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Iceland: into the high lands

Iceland crossing - tired, cold, wet

“If you go far, far away,” the child said, holding his mother’s hand, “can you get everything you want?”
“Yes, my darling,” she said wearily.
“And be whatever you’d like to be?”
“Yes,” she answered.

– Halldor Laxness, ‘Independent People’

And the rain fell, and the winds blew and slammed against the tent. Days of rain turned into weeks. The world was monochrome. Icy rain and flurries of snow challenged our lightweight clothing. We wore every stitch of clothing we owned and still we were cold.  The only colour came when we escaped from the world, into our little red tent at day’s end.

Iceland crossing

Iceland crossing - tired, cold, wet

The days were wet. Our kit was wet. Our cameras were wet. We trudged across the black stones of Iceland’s highlands, each step identical to the last, each day the same as the one before. The same but wetter. Wetter and hungrier.

Iceland crossing

Carrying food for 25 days means that you must learn to be hungry. We simply could not carry enough food to replenish all the calories burned by a hard day of exercise with a heavy pack. And the more food you have in your pack, the more calories you burn carrying them. So hunger is inevitable.
For breakfast we shared a small pan of porridge and raisins. Then we broke up the long day with two chocolate bars, a handful of nuts, and a morale-boosting inch of salami. Come day’s end we were ravenous for our boil-in-the-bag meal with an added spoonful of calorie-rich butter. Each day our dinner grew more delicious, yet it also seemed smaller than ever. We were consuming about 2000 calories a day, yet burning thousands more. It’s a pretty simple weight-loss programme, if not a particularly fun one!

The highlands are notorious in Iceland. For being so lifeless that NASA astronauts trained there for their moon landings. For being flat and stony and boring and repetitive and featureless. And for occasional glacial rivers that are too swift and cold to ford. We knew all this in advance. Yet still we found it tough. Navigating on a compass bearing through thick, wet fog in an unyielding icy gale was made more difficult by the ferrous volcanic rock all around us. The needle swang wildly and we steered an approximate course. We were unlikely to miss our target though: we were looking for the third largest ice cap in Iceland.

Navigating across nothingness

Navigating across nothingness

The endless days of grey sapped morale. Chris, being a professional photographer, fretted about the lack of photographic opportunities. I worried that our slowing progress and troubles caused by too-heavy packs may come to jeopardise the whole trip. I worried silently that we may have bitten off more than we could chew.
A gale was thrashing our tent. It had just switched through 90 degrees, and was now threatening to blow the tent over completely. Chris was sending a text message home from his phone.
“There’s no predictive text for YIPPEE,” he shouted above the wind.
“What on earth do you have to say ‘YIPPEE’ about?!” I wondered.

Iceland crossing

But, in my weird way, I was loving this harsh lunar landscape. The river crossings were cold and hurt like hell. But when I put my boots on again afterwards my feet felt so clean and tingled pleasingly. If you looked carefully you could find tiny pink flowers that clung to life on the godforsaken sterile gravel. And nobody on Earth knew where we were. There were no signs of people, no signs of human life (though having perfect reception on the mobile phone rather dented this sense of isolation!).
I had nothing to do each day but navigate and walk. Nothing to worry about but how long remained until my next Mars bar. Nothing to think about except whatever I wanted to think or dream about. I snatched bearings from brief glimpses of mountain peaks through the clouds. And I urged myself to keep walking, not to put down the pack and sit and rest. That was all I needed to do. Just keep walking. The miles and days passed. My frustrations from home faded away as I peered into the gloom, deciding that the rain on my face felt ‘fresh’ not ‘cold’ and that though my feet and shoulders hurt and my belly growled continually, there was nowhere else I would rather be.

River crossing

Iceland crossing

Chris’s ankle was hurting him and he whacked a rock with his trekking pole in frustration. His pole snapped. I turned to hide my giggles as he swore loudly at the world.

At last a grubby tongue of ice began to loom through the mist ahead of us, rising high out of an endless black sand plain. The Hosfjokull glacier. And it stopped raining too. We camped at the foot of the ice cap. I laid out my stuff to dry and drank in the gentle midnight sunshine. I was happy to have finished the wasteland of the highlands. A new phase of the expedition awaited. The next day we would fix crampons and climb up onto the glacier in search of our river.

Iceland crossing

This expedition was generously supported by


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Comments

  1. Susan Rogers Posted

    I am loving these reports, Alistair. This is one of the most interesting expditions of the year. And you write fantastically and the photos are amaazing!
    Susan

    Reply
  2. Tony Posted

    These are brilliant. But I am too impatient to wait a week for the next one!

    Reply
  3. Walter Ulrikkson Posted

    I am wanting to do my own expedition to Iceland. I know that it rains there a lot so I wonder which rain protection you were wearing? Thank you.
    Walter

    Reply
  4. Dear Al,

    i’m reading this wonderful stuff of yours and Chris’s in Malawi, Nkhata Bay. Yes bicycle is resting next to me in my bungalow from where i can jump to the clear lake. Yes, i’m resting here in beautiful paradise, which i guess is perfect opposite to iceland you were experiencing. Yes, i still have long way to Cape Town. Yes, i still have to cycle the America from bottom to the top, but fortunately after that i have no plan for Siberia but to home….:)

    I feel no lack of motivation, i have had no mental hardship as you did in Africa. I’m tired after 1000 km of dirt roads(sometimes no road) in remote Western Tanzania and Lake Tanganika and i still will rest for two weeks, but your beautiful words and nice professional photos from iceland are at least lifting my mind up from the soft bed and wifi internet connection(yes things are changed since you were here) to once more planning to find some small hidden road where i don’t know what to expect to find and everybody who sees me are surprised to do so…

    Thank you once again and enjoy your time in London “office” too!

    Jukka

    Reply
    • Hi Jukka,
      It’s always good to hear from you! Your adventure is going great. Well done!
      Enjoy the road.
      If you have a bit of spare time you should pop up to the Mayoka Village lodge in Nkhata Bay. The owners looked after me really kindly there and I have very happy memories of the bar there…!
      Al

      Reply
  5. Hi Alastair – I can’t wait for the next installment. Wonderful photos – I can’t believe your friend worried about it at all.

    I’ve put up a review of this post on my blog – I hope you enjoy it!
    http://www.describetheclouds.com/?p=28

    Mike

    Reply
  6. Hi,
    We met in the valley coming up from Akureyri and in Laugefell. I know this part of Iceland’s (or maybe we should call it Windland ;)) stormy desert and beautiful green fjords . Now I am awaiting impatiently for your pictures from Hofsjokull glacier and rafting part of your journey.
    Greetings
    Piotr.

    Reply
  7. Amazing!!
    Well done Al

    Reply
  8. There is a joy in the journey. Even if it is cold, wet and your hungry. Great read and looking forward to more.

    Reply
  9. Another interesting read as usual Alastair. Can’t wait for the next installment!
    J

    Reply

 
 

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