Laugarvatn

The breakfast in this old hotel is served in the basement. Various wooden tables and old artifacts create a perfect atmosphere for this place. The stone benches are covered with deer or sheep fur. A group of Italians arrive and fill up the room. Apparently, we're not the only tourists after all.

After breakfast we start looking for a gas station to fill up the car before heading back into the highlands. According to Google Maps, there should be one not far from the hotel. However, when we arrive it's just an empty open area. Luckily, we'll pass by another one before we go inland. We're relieved that the car didn't make any more terrifying noises, but the true test will be today. We plan to drive the F35, also known as the Kjölur route. It was used in the oldest days as a critical trading route for horses. However, after some merchants died during a snowstorm the route has been abandoned until the 19th century. Nowadays, there is even a bus that drives this route in summer.

We set off and once more trade asphalt for gravel. As we drive further inland, we admire the beautiful autumn colours in the vegetation around us. In the distance we can see thunderclouds and showers of rain. Our first stop is Hveravellir, a nature reserve with geothermal activity.
As we progress, the road starts to get worse and worse. More potholes appear and slow us down.
When we arrive at Hveravellir, there are approximately 4 other cars and a (off-road adapted) bus that overtook us on the way here. As soon as we stop the car, we notice the fierce wind shaking the car all about. The flag near the outpost is also going absolutely crazy. It's hard to open the door and get out of the car. We put on our jackets and after a quick visit to the toilets, we face the wind to the steaming fields in front of us. Some signs remind us to remain on the track and be cautious about the water temperature that can reach temperatures up to 100 degrees Celsius. Lean into the wind, put your feet far apart and try to take some pictures, that's the motto we're going for in this place. It's actually funny to see all the other tourists struggle with the same common issue. The boardwalk in between the fumaroles provides a good view on the various colours of the earth. In a tiny stream of water, algae flourish and in sulphuric areas the yellow deposit has the upper hand.

After our visit to this section of the park, we decide to take another short walk to Eyvindarrétt. This is a tiny hill in a lava field. The best way I can describe it is a cracked dome of lava. As we walk through the lava fields, we can't really enjoy the scenery as we have to fight the wind to put every next step. Covered in our hoods we mainly face the ground to protect our eyes from the wind. I think we were the only ones to even consider a walk in this area. Not much later we arrive at Eyvindarrétt. We can find some shelter in between the cracked lava and have a proper look around us. We're a bit surprised that this short track costs us this much energy. No surprise really that the way back to the parking lot went super fast. At some points it was easier to run than to use your energy not to fall forward.

We get back in the car and look at the map for our next stop of the day. There's a 10km side road of the F35 that will take us to Kerlingarfjöll, a very colourful landscape with also steaming fumaroles in between. The pictures do remind us of the magnificent Landmannalaugar earlier this trip. We quickly check the Icelandic road service website to see the weather there. As we will be walking on hills and mountains, it might just be that it's closed or not recommended to go there. Surprisingly the measured wind is lower at Kerlingarfjöll compared to Hveravellir. Another issue might be the shower of rain. As we saw so many on our way here, it's hard to tell if it will be dry or not. Because they're mostly showers and therefore don't last that long, we decide to make the sidestep and drive further to our next stop.
After a few relaxing days at the coast, today is again a bit more time sensitive. Because we still have a lot to see today, and the off-road part is particularly difficult to judge, we can't afford very long walks at our stops. The walk we plan to do starts from a smaller parking in the mountains. To get there, we follow a description that advises us to follow the jeep track to the left of the huts to the top where the track ends.
As we approach Kerlingarfjöll the weather is turning darker, and rain starts to fall. When we arrive at the huts, we make a stop to check our maps. The last part of the road was already pretty bad forcing us to drive at max 15 km/h. We verify our location and realise that continuing further on the jeep track is our only option. We can do a walk from here as well, but that adds another 10 km to the walk. We don't have that amount of time. A car that we overtook drives up the jeep track and leads the way. A bit hesitant, we follow in their tracks. It would be stupid to just drive back for this. In the meantime, we hope that the weather will improve.
The jeep track is steep and on loose rocks. The car in front advances very slowly and after a while stops over on the side to "take a picture" or maybe to just let us pass again. Despite our car being more of a true 4-wheel drive compared to theirs, I'm not too confident about the conditions. We put the car in full 4-wheel drive mode with rocky surface and continue. As we drive on the ridge of the mountains, the wind and rain are getting more intense. Every now and then we stop to evaluate a section of road ahead of us and/or to see how long this track continues. In the distance we can see a red jeep that has stopped on a steep uphill part and gets out of his vehicle. Afraid that he might have gotten stuck we wait before starting the next section. As he gets back in his car and continues, we start the steepest part with big stones, and streams of water in between. This is real off-road driving! Although, at this very moment I'm not enjoying it to the fullest.
Finally, we arrive at the small parking lot where our trail starts. To our big surprise at least one other car has made it here too! By now we're in the clouds and it's raining heavily. The car gets shaken around from side to side by the wind. Desperate about the weather, we park and decide to have lunch in the car. The people from the car next to us are clearly doing the same or are waiting for the weather to improve. We can literally see about 100m onto the trail at this point. After a while some other cars arrive to the parking, including the one that we followed in the beginning. However, most of them stop, and 2 minutes later reverse again to drive back down. The longer we sit in the car, the more convinced we are we should do the same. It's no use risking our lives out here to probably not even see the colourful mountains or steaming holes. After we've finished our lunch, we start the engine again to drive back. A long drive to the F35, all for nothing but the adventure.

The way down takes equally long as the way up but after a long while we arrive back at the F35. We're now about halfway this highland road and our next stop is back on hardened roads. Actually, we notice that the car didn't make any strange sounds anymore. That's a big relief!
When we hit asphalt surface again, we can advance more quickly to our next stop: Gullfoss. As of now, we've arrived in "the golden circle" of Iceland. It's an area in the south-west of the island that is very popular for tourists that don't have the time to visit the entire country. In this area you can find a mixture of all elements that Iceland has to offer. Because we do have the time to visit other places, we're a bit afraid these highlights might be less spectacular in comparison to the other things we've seen so far. Also, we've just left the northern part of the island where we didn't see many tourists at all. This could be something entirely different.
When we park the car at the huge parking lot, we quickly realise we're in the touristic area. There's a big gift store, nice pavements, and all wheel chair accessible. Some benches where people can rest on the 300m walk to the waterfall... a different environment. It's funny how we cross people that are very ill-equipped for this country's weather. Thick fur coats and shoes where one would go out with. Even some people on high heels!
The waterfall itself is nice but at the same time a bit disappointing as well. Maybe it's because of the many tourists or we're already too spoiled lately. For us, this waterfall has a bit too much of a "look at me, I'm gorgeous"-level whilst there is so much more out there that is equally beautiful. The waterfall comes from a wide riverbed that has various little falls that all come together again to form one big waterfall at the bottom. It's called gullfoss (golden waterfall) because on a sunny day you can often see rainbows over the waterfall. Today is a not sunny day, so no rainbow. We take some pictures and decide to move on to our next stop.

Our next stop is Geysir, the famous geyser. Actually, it's another geyser in the same area that is the most photographed: strokkur. Geysir became a dormant geyser a couple of years ago and now only very irregularly erupts about once a day. You need to be very lucky to witness that. Stokkur on the other hand erupts in intervals between 4 and 8 minutes making it way more interesting for tourists.

After having left our car at yet another big parking lot, we walk to the area of interest. There are similar signs here as in Hveravellir earlier today warning people about the hot temperatures of the water. On our way to the geyser, we see some little pools of boiling or steaming water. Some colourful palettes, but not a as strong as we've seen before. When we arrive to strokkur some people have already gather around. It's quite easy to spot where the main event is here. After a couple of minutes, the geyser erupts and throws the water about 20m high in the air. It's spectacular to see and you can't get enough of it. We stay for about 5 eruptions before we move on, trying to make some pictures of the unannounced blasts.

It's already evening when we leave from Geysir and drive on. Normally we planned another hike to Brúarfoss today but the hike takes about 2h and can be very muddy. We quickly stop at the parking to the start of the trail but decide to not do this anymore. We continue to our chalet for the night and check-in. It's a good thing we didn't do the hike because we can't eat in the hotel/chalet. There's a restaurant in a wellness spa in the town nearby or a hostel. The town restaurant is closed on Mondays. We get back in the car and decide to go to the hostel. The outside of the building is very nice and actually looks like a very fancy hotel. It's an old school that has been renovated and adapted. When we arrive, we have to take our shoes off. There's no one at the reception, so guided by our ears, we make our way to the restaurant. It's super cosy and relaxed here. The menu is limited, but there's definitely something on there that we like. We take some water and pick a table. It's been a busy and long day and we talk about the adventures we've been through. After a nice meal, we drink a hot chocolate milk as dessert and go back to our chalet. Tomorrow brings more of Iceland's golden circle highlights so we quickly go to bed.Read more