Around the World with Jan

Well, the hiking is done and I’m back in Reykjavik. Some of the trails were quite hard, the terrain nothing less than stunning, always. We slipped and slid on volcanic sand, navigated narrow trails across landslides and trekked over snow. We slogged up steep hills and slid down again. At times it felt like we were never going to get to the top, but we did, all of us and lived to tell the tale.

We started our trek at Landmannalaugar and were surprised just how many people were out there hiking. There were 16 in our group plus our guide, Zach. I was the only Australian. Our accommodation was multi-share in every sense of the word – 8 to a long double bunk each with a single mattress. We were glad of the huts, outside was pretty cold. The hot shower we could pay for at each campsite was a bonus to wash off the fine dust that covers everything after a day's walking.

We were blessed with gorgeous sunny weather, the only rain we had was after the day’s hiking was over and it didn’t last long. Clear skies meant we had amazing vistas of the glaciers and those volcanoes, the names of which no-one can pronounce.

I wasn’t prepared for how beautiful the rhyolite hills would be – the vivid reds and oranges contrasting with the stark black lava and brilliant green vegetation where there was any. The first two days were spent walking through that terrain, I never got tired of admiring the view. The landscape was split by deep canyons with glacial water surging through narrow rock faces. You can’t see the canyon until you’re right at the edge. Some of the edges were a bit too scary for me to look down.

We walked through a pitch black obsidian desert called Hrafntinnusker which seemed to go on for ever, starkly contrasting with the rhyolite hills around us. The chunks of obsidian looked like pieces of glass, dragon glass if you’re a Game of Thrones fan. The whole landscape looked like it was from another world. It was never boring.

We crossed rivers that flowed directly from the glaciers – some of it quite deep but fortunately we were able to cross on foot – no bridges for many of them. One of the highlights for me was the day we trekked up to volcanic craters Magni and Modi, named after the sons of Thor, which were formed after the 2010 eruption. We had to cross the Devil's Spine hanging onto a chain - pretty scary for me but I did it, legs shaking when I got to the end.

When we emerged from the volcanic terrain and descended into the Thorsmork valley we walked through beautiful birch forests with stunning flowers, quite a contrast to the treeless landscape we walked through for almost 4 days.

We were all tired by the time the bus took us back to Reykjavik but everyone was amazed by what we saw and what we achieved. A great group of people, who supported and helped each other walk on some pretty tough terrain.

Since July 4 one of the volcanoes about 30 minutes away from the city has started to rumble and there have been tremors. I got a shock last night at the Sky bar where I was having a drink on the 8th floor - the building shook while we were sitting there. It may be common for the locals but we tourists got a bit of a surprise.

Next stop England where I think the hiking will be a little easier with no scary steep bits.Read more