HUGE post about HUGE iceland trip i had in summer
In June of this year, i made a trip to Iceland. It's my yearly "BIG" trip to walk somewhere cool and spend a handful of nights in a tent. This summer I walked the Hornstrandir Nature reserve / Hornstrandir peninsula (same thing). It's the northernmost tip of Iceland, and just JUST BARELY ALMOST grazes the Arctic Circle (or Polar circle, if you prefer)
I'll cut this thread into several posts. There will be quite some time between the posts as I'll just be writing and posting them as i finish them. I'll write info into the Image Description of all images.
General Trip info: June 22 to June 28 werethe days walked. I began the trip with 32kg of gear and food. Plus the clothing already on me. The trip was roughly 85km according to my garmin GPS. I walked for 7 days.
To get to the starting boat, first had to fly to reykjavik, go from international airport to domestic airport, and then fly to isafjördur, with a plane landing most spectacular in a mountain valley with super strong winds, landing almost diagonally. Quite the experience. After landing, we walked out the airport, and a bird immediately shat on my hiking mate lmfao.
The start was from Isafjördur village, from where a boat was booked to south-western Hornstrandir (Hesteyri) in the morning. From there, the trip would go a clockwise circle, ending in the valley of Veidileysuffjördur, a week later. I'll cut the posts into days from here on, with one post per one hike-day
I'll cut this thread into several posts. There will be quite some time between the posts as I'll just be writing and posting them as i finish them. I'll write info into the Image Description of all images.
General Trip info: June 22 to June 28 werethe days walked. I began the trip with 32kg of gear and food. Plus the clothing already on me. The trip was roughly 85km according to my garmin GPS. I walked for 7 days.
To get to the starting boat, first had to fly to reykjavik, go from international airport to domestic airport, and then fly to isafjördur, with a plane landing most spectacular in a mountain valley with super strong winds, landing almost diagonally. Quite the experience. After landing, we walked out the airport, and a bird immediately shat on my hiking mate lmfao.
The start was from Isafjördur village, from where a boat was booked to south-western Hornstrandir (Hesteyri) in the morning. From there, the trip would go a clockwise circle, ending in the valley of Veidileysuffjördur, a week later. I'll cut the posts into days from here on, with one post per one hike-day
re: Iceland trip, day 1
Day 1:
Boat dropped us off on the Peninsula, on the landing site of Heysteri, there was a nice little house with a pancake cafe in it. We did not visit it, but the other couples and "The Frenchman" visited it. The other people were there for a day hike, and The Frenchman was there for the same hike as us.
Started off nice, mushy swampland, to hillside, to hilltop. Eventually, the end of the hilltop presented the first minor challenge: The path was marked as "Unmarked trail" on the map, and truly it was, unmarked. The path suddenly ends with a 45 degree incline going downhill, a mixture of mud, gravel, and minor water streams. As it was wet and raining, this was a slippery slope downhill. Standing on top of the hill, I realized something:
"This is literally the first main level of Death Stranding"
this was a reccurring theme throughout this entire trip, me going "what the fuck this is LITERALLY DEATH STRANDING LEVEL"
honestly im fucking amazed that kojimbo created an entire peninsula just as a throwback to the game.
Got down the hill, past a church, ignored the church, and then after we were about 100m past the church, a man and a woman came out of the church. They got on an ATV with a trailer attachment, and drove towards us. They stop next to us:
"Where are you going?"
"Campsite, north"
"Ah, we can take your bags and bring them there, its a lot easier to walk then"
"no thanks, we are doing the big hike and we want to cheat as little as possible"
"Ah, i understand"
And the old man on the ATV smiled very warmly, and, for some reason, cried?
It was quite unexpected. I think we might have slightly offended them by NOT entering the church to have a free coffee, as they mentioned that we shouldve done that! sorry ;_; , i didnt think that to be a feature.
We walked to the campsite, and shortly after, The Frenchman arrived, i think about 2 hours later? We chatted, we discussed, i came to the conclusion that The Frenchman had REALLY COME VERY UNPREPARED for what i assumed would be a VERY difficult hike. He said, there's a former BRITISH military base on top of that hill (points at hill) and then he really wanted to see it, so the clock was only about 16:00 or so, so he decided to quickly do a less than 5km trip up and down the mountain. He left all his gear at the campsite, and went up. Unfortunately for him, his phone GPS was shit, and he had no compass, and the moment he got on the hill, the thickest cloud parked itself cozy on it. In the meanwhile, i cooked, i shat, i washed, i pissed in the ocean, and then got some sleep. I woke up at 23:00 roughly, to some sound. It was The Frenchman coming back.
"Did you just come back"
"Yeah"
"Took long, thought youd be back sooner"
"Yeah i got lost in ze clouds"
"Did you atleast find the base?"
"Yeah, but it waz not ze worth it at all, thought i'd never get out of there"
Man was walking in circles in a completely flat top mountain in 10m visibility fog for like 3 hours lmfao.
Saebol campsite, i believe it was called. Good day overall, lotsa rain, easy terrain. Anyone could do this day. The campsite had running water, which was a hose running to a mountain stream running into a faucet.
Boat dropped us off on the Peninsula, on the landing site of Heysteri, there was a nice little house with a pancake cafe in it. We did not visit it, but the other couples and "The Frenchman" visited it. The other people were there for a day hike, and The Frenchman was there for the same hike as us.
Started off nice, mushy swampland, to hillside, to hilltop. Eventually, the end of the hilltop presented the first minor challenge: The path was marked as "Unmarked trail" on the map, and truly it was, unmarked. The path suddenly ends with a 45 degree incline going downhill, a mixture of mud, gravel, and minor water streams. As it was wet and raining, this was a slippery slope downhill. Standing on top of the hill, I realized something:
"This is literally the first main level of Death Stranding"
this was a reccurring theme throughout this entire trip, me going "what the fuck this is LITERALLY DEATH STRANDING LEVEL"
honestly im fucking amazed that kojimbo created an entire peninsula just as a throwback to the game.
Got down the hill, past a church, ignored the church, and then after we were about 100m past the church, a man and a woman came out of the church. They got on an ATV with a trailer attachment, and drove towards us. They stop next to us:
"Where are you going?"
"Campsite, north"
"Ah, we can take your bags and bring them there, its a lot easier to walk then"
"no thanks, we are doing the big hike and we want to cheat as little as possible"
"Ah, i understand"
And the old man on the ATV smiled very warmly, and, for some reason, cried?
It was quite unexpected. I think we might have slightly offended them by NOT entering the church to have a free coffee, as they mentioned that we shouldve done that! sorry ;_; , i didnt think that to be a feature.
We walked to the campsite, and shortly after, The Frenchman arrived, i think about 2 hours later? We chatted, we discussed, i came to the conclusion that The Frenchman had REALLY COME VERY UNPREPARED for what i assumed would be a VERY difficult hike. He said, there's a former BRITISH military base on top of that hill (points at hill) and then he really wanted to see it, so the clock was only about 16:00 or so, so he decided to quickly do a less than 5km trip up and down the mountain. He left all his gear at the campsite, and went up. Unfortunately for him, his phone GPS was shit, and he had no compass, and the moment he got on the hill, the thickest cloud parked itself cozy on it. In the meanwhile, i cooked, i shat, i washed, i pissed in the ocean, and then got some sleep. I woke up at 23:00 roughly, to some sound. It was The Frenchman coming back.
"Did you just come back"
"Yeah"
"Took long, thought youd be back sooner"
"Yeah i got lost in ze clouds"
"Did you atleast find the base?"
"Yeah, but it waz not ze worth it at all, thought i'd never get out of there"
Man was walking in circles in a completely flat top mountain in 10m visibility fog for like 3 hours lmfao.
Saebol campsite, i believe it was called. Good day overall, lotsa rain, easy terrain. Anyone could do this day. The campsite had running water, which was a hose running to a mountain stream running into a faucet.
re: Iceland trip, day 2
The Frenchman made a sprint in the morning, got the early wake up and he was already walking away from camp. His plan was to doubletime the hike that we planned 7 to 9 days for, in 4 days. Very possible, but holy fuck considering everything thats coming up.
Walk from campsite, and we see Pic 1. We need to go around the mountain to the left, via coast, on the ocean, but the coast is innaccessible because it turns into a cliff+ocean combo part way. Fortunately, the innovative minds at Kojima Productions have thought of this, and had a Climbing Anchor right in a convenient spot. We go up the hill, then use the climbing anchor to drop down into a nice flat coast section. The Plan was simple. My friend, less experienced in climbing, will go first, with very little and light gear. Me, more experienced in climbing, will follow with all of the rest of the equipment in different bags in one climb-down. Unfortunately, one strap came loose while i was climbing down, and you can check what happened in the webm below.
We had full rubber suits with us, and so for the next part, we donned them, thinking the ocean waves might splash us. They did occassionally, but nothing crazy. No wind, so the waves were weak fortunately.
The rest of the walk that day was rather OK; 2 painful groin deep river crossings of near 0 degrees C, the ocean, sand sand sand, and mushy mosslands. And, I do love the US Army, they food is downright tongue swallowing de-liciouse as hell.
And funnily, like the brits who made the WW2 base, which was immediately abandoned because it was completely uninhabitable, the americans in their extreme bullheadedness, thought they could succeed where the brits failed. So they built the Straumnes Air Station on top of the mountain above this campsite. They built the base for 4 years, with expensive radar equipment and everything, in the 50-ies, and then; abandoned it because it was completely uninhabitable lmfao.
There's two images in this post's attachments: theres english translation inside the image below each icelandic text. One is of the americans attempting to build a base, the other is of life on this peninsula before my time. I wont rewrite the text from those images, if you feel like knowing these 2 funny stories, the images are mostly readable.
Latrar campsite was nice, had some people at the village who were there for the summer for the one month its habitable. Like 4 or 5 people. Those were their summer homes, / summer retreats. With the exception of the roughly 100 meter climb (down), this day was doable for anyone who can walk on difficult slippery terrain.
The Frenchman was nowhere to be seen, he said he would be going one more campsite further in the same day. This morning was the last we ever saw him.
There was a ruin of bricks and concrete, a garage for a rusted US army jeep i did not take pictures of. We tarped this over and made a drying house of it for our clothes.
Walk from campsite, and we see Pic 1. We need to go around the mountain to the left, via coast, on the ocean, but the coast is innaccessible because it turns into a cliff+ocean combo part way. Fortunately, the innovative minds at Kojima Productions have thought of this, and had a Climbing Anchor right in a convenient spot. We go up the hill, then use the climbing anchor to drop down into a nice flat coast section. The Plan was simple. My friend, less experienced in climbing, will go first, with very little and light gear. Me, more experienced in climbing, will follow with all of the rest of the equipment in different bags in one climb-down. Unfortunately, one strap came loose while i was climbing down, and you can check what happened in the webm below.
We had full rubber suits with us, and so for the next part, we donned them, thinking the ocean waves might splash us. They did occassionally, but nothing crazy. No wind, so the waves were weak fortunately.
The rest of the walk that day was rather OK; 2 painful groin deep river crossings of near 0 degrees C, the ocean, sand sand sand, and mushy mosslands. And, I do love the US Army, they food is downright tongue swallowing de-liciouse as hell.
And funnily, like the brits who made the WW2 base, which was immediately abandoned because it was completely uninhabitable, the americans in their extreme bullheadedness, thought they could succeed where the brits failed. So they built the Straumnes Air Station on top of the mountain above this campsite. They built the base for 4 years, with expensive radar equipment and everything, in the 50-ies, and then; abandoned it because it was completely uninhabitable lmfao.
There's two images in this post's attachments: theres english translation inside the image below each icelandic text. One is of the americans attempting to build a base, the other is of life on this peninsula before my time. I wont rewrite the text from those images, if you feel like knowing these 2 funny stories, the images are mostly readable.
Latrar campsite was nice, had some people at the village who were there for the summer for the one month its habitable. Like 4 or 5 people. Those were their summer homes, / summer retreats. With the exception of the roughly 100 meter climb (down), this day was doable for anyone who can walk on difficult slippery terrain.
The Frenchman was nowhere to be seen, he said he would be going one more campsite further in the same day. This morning was the last we ever saw him.
There was a ruin of bricks and concrete, a garage for a rusted US army jeep i did not take pictures of. We tarped this over and made a drying house of it for our clothes.
re: Iceland trip, day 3
Simple day, nothing magical, just pictures here. Mountain goes up, mountain goes down, marshland goes slop, and humanity goes "we are not in this area"
This day ended outside of any access to civilization, with a campsite that was definitely a campsite as it had a shithouse. The door to the shithouse was unhinged, and the smell was top tier 10/10 sewer level aroma. Overall, anyone could do this day, though slipping and falling is inevitable in the marshlands later.
The frenchman had left some marks for us on the path, his footsteps in the snow occasionally. He seemed to mostly try and avoid the snow.
I had a low amount of cooking fuel on me, but i did take a bunch of candles, and for tonight i wanted hot soup. So i wanted to save my fuel (saving the medkit for the boss and never using it moment) and i built one candle into the Super Fuck-Candle 9000. I shoved about 20 match sticks deep into the candle wax, each working like a wick, which caused the entire candle wax to liquify within seconds of lighting the candle. Within a minute, it seemed to be more vaporized white gas wax than liquid wax. The candle burnt hot and well, but was INCREDIBLY wind sensitive. Last pic related. I cooked a pot of water on this, but would not recommend, with wind this is impossible to use. But works in a pinch. Also it was a cinnamon candle so it smelled real nice.
This day ended outside of any access to civilization, with a campsite that was definitely a campsite as it had a shithouse. The door to the shithouse was unhinged, and the smell was top tier 10/10 sewer level aroma. Overall, anyone could do this day, though slipping and falling is inevitable in the marshlands later.
The frenchman had left some marks for us on the path, his footsteps in the snow occasionally. He seemed to mostly try and avoid the snow.
I had a low amount of cooking fuel on me, but i did take a bunch of candles, and for tonight i wanted hot soup. So i wanted to save my fuel (saving the medkit for the boss and never using it moment) and i built one candle into the Super Fuck-Candle 9000. I shoved about 20 match sticks deep into the candle wax, each working like a wick, which caused the entire candle wax to liquify within seconds of lighting the candle. Within a minute, it seemed to be more vaporized white gas wax than liquid wax. The candle burnt hot and well, but was INCREDIBLY wind sensitive. Last pic related. I cooked a pot of water on this, but would not recommend, with wind this is impossible to use. But works in a pinch. Also it was a cinnamon candle so it smelled real nice.
re: Iceland trip, day 4
Day 4
the day we almost died on
the day we almost had to quit on
the fantastic day of "oh fuck what the hell"
Day 4 started well. Two mountain walks up, two mountain walks down, campsite. Seemed easy in concept.
This day's entire path was, unlike everything else on the island, marked as a "Black" trail, meaning "Very challenging"
In addition to "Very Challenging" it was also marked as, "Unmarked". The length to walk that day was 6.7 miles, or 10.7 kilometers. It took 11 hours and 2 minutes of walking. The previous days generally took 4-5 hours of walking, and were longer in distance on the map.
oh boy
The start was easy, some 6 smaller river crossings. Got wet from one, but i was already dripped out anyway so who cares.
Then a little mountain climb, then another little mountain climb, then another little one, then some snow crossings, and it keeps getting progressively worse.
The snow is melting from the mountain and it's just all mud-slosh and gravel. We're quite literally crawling up the mountain with our stomachs to the mudgravel. Any less friction, and we're slop-sliding downwards. Its roughly alternating between 20 degree and 60 degree angle terrain. Everything has a ultra thin layer of water running down it. And it's all mud-moss-gravel garbage. Lots and lots and LOTS of scrambling (climbing term), sliding, snow, wet, moss, mud. The amount of times we slid down a meter worth at a time, was in the hundreds.
My friend had a boulder land on his finger while we climbed, quite painfully.
After some time, a plateau in the middle of the climb appeared. it turned more into snow and rocks, until eventually turning into mostly dry boulders and snow. We reached the top - rather, 10 meters from the top - and had to go up a near vertical wall of snow. My hiking partner refused, even though i repeatedly attempted to convince him, to come up the 80 degree wall of snow. Got really pissed off. I said i'd take all the equipment on multiple trips and he can do it with no equipment, but he still refused. He wanted something safer, or to cancel. And so we did a 1.5 km detour sideways, along the rim of the mountain top, hoping to find a bit safer path up. Eventually we did find one. At this point we had traversed about 3km in about 5 hours, with a strong 40% of the time being on our stomachs, legs and hands, with our very heavy backpacks. In the end, after many an hour, We got up.
Sidenote: days later, at the ranger station, I asked the ranger if that route is just completely retardedly difficult and insane. He said that the snow conditions this year are whack, and there is way too much snow and meltwater this year in comparison to the previous years at this time of the year.
Afterwards, it was quite easy. The next mountain was not insane, and had quite a casual scrambling climb in comparison, with much less slippery mud on and under every single surface.
The campsite was nice, flat, and comfy.
The weather, the terrain, the excruciating effort, the knowledge that the rest of the trails are marked trails and not "Very Challenging", made this day really feel like the peak of everything. At that time, atleast.
And thats how we travelled less than 11 km in over 11 hours.
the day we almost died on
the day we almost had to quit on
the fantastic day of "oh fuck what the hell"
Day 4 started well. Two mountain walks up, two mountain walks down, campsite. Seemed easy in concept.
This day's entire path was, unlike everything else on the island, marked as a "Black" trail, meaning "Very challenging"
In addition to "Very Challenging" it was also marked as, "Unmarked". The length to walk that day was 6.7 miles, or 10.7 kilometers. It took 11 hours and 2 minutes of walking. The previous days generally took 4-5 hours of walking, and were longer in distance on the map.
oh boy
The start was easy, some 6 smaller river crossings. Got wet from one, but i was already dripped out anyway so who cares.
Then a little mountain climb, then another little mountain climb, then another little one, then some snow crossings, and it keeps getting progressively worse.
The snow is melting from the mountain and it's just all mud-slosh and gravel. We're quite literally crawling up the mountain with our stomachs to the mudgravel. Any less friction, and we're slop-sliding downwards. Its roughly alternating between 20 degree and 60 degree angle terrain. Everything has a ultra thin layer of water running down it. And it's all mud-moss-gravel garbage. Lots and lots and LOTS of scrambling (climbing term), sliding, snow, wet, moss, mud. The amount of times we slid down a meter worth at a time, was in the hundreds.
My friend had a boulder land on his finger while we climbed, quite painfully.
After some time, a plateau in the middle of the climb appeared. it turned more into snow and rocks, until eventually turning into mostly dry boulders and snow. We reached the top - rather, 10 meters from the top - and had to go up a near vertical wall of snow. My hiking partner refused, even though i repeatedly attempted to convince him, to come up the 80 degree wall of snow. Got really pissed off. I said i'd take all the equipment on multiple trips and he can do it with no equipment, but he still refused. He wanted something safer, or to cancel. And so we did a 1.5 km detour sideways, along the rim of the mountain top, hoping to find a bit safer path up. Eventually we did find one. At this point we had traversed about 3km in about 5 hours, with a strong 40% of the time being on our stomachs, legs and hands, with our very heavy backpacks. In the end, after many an hour, We got up.
Sidenote: days later, at the ranger station, I asked the ranger if that route is just completely retardedly difficult and insane. He said that the snow conditions this year are whack, and there is way too much snow and meltwater this year in comparison to the previous years at this time of the year.
Afterwards, it was quite easy. The next mountain was not insane, and had quite a casual scrambling climb in comparison, with much less slippery mud on and under every single surface.
The campsite was nice, flat, and comfy.
The weather, the terrain, the excruciating effort, the knowledge that the rest of the trails are marked trails and not "Very Challenging", made this day really feel like the peak of everything. At that time, atleast.
And thats how we travelled less than 11 km in over 11 hours.
re: Iceland trip, day 5
very simple day
mountain goes up
mountain goes down
and end campsite was the ranger station for day 5
plenty of scenics, not much to talk about. we walked.
saw a thousand seagulls, and tens of arctic foxes, including 3 cubs playing right in front of us on this day. Very beautiful and cute! Featured some very simple rope climbing. Unlike the previous day, anyone who can handle an empire state building worth of steps times 5x can do this day.
The Hornvik campsite, this day's campsite, was quite a populated campsite. A big contrast from the 0 of the previous ones, as there was a boat connection here, and features the Extremely photogenic "Hornvik", famous from multiple movies and reference photographs (also death stranding), such as Prometheus (the aliens movie).
Got to talk with a lot of people there, and the ranger at the ranger station, and eat on a bench and table.
mountain goes up
mountain goes down
and end campsite was the ranger station for day 5
plenty of scenics, not much to talk about. we walked.
saw a thousand seagulls, and tens of arctic foxes, including 3 cubs playing right in front of us on this day. Very beautiful and cute! Featured some very simple rope climbing. Unlike the previous day, anyone who can handle an empire state building worth of steps times 5x can do this day.
The Hornvik campsite, this day's campsite, was quite a populated campsite. A big contrast from the 0 of the previous ones, as there was a boat connection here, and features the Extremely photogenic "Hornvik", famous from multiple movies and reference photographs (also death stranding), such as Prometheus (the aliens movie).
Got to talk with a lot of people there, and the ranger at the ranger station, and eat on a bench and table.
re: Iceland trip, day 6, "Hornvik"
Final (not) Destination, the reason many people visit this peninsula. The Hornvik cliff. I have truly not much to say that can describe it. Intensely breathtaking, it was. It was alien, it was out of this world, it was completely and utterly dreamlike. It truly felt impossible. There is a boat connection from Isafjördur, straight to here, and you can walk a ~~10 - 15 km circle through one day to enjoy all of it, and then return to civilization via boat again the next day. Many a tents, many many.
It felt like i was on a sky-island, if you ever played or know the game "Netstorm", it felt like i was on one of those islands. utterly gobsmacked by that place i was.
Standing on the edge of a cliff going straight down 300 meters, with the clouds blasting straight up the edge infront of my face. Birds, not flapping once, very slowly being pushed up right infront of my face by the same wind blowing the thick cloud layer up infront my face. Not seeing the bottom of what feels like an infinite abyss of gray cloud fog below. There are 2 peaks, one in the center and one in the east. Both astonishing.
We climbed one of the peaks, in thick cloud layer. We sat on top of the peak for a while, and felt like we were in limbo or a truly liminal space. There was only a little rock we stood on, and nothing else. All gray
We also crossed a roughly 250 meter wide and 0.5 to 1.0 meter deep river (just balls deep) twice on this day, for we circled back to the campsite. Very cold water, very, very cold. I will not be posting the 5 minute long video of us crossing the river as it features my naked feet like 20 times and also my bulge cause im pantsless crossing the river
It felt like i was on a sky-island, if you ever played or know the game "Netstorm", it felt like i was on one of those islands. utterly gobsmacked by that place i was.
Standing on the edge of a cliff going straight down 300 meters, with the clouds blasting straight up the edge infront of my face. Birds, not flapping once, very slowly being pushed up right infront of my face by the same wind blowing the thick cloud layer up infront my face. Not seeing the bottom of what feels like an infinite abyss of gray cloud fog below. There are 2 peaks, one in the center and one in the east. Both astonishing.
We climbed one of the peaks, in thick cloud layer. We sat on top of the peak for a while, and felt like we were in limbo or a truly liminal space. There was only a little rock we stood on, and nothing else. All gray
We also crossed a roughly 250 meter wide and 0.5 to 1.0 meter deep river (just balls deep) twice on this day, for we circled back to the campsite. Very cold water, very, very cold. I will not be posting the 5 minute long video of us crossing the river as it features my naked feet like 20 times and also my bulge cause im pantsless crossing the river
re: Iceland trip, day 7, objective ESCAPE
exfiltrate day
Walked to the arranged boat pickup point which was ~~15km away from the hornvik campsite. one mountain goes up, then goes down. done
Our boat was scheduled to come in +2 days from now (spare days just incase), but there was a guided tour coming from hornvik as well to leave the peninsula on that same day from that same spot, and we hopped on their boat instead. Same company, so we just talked with the captain and everything was instantly fine. A rubber dingy with a tiny motor came to pick us up and put us on the big boat, and then we scooted the fuck outta there back to civilization and road infrastructure. Quite grateful to have been able to get out 2 days earlier!
In the 7 days we walked, we saw 0 people besides the one frenchman shortly at the start, doing the same trip as us (encircling the peninsula)
So, suprisingly, Off the boat we went on, came off 2 men, age 50 ish. They said they will do the same trip, but counter clockwise instead. I gave them some helpful tips and info, and probably spooked them a bit with the one difficult day we had i described. Wished them good luck, and ran to the dingy
I slipped on the ocean rocks covered in Sargassum going to the dingy and it looked funny and people laughed at me from the dingy V_V
thats it
After action report + info to follow 2 posts from now.
Walked to the arranged boat pickup point which was ~~15km away from the hornvik campsite. one mountain goes up, then goes down. done
Our boat was scheduled to come in +2 days from now (spare days just incase), but there was a guided tour coming from hornvik as well to leave the peninsula on that same day from that same spot, and we hopped on their boat instead. Same company, so we just talked with the captain and everything was instantly fine. A rubber dingy with a tiny motor came to pick us up and put us on the big boat, and then we scooted the fuck outta there back to civilization and road infrastructure. Quite grateful to have been able to get out 2 days earlier!
In the 7 days we walked, we saw 0 people besides the one frenchman shortly at the start, doing the same trip as us (encircling the peninsula)
So, suprisingly, Off the boat we went on, came off 2 men, age 50 ish. They said they will do the same trip, but counter clockwise instead. I gave them some helpful tips and info, and probably spooked them a bit with the one difficult day we had i described. Wished them good luck, and ran to the dingy
I slipped on the ocean rocks covered in Sargassum going to the dingy and it looked funny and people laughed at me from the dingy V_V
thats it
After action report + info to follow 2 posts from now.
re: Iceland trip, BONUS
extra info
People at isafjördur are so nice, its insane. Ofcourse, the prices in iceland are similarly insane. Your lucky to find anything less than 2x the price of something in sweden/germany/finland, and its good if you find things at under 3x the price of those mentioned countries. Very expensive EVERYTHING, but understandably so, one lives in the middle of FUCKING NOWHERE.
In isafjördur, there is "tourist season". We came back from the peninsula just 2 days before tourist season began. Tourist season meaning, that there are cruise ships coming to the small village, 2 to 4 a day, each filled with an INFINITE AMOUNT OF AMERICAN TOURISTS. On the first 2 days, it was a nice, quite village. On the follow up 4 days of rest, every street was filled like american mardi gras, every single american accent spoken by 40 to 60 year old men and women from the cruise ships. I loved how there were warnings in the village, saying to "prepare for the cruise period, starting date X" and the local newspapers were saying that in icelandic and english. "Stock up all the shops with extra, extra, EXTRA wares, prepare your restaurants for infinite food orders", etc. Quite an interesting moment i got to witness, all from the comfort of my own two feet.
On one day, we rented 2 bicycles and drove along the coast on some abandoned highways, and ate some meatballs at a neighbouring village cafe. Quite the experience. And an expensive one, i forgot now but i believe 4 hours on the cheapest bicycle with no suspension was 40€ or 60€?
We walked into the "Trolls seat", a seat shaped hole in a mountain, where you could get a fantastic view of the valley the village was located in, and simultaenously, the cruise ships in port, and the cruise ships waiting in the ocean to be able to enter port. One of the cruise ships had 2 water slides going from the top floor, outside the ferry, to the bottom floor. 2 on both sides of the ship.
Another cruise ship had a open-air multi-hundred people-cargo elevator on each side of the ship, that looked sick as fuck (but i didnt photograph)
We walked all around and visited every cafe we could in the village in the 5 or so days spent there. The food was all terrific.
Last day, in Reykjavik, we had 24 hours to our connecting flights home, so we spent the entire day visiting various interesting areas in reykjavik. Such as the "Two Guys Burgers" joint, which was ghetto/gangster themed burger joint serving what i would describe as the most "That's a tasty burger" ive ever had.
One end of the main street in Reykjavik had a portrait of Kramer. No idea why. There is no other art around it, except a coca cola ad nearby.
saw lots of epic sheep around isafjördur roads, they are very epic shjeep.
People at isafjördur are so nice, its insane. Ofcourse, the prices in iceland are similarly insane. Your lucky to find anything less than 2x the price of something in sweden/germany/finland, and its good if you find things at under 3x the price of those mentioned countries. Very expensive EVERYTHING, but understandably so, one lives in the middle of FUCKING NOWHERE.
In isafjördur, there is "tourist season". We came back from the peninsula just 2 days before tourist season began. Tourist season meaning, that there are cruise ships coming to the small village, 2 to 4 a day, each filled with an INFINITE AMOUNT OF AMERICAN TOURISTS. On the first 2 days, it was a nice, quite village. On the follow up 4 days of rest, every street was filled like american mardi gras, every single american accent spoken by 40 to 60 year old men and women from the cruise ships. I loved how there were warnings in the village, saying to "prepare for the cruise period, starting date X" and the local newspapers were saying that in icelandic and english. "Stock up all the shops with extra, extra, EXTRA wares, prepare your restaurants for infinite food orders", etc. Quite an interesting moment i got to witness, all from the comfort of my own two feet.
On one day, we rented 2 bicycles and drove along the coast on some abandoned highways, and ate some meatballs at a neighbouring village cafe. Quite the experience. And an expensive one, i forgot now but i believe 4 hours on the cheapest bicycle with no suspension was 40€ or 60€?
We walked into the "Trolls seat", a seat shaped hole in a mountain, where you could get a fantastic view of the valley the village was located in, and simultaenously, the cruise ships in port, and the cruise ships waiting in the ocean to be able to enter port. One of the cruise ships had 2 water slides going from the top floor, outside the ferry, to the bottom floor. 2 on both sides of the ship.
Another cruise ship had a open-air multi-hundred people-cargo elevator on each side of the ship, that looked sick as fuck (but i didnt photograph)
We walked all around and visited every cafe we could in the village in the 5 or so days spent there. The food was all terrific.
Last day, in Reykjavik, we had 24 hours to our connecting flights home, so we spent the entire day visiting various interesting areas in reykjavik. Such as the "Two Guys Burgers" joint, which was ghetto/gangster themed burger joint serving what i would describe as the most "That's a tasty burger" ive ever had.
One end of the main street in Reykjavik had a portrait of Kramer. No idea why. There is no other art around it, except a coca cola ad nearby.
saw lots of epic sheep around isafjördur roads, they are very epic shjeep.
re: Iceland trip, after action report. Final blogpost
when i got home, after the 7 days of hike and ~~5 days of rest, i had lost 5-6 kg of weight when measured at home.
I burnt atleast 8000kcal a day in the hike. I ate about 3000kcal a day during the hike, and i think i ate roughly the same on the rest days. Water was plentiful, every single hour i think there was atleast one running mountain water stream. I still used disinfection tablets, though i am aware that it was mostly unnecessary as the water was probably cleaner than my tap water at home. The ranger also told me that, as long as I dont take water from a bird nesting site spring on the coast, then the water is pure as fuck.
Every day I ate one US 8hour MRE, and i carried a few british and french 24hour MREs. In addition, sachets of soup powders. I believe I took about 80 snickers bars with me (snickers is codeword for "any type of candybar").
Got covid from the flight back home(?) and it fucked up my lungs. Had to take antibiotics again afterwards because neverending lung infection. Having lost that much weight that quickly probably helped the intensity of my sickness and failure to recover.
The trip totalled to some 2000€ per person for the 2 week trip, includes all expenses inside iceland. Does not include the already existing hiking equipments i have. Featuring 2 flights one way, i think it was 6 overnight stays at a guest house, all the meals at restaourants, cafes and diners. No car rental.
There is no taxi service and the bus service is a big "eeeehhh" in iceland. No uber-like apps. Definitely MUST plan every single traversal preemptively to avoid being foot-stranded.
The worst case scenario estimate was that it will take us 10 days. The best case scenario happened, weather was forgiving (only raining most of the time and moderately to strongly windy, nothing to blow us off our feet or blind vision).
This was all in all a very, very huge and intense trip, even on the rest days. I dont know what ill do next year, or if ill skip next year. Life is difficult and theres not enough time to plan everything in a year in my life, so I believe that next year I must skip my now 6 years strong tradition, in favor of other things. My desires i have are quite denied by the everlasting russian war, and the ever increasing middle east war (haha new war just dropped in the middle east while i was writing this post), and the "what the fuck is going on in africa". So of my past desires, that remain are: West canada, newzealand/tasmania, and the south pole (perhaps featuring artist Argentina)
I loved this trip immensely. I dont think i would ever do this trip again. Unless someone paid me a super huge sum for it, like 10 000€ + expenses. The vikings that attempted to live in that landscape, to farm in that landscape of the peninsula a thousand years ago, absolutely insane madlads. I cannot believe that they succeeded (about half the time, atleast).
I burnt atleast 8000kcal a day in the hike. I ate about 3000kcal a day during the hike, and i think i ate roughly the same on the rest days. Water was plentiful, every single hour i think there was atleast one running mountain water stream. I still used disinfection tablets, though i am aware that it was mostly unnecessary as the water was probably cleaner than my tap water at home. The ranger also told me that, as long as I dont take water from a bird nesting site spring on the coast, then the water is pure as fuck.
Every day I ate one US 8hour MRE, and i carried a few british and french 24hour MREs. In addition, sachets of soup powders. I believe I took about 80 snickers bars with me (snickers is codeword for "any type of candybar").
Got covid from the flight back home(?) and it fucked up my lungs. Had to take antibiotics again afterwards because neverending lung infection. Having lost that much weight that quickly probably helped the intensity of my sickness and failure to recover.
The trip totalled to some 2000€ per person for the 2 week trip, includes all expenses inside iceland. Does not include the already existing hiking equipments i have. Featuring 2 flights one way, i think it was 6 overnight stays at a guest house, all the meals at restaourants, cafes and diners. No car rental.
There is no taxi service and the bus service is a big "eeeehhh" in iceland. No uber-like apps. Definitely MUST plan every single traversal preemptively to avoid being foot-stranded.
The worst case scenario estimate was that it will take us 10 days. The best case scenario happened, weather was forgiving (only raining most of the time and moderately to strongly windy, nothing to blow us off our feet or blind vision).
This was all in all a very, very huge and intense trip, even on the rest days. I dont know what ill do next year, or if ill skip next year. Life is difficult and theres not enough time to plan everything in a year in my life, so I believe that next year I must skip my now 6 years strong tradition, in favor of other things. My desires i have are quite denied by the everlasting russian war, and the ever increasing middle east war (haha new war just dropped in the middle east while i was writing this post), and the "what the fuck is going on in africa". So of my past desires, that remain are: West canada, newzealand/tasmania, and the south pole (perhaps featuring artist Argentina)
I loved this trip immensely. I dont think i would ever do this trip again. Unless someone paid me a super huge sum for it, like 10 000€ + expenses. The vikings that attempted to live in that landscape, to farm in that landscape of the peninsula a thousand years ago, absolutely insane madlads. I cannot believe that they succeeded (about half the time, atleast).
@lebronjames75 did you know that Iceland has the highest youth employment rate in Europe?
Probably because it's too cold for niggers.
Probably because it's too cold for niggers.
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