time to get up. The weather reports are right, steel blue sky, so SUN. We start on time, you should not let such beautiful weather pass. To describe the walk in short, STUNNING. Too bad about the snowfields so we can’t do the last kilometers to the crater, but it’s just great 12 kilometers with a good 1600 altimeters. This is where my batteries charge. Tomorrow we will continue because parking at 36 Euro/Night is enough.
As planned, we will leave at 8 am to continue on the F 910 towards F 26. Before the first sand field, the pressure of the tires is released and we enter the sand at 4,5 Bar, a matter of definitely not getting stuck. After a few kilometers we leave the sandy plain, so we pump air into the tires again. We go to 7 bar, not too hard because it will be shaking. To keep it short and fun. We have 13 driving hours and have barely traveled 60 kilometers, we are throwing in the towel for today. we drink a glass of wine and then crawl into our bed. Tomorrow the last 60 km of the F910
We start the day very early and at 7 o’clock the engine is already running, ready for departure. Same story as yesterday, banging, shaking, rattling and above all hoping that nothing breaks. It’s going slow, but we make it to the end of the F910 in one piece, phew. And for a change, towards evening the weather has changed considerably, wind and rain. Unfortunately, this was again predicted. Tomorrow we’ll see what it will bring us, the predictions are no reason to go out early.
After a stormy night of which we actually experienced very little and a quiet morning, the journey continues along the F26 in a southerly direction. After about 30 kilometers we turn right on an unnumbered track that takes us a few kilometers from the Hofsjökull glacier via numerous artificial dikes. Brilliant place, completely in the middle of nowhere, beautiful view of the glacier if not wrapped in the clouds all the time. Clouds with continuous rain.
The day ends as it started, with rain and wind. Tomorrow we drive further south to Landmannalaugar.
As planned, we continue on the F26 to the F208 where we enter the Fjallabaki National Park and park for the night at a parking lot at the Crater Lake Hnausapollur.
hike Landmannalaugar. To begin with, the weather has become dry, the wind has remained. We start our walk in the geothermal area and leave well supplied with food and drinks. I am not going to describe the walk in detail, but to do it briefly. It was beautiful, beautiful 15 kilometers with 2344 altimeters. Sturdy day out with stunning views over the area. Only a pity about the wind, from time to time we had to be really careful that we were not blown away. But otherwise a beautiful and not unimportant, dry day.
The next day we leave on time and continue our journey on F208. We follow the F208 up to the F233 to later change to the F232, always in a southerly direction to arrive after 3 short driving days through a breathtaking landscape in the south of Iceland. After 10 days of highlands it is a necessity to enter civilization. Because after 10 days without a shop and gas station, there is a great need to sponsor the Icelandic economy again with shopping and filling the diesel tanks. After arranging these necessary matters, we head back into the southern highlands. You can read that sequel in the next blog post.
