The Route

Click here for a map of my route with marked camp sites. Below is a full travel log per day with distance covered, coordinates of my camp sites, how long it took, and an elevation profile image for each leg. Please note that elevation using GPS is not very accurate, sudden peaks and drops should be ignored.

Date	Camp reached	Camp coordinates & elevation	Distance	Time	Average speed	Elevation profile
060704	C01	N65.53162 W18.13874 29m	19.3 km	10:49:20	2 km/h	Leg 1
060705	C02	N65.29671 W18.25691 250m	28.3 km	11:16:46	3 km/h	Leg 2
060706	C03	N65.13190 W18.17693 903m	20.8 km	9:12:36	2 km/h	Leg 3
060707	C04LAUGAFELL	N65.02763 W18.33177 749m	16 km	5:58:12	3 km/h	Leg 4
060708	C05SPRENGISANDUR	N64.84949 W18.17306 754m	26.7 km	10:16:22	3 km/h	Leg 5
060709	C06	N64.63148 W18.48526 621m	31.5 km	11:29:55	3 km/h	Leg 6
060710	C07	N64.48865 W18.68415 606m	21.9 km	6:30:51	3 km/h	Leg 7
060711	C08KALDAKVISL	N64.35450 W18.86441 548m	20.9 km	6:09:07	3 km/h	Leg 8
060712	C09SIGALDA	N64.15605 W19.12340 502m	33.2 km	13:13:36	3 km/h	Leg 9
060713	Healing day	N64.15605 W19.12340 502m	0 km	N/A	0 km/h	N/A
060714	C11LANDMANNALAUGAR	N63.99094 W19.05880 593m	24.5 km	11:10:22	2 km/h	Leg 10
060715	Healing day	N63.99094 W19.05880 593m	0 km	N/A	0 km/h	N/A
060716	Healing day	N63.99094 W19.05880 593m	0 km	N/A	0 km/h	N/A
060717	Healing day	N63.99094 W19.05880 593m	0 km	N/A	0 km/h	N/A
060718	C15HRAFNTINNUSKER	N63.93282 W19.16535 1016m	9.7 km	4:06:42	2 km/h	Leg 11
060719	C16ALFTAVATN	N63.85638 W19.22816 550m	10.9 km	4:36:48	2 km/h	Leg 12
060720	C17EMSTRUR	N63.76596 W19.37240 468m	15.7 km	6:05:53	3 km/h	Leg 13
060721	C18LANGIDALUR	N63.68488 W19.51435 233m	15.3 km	6:41:07	2 km/h	Leg 14
060722	C19SKOGASANDUR	N63.48929 W19.54512 7m	31.2 km	16:06:22	2 km/h	Leg 15

The route traced by GPS

Iceland Traverse 2006 GPS data (text file)
Iceland Traverse 2006 GPS data (GPX file) (right click and choose Save [Link] As...)

The short story...

I walked from the harbor in Akureyri south through Eyjafjarðardalur (C01, C02, C03) to Laugafell (C04LAUGAFELL) and tried sleeping bag accommodation in a hut - the only night I spent indoors. I continued and eventually left the road to make a short-cut in the middle of Sprengisandur (C05SPRENGISANDUR, C06) so I would reach the old Sprengisandsvegur (not F26) faster than if I would have continued on road F752 from Laugafell. Sprengisandur is a stone and sand desert of about 30x70 km between 700 and 800 meters above sea level and was considered Europe's largest desert (the desertification of Spain has probably changed that today). When I was there in the beginning of July the temperature was around 5°C, but the wind made the effective temperature remind me of a typical winter day back home between -5 and -10°C. I didn't bring an anemometer (wind meter), but I guesstimate (yes I know it's rediculous to guess wind speed) that the wind was between 10 and 15 m/s (almost constantly, except a few nights further south). One day I experienced strong winds and a gust that threw me off the road. I didn't fall to the ground but I was pushed several meters. At one point I wore my Gore Tex shell pants just to block the cold wind even though my regular pants block strong winds very well - it was simply too windy and too cold. The constant even wind in Sprengisandur was very interesting. How did I cope with it? I live in Gothenburg, Sweden, of course - a city where a +3°C winter day feels colder than a -30°C winter day up in Kiruna ;-)

There is a famous song called Á Sprengisandi (the main theme in the coming movie) which is about riding cross country through Sprengisandur on the ancient Sprengisandsvegur. I didn't stay on this road for very long though and afterwards I'm a little disappointed of my choice of route - I should've started from Húsavík and gone up through Mjóidalur on Sprengisandsvegur instead of starting from Akureyri. However, Eyjafjarðardalur was beautiful and green and the beauty remained that day, but the green was all gone, as I continued up through the mist and camped in a snow field (C03) because the rest of the landscape was grey and had big stones everywhere making it hard to find a good camp site. That was a day to remember - from green grass and moss-covered mountains to nothing but stone and snow.

The journey went onwards through the southern desert area (C07, C08KALDAKVISL). Just after I had passed Sigöldustöð (the Sigalda hydropower station) I decided to stop and camp near Krókslón (C09SIGALDA), exhausted after a 33 km hike on an aching toe. After one day off spent resting I finally reached Landmannalaugar (C11LANDMANNALAUGAR) and ended up staying 4 nights to let the toe heal. While I was there I ate excellent fresh fish and drank superb coffee at Fjallafang (pronounced Fjatlafang) - the well-assorted mountain shop which you must not miss if you are in Landmannalaugar! I also interviewed the shop owners aswell as one of the wardens.

Once the toe was good enough to walk on without starting to bleed I put my feet to work on Laugavegur (C15HRAFNTINNUSKER, C16ALFTAVATN, C17EMSTRUR, C18LANGIDALUR) - Iceland's most popular hiking trail which offers an extremely beautiful and diverse landscape in just about 50 km. You are only allowed to camp at the huts on this trail (for natural reasons) and I stayed (in my tent) at all the huts (except Hvannagil, where hiker's usually don't stop) - the huts are: Hrafntinnusker, Álftavatn, Emstrur, and Langidalur. At each hut there is something in the landscape worth taking a closer look at. At Hrafntinnusker there are ice caves and the trail to them offer a great view (in good weather). At Álftavatn there's a small cave once used by farmers for shelter, a valley, and an extraordinary view from the top of Bratthals. At Emstrur (also known as Botnar) there's an amazing canyon and at Langidalur in Þórsmörk (Thorsmörk) the mountain pass with small birch woods and the mountains of Goðaland is an extremely beautiful sight. After a night at Langidalur I continued south through the Fimmvörðuháls pass which takes you from about 170 meters to around 1050 meters in about 10 kilometers. Once at the top, my descent to 0 meters started in the middle of the night and I basically didn't stop until I reached Skógasandur (C19SKOGASANDUR) and put my feet into the Atlantic Ocean - totally exhausted with aching feet after a strenuous slow 31 km walk that took 16 hours.

The full story will be told in the documentary film Iceland Traverse 2006 which will be freely available for download later this year.

Michel Blomgren
Contact info
www.bushcraft.se