Icelandic Adventure, Part 2: The Hike, Days 4-5

Day 4: Álftavatn to Emstrur

Woke up early again, with a raging sore throat and inflamed sinuses. Shit. I had a full-blown sinus infection. I could barely get out of bed. D ran around the kitchen asking people is they had any anti-histamines, vitamins, ancient herbal remedies, anything that could help me get through the next two days. The rude Americans from the previous night redeemed themselves and gave him three precious Benadryl tablets, which he delivered to my shaky, sweaty, clammy hands. I took a Claritin, a Bendaryl, an Advil, and had a cup of that horrible coffee, and that cocktail cleared me out and perked me up enough to function and hit the trail.

I should also mention that by this point I was having some issues with my right Achilles' tendon. Something had worn away on the inside of my boot and had rubbed it, leaving a kinda nasty bruise. It was pretty painful, but bearable.

We had our first actual take-your-shoes-off-and-wade river crossing that morning. It was a cute little sandy-bottom stream, mostly ankle-deep. My feet sure were chilly afterwards! Wool socks felt nice afterwards. Aww, how cute. Tee hee!

Aww. Ankle-deep.

Then we had our first REAL river crossing. Pants off, boots slung around neck, trekking poles holding us up, rushing knee-deep GLACIALLY COLD WATER. It was maybe 30 feet wide, and our feet and legs were 100% numb by the time we got across. For real. They basically skipped the "ouch! cold daggers!" feeling and went straight to totally numb. That's some cold shit.

Actual river crossing.

PANTS OFF DANCE OFF

The rest of the hike that day was fairly flat as we were crossing through some dry lake beds. D and I were mostly alone because by that point I was feverish and my Achilles was bothering me a little more. We sang some 80's tunes, weathered some really intense mini dust storms that whipped up, and made several stops. Stopping a lot is not my style. I'm more of a truck along until I collapse from exhaustion kind of gal. That's just how I roll.

Flat like pancake.

Well, around two miles from the Emstrur hut, I was basically collapsing from exhaustion. It felt like all medications/caffeine wore off at once. I was in real pain. I was extremely feverish. I was exhausted. I was not being very nice to poor D. It really felt like we were not ever going to get to our destination. Rolling hill after rolling hill. Dust. Sand. I'm not going to lie, I had some waking fever dreams, something about magic flying carpets or something. I literally cried when we saw the huts.

It really was gorgeous. I just couldn't appreciate it at this particular moment because I was crying and flying on a magic carpet.

We checked in, and entered our assigned hut. Only tops bunks left. That was fine, because D and I made dinner, and I crawled into the bunk and didn't leave until the next morning. I barely slept.

The view from the bunk. I probably took this because I saw D's butt.

Day 5: Emstrur to Þórsmörk

When I woke up after about 3 hours of sleep, I no longer had a fever. Hurrah! I had my medicine-caffeine cocktail, and felt like a human being again. I actually chatted with some of the people in our hut, who all seemed so nice. I was so bummed that I hadn't been able to join in the conversations from the night before. I had really been looking forward to chatting with people on the trail, and then I got so sick that I just wanted to crawl into a hole and stay away from people.

I was actually able to appreciate the beauty of the site: the huts sat nestled in a valley below a massive glacier. The glacier seemed like it had its own weather, with huge clouds hanging just above the glacier. Also, clean bathrooms again.

Hiking this day was varied. A lot of flat sections, but some substantial hills too. Within the first couple of miles we had descended a really steep, but very soft sand hill, crossed over a gorgeous bridge, and then lots of small rolling ascents. My head feels so much better at this point, but my Achilles tendon was really hurting me. I was limping pretty hard, no matter how I tied my boots. The vegetation started changing, too. As in, there was vegetation. Dwarf willows, lupine, vetch, and lots of other plants that D was very fascinated with.

I'm on a bridge!

We came to our final river crossing. This was the one I'd been worried about. I had seen pictures on the internet that showed people up to their thighs in raging river water. One blog I read said that no one could cross on foot, that the river was so high that they had to use a massive off-road vehicle to ferry people across. EEK. Well, we got there and it was only knee high. Yawn.

After the final river crossing, we were expecting about another kilometer of hiking and then we'd be at the final hut! Well. About two kilometers later, we arrived at a crossroads and a sign. We were in the middle of Þórsmörk (pronounced Thorsthmork, or something like that), which translated means Thor's Woods. For real. There were willows and birches and all kinds of plants that D just couldn't resist inspecting. So we're standing at this crossroads, and I come to a realization. Oh god. I think I bought us a bus ticket out of here at the wrong place. One placard points to left. It says Þórsmörk hut. One sign points to the right. It has several other huts listed, as well as a placard saying "Bus Pickup." Shit. Shit. SHIT. Not only do we need to hike almost three more kilometers, but tomorrow morning we may have to hike up to six more kilometers to catch our bus at 07:30. What time would we have to get up? I was hiking so slowly at this point because my foot was really painful... and then I got angry. I was really pissed. I basically stomp-hike-limped the final three kilometers to our hut. When we got to the hut I sat on the front stoop while D talked to the warden. I think by this point D was a little afraid of me.

Can't stop won't stop

GREAT NEWS. JUBILATION! The bus was scheduled to pick us up right outside our hut. I was already too tired to be mad anymore, I had already resigned myself to waking up at whatever ungodly hour the next morning and limping over to the other bus stop. But nay! No! Nei! So to celebrate, I took off my boots, took a hot shower, ate dinner, and went to bed. I slept like a rock.

View from our window

 Thus ends Part 2 of our Icelandic Adventure.