Day 9 - 10.8. Fight with Hekla and Landmannalaugar

We started the day with fresh eggs breakfast.

Fresh eggs

After some time on the road we finally found a way to the top of  Hekla. I think we can say that day wasn’t really a good day to reach Hekla. The weather was normal at the bottom of the mountain (even rainbow) but with each meter up the situation was getting different. After some time it was clear that under current circumstances we cannot continue by car to parking in the middle. We couldn’t see anything.

Road to Hekla, shortly we had to stop, we couldnt see where we go

Really nice weather

Jirka and I left  the car (and Ivo) somewhere around 800 meters above sea level and tried to walk up to the hill. They made only 200 altitude meters and had to come back, totally wet. Not even with almost all clothes on us we couldn’t resist Icelandic weather. We faced very strong wind and snowing. We had to say goodbye to Hekla and gave up. Maybe next time. The next stop was Landmannalaugar, one of the most famous spots in Iceland. On the way we stopped at Ljotipollur to see the beautiful blue lake in red hill (colored by iron).

Ljotipollur lake

Ljotipollur lake

When you reach Landmannalaugar camp you have to make decision. You can leave a car on a dedicated parking slot or you can go directly to the camp but you have to wade challenging rivers. There was no question for us we decided to go. Iit was funny like everybody looked at us immediately  whether we could make it. We made it through (and later also back). We were little bit behind schedule so we had time only for a few hour trek in neighbourhood to see colorful mountains here and of course huge lava field above the camp.

Landmannalaugar hut, permanently full by groups

Mountains behind the camp

Active area around Landmannalagar

Colourfull mountains

and green ones

We were lucky again the weather was perfect and we saw blue sky for few hours. But it changed quickly on the way to our last stop in Iceland – to Eldgja. Under heavy wind we took only snack here and continued back to Road 1.

Inside Eldgja

View to the Eldgja from the road

Leaving Eldgja

Shortly we were reached by rain and later also by fog. Let me say that nothing changed regarding weather for next two days.

Nice way to Reykjavik

same way in 20 minutes

We used all our good luck. At 8 p.m. we came back to our start and end point – Radisson 1919. Our rooms were ready and even bigger ones then before, but we had different issue the next day (on Saturday). Reykjavik hosted Gay pride and our hotel laying directly in the center was affected by this so we had to park little bit far away (not very good while it was heavy raining). Anyway at the end we managed to get our staff into the rooms and at around 9 p.m. we left the hotel to take some good dinner. Our selection wasn’t good we believed the guide and chose gourmet restaurant Einar Ben.

Einar Ben

Small portions, high prices and the most terrible service. It was a big disappointment. On the other hand we had dinner quite cheap, because they  made some mistake in calculation, no objections about that. As dinner left us little bit hungry we aimed for more to close bar Dubliner for some Guinness beer. After Guinness we felt all the kilometers we made in last 10 days and decided to save some energy also for our last day in Iceland.

Driving 380km, road 26, Landmannaleid road, F208, road 1