Laugavegur Hiking Trail - Day Three

Today, I am in a such good mood that I even try to eat oats mixed with fruity tea… the truth is: it’s slightly better then plain water, slightly! haha

Between today and tomorrow we are going to do 30km, 15km each day! As usual, we are one of the last ones to leave the hut!

And finally we start our walking through beautiful green mountains…

20 minutes later we have to cross the first river of today… it is not as deep as the one we crossed yesterday, but it’s larger, and of course I go barefoot: s-l-oooo-w-l-yyy stepping on
p-a-i-n-f-u-l little stones.

Back on dry shoes we carry on walking, till we find a farm with horses and some huts. This place is also an alternative hut for groups who are hiking. We got here just on time to see a group of people getting out with the horses for a run in the mountains…

The weather changes quickly, and now starts rainning, so we have to dress our rain trousers.

We cross a bridge in a little river… and later another big river with a bigger bridge and soon enough another river without any bridge!! And this river is bigger, deeper, stronger and for what they say the coldest too!

We find some of the people hiking trying to do their crossing… looking at each other, thinking of the safest way to do it.

Aaahh my dearest reader, the thing that happened next I was not expecting at all: many people start taking off their trousers!! That’s it! They adventure on icy water only in their knickers, and we can see how the water gets up high to the tights.

After watching a few crossings we adventure as well…

My feet are so sore after this!
But we made it: cold legs, but dry knickers! Haha

Back on the path, now we face a long walk on grey landscape…
We have lunch, and fat drops of rain start falling heavily!

2 hours of heavy rain are testing my waterproof jacket to its limits! By now, my sleeves are wet up to my elbow… and I can also feel my feet wet! oops! It is impossible to keep my hands warm and I try to move them as much as I can… I am so looking forward to get to the huts and change to warm clothes!

45 minutes later we see it, there, the Emstrur Huts! Ahhhh that same feeling again! We made it, 15km! 40 km done so far!
Tonight we are not staying in the hut tho, we are camping! Again, we write our names in the security list, we pay for the camping and we are told the best spots to camp… further down the hill it’s quiet, cozy and there is a little river for washing the dishes and get some water to fill our bottles.

Emstrur camping site

Later our friends Dmitry and Parsha, 2 friendly russian guys we met on the first night, arrived and we had dinner together!

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After a nice dinner and a hot cup of tea we all go for an evening walk to the Canyon.

My shoes are still wet so I have to use some plastic bags to isolate my feet and keep it warm and dry, it looks ridiculous but works perfectly and I am satisfied with this improvisation! 😀 haha

We walk for about 20 minutes and there, just after a hill the breathtaking view: the Canyon…

Iceland canyon - Laugavegur Trail — Iceland canyon – Laugavegur Trail

2 hours later we are back in our (not so) warm tent!

It’s midnight. And now lying on my sleeping bag I am glad the friendly Icelandic Tour Guide borrowed me a little mattress.. after all I did not come so well prepared to camp in Iceland, and he said: “in Iceland never sleep without a mattress, the ground is freezing cold“, and it’s true!

With my head hidden in the sleeping bag, in a few minutes I am off to dreams-land…

ZZZzzzzz