Thórsmörk and Hekla
There are various hiking routes in the area, but we are not hiking experts, so we go up to the information and ask what they can recommend. It should just be a short trip.
They tell us about the possibilities and show us where to go, to take a short trip of about 1½ hours. It's just something for our level, so we grab it.
Put on your hiking boots and off you go.
We go merrily out there and also quite a bit upwards. As time goes by, we can sense that we must have come out on the wrong route.
It goes up very steeply. We take breaks along the way and enjoy the extremely beautiful view. In the end, however, it goes up so steeply that we have to capitulate. Now we simply do not dare to go any further down that route. The view cannot be mistaken.
The weather is good, so we can see far around and it is very deserted. Nothing from civilization disturbs the picture. A small private plane is arriving, which is on a trip through the valley. It could also be fun to try such a trip. It must be a great experience. But you probably have to have the big wallet with you.
In order not to get completely lost, we follow the same route back again. Back at the camp, we pack up our things to drive on.
It is definitely a place we would like to come back to, and like to spend a few more days in the area. 26 water crossings later we are out of Thórsmörk and drive over to Hekla.
It's crazy to see how the lava has just flowed out into the landscape and left behind a solidified rock river. We stay close to the lava wall, which is several meters high. It should probably be 7-8 meters.
There is good shelter, so it is perfect pancake weather.
We stay at Hekla all day and decide to spend the night with an active volcano in the backyard. The imagination quickly runs away from us. In principle, Hekla can erupt at any time.
We try to convince each other that we would probably be woken up by an earthquake first. It also doesn't make it any easier that there is a cloud on top, so it looks like Hekla is steaming.
Would we be able to get away if it erupted? Hmm……
We are just about to consider packing up and finding another place to sleep. But we decide that now we should just pet the horse and not think about the fact that we have a dormant volcano as a neighbour. We get an undisturbed and much-needed sleep and when the sun rises, we are glad that we have not been woken up by the neighbor during the night.