Hellismannaleið trail: Afangagil to Landmannahellir: Iceland trip Day 4

A day among empty mountains and ash covered plains.

I sleep well last night cosily cuddled in my warm sleeping bag, the first night for a while I did not have a morning plane or bus to catch. Today began with a climb up to a black, ash covered pass, then a descent to an ash covered plain. After the plain the trail climbed again up a valley. This pattern was repeated a few times during the day, with occasional areas and hillocks of lava and harder rocks. The black mountains encircling me had starkly contrasting patches of white snow. I only had one area of old snow to cross but that on more distant ranges suggested I would encounter more in the days to come. While in general vegetation was absent, in places on the rocks there was grey moss and on the ash plains, clumps of small flowers. 

I forded one river today with water up to my knees, the shifting bed of gritty sand beneath my feet causing them to sink a little with each step. Using my trekking poles to aid my balance was made difficult by the current trying to push them downstream. 

Now I am camped at Landmannahellir, by a braided river in a broad valley on an area of grass. To gain some mobile phone reception I climbed up a nearby summit where, after an exchange of "can you hear me?" repeated a few times, I sent a text to my wife confirming my location and my love for her.

The campsite and huts for tourists seem quite popular and constitute most of this tiny settlement. An old staging point on the route through the mountains, nowadays, instead of sheep farmers on horseback its visitors arrive in 4x4's, some with ingenious camping arrangements on their roof or sides.

Path over black ash in the foreground, snow streaked mountains in the distance

Landmannahellir, the campsite is just around the corner from the hut in the bottom left of the picture