10 North London Ladies have decided to trek across the wilderness of Iceland from the 5th-9th July over actively volcanic terrain, snow fields, steaming lava fields and glaciers. They will be expected to pitch their tents every night with only basic facilities; a far cry from their normal lives. Support our ladies by supporting Chai Cancer Care!
Wednesday 8 July 2015
Volcanic Crater
We climbed up to see this stunning crater called Ljotipollu (which ironically means ugly pond)
We walked along the ridge on the left of the Volcanic Crater
Still smiling!
Selfie by the crater!
On the rim of the crater!
Absolutely Breathtaking!
Coming to the end of the journey
We made it to the end of the Landmannalauger Trek and all got our medals!
We ordered an Uber- this is what we got!
Wednesday morning briefing
We are heading 20km North East towards 2 crater lakes
and more snow fields. We will rendez-vous with our vehicle sometime late
afternoon and drive 5 hours to Reykjavik.
Conditions ahead are unknown as
the weather has been so unpredictable and unseasonably cold. Sandwiches packed,
boots still wet but raring to go (ish).
Breakfast and making sandwiches for lunch
Thank you to Steven Kluk for generously sponsoring
our team fleeces - they've kept us cosy in the much colder than expected
Icelandic nights!!!
Boker Tov!
Wednesday
morning
It was below zero temperatures last night and an exploding gas cannister, Naomi was in and out of her tent to go to the loo. Apparently, there was a vague sunrise at 3.30am with the mountains bathed in a pink glow. After a fitful night
(probably about an hour's kip between us) we were woken to the dulcet tones of
our neighbours the Israelis saying 'Boker Tov'....!!
Our Israeli friends were up early for Shacharis!
Tuesday 7 July 2015
Panoramic views
A panoramic view from hrafntinnusker!! Amazing!!
Walking past a very noisy, fast flowing river!
Sponsor our Lava Ladies http://www.forchai.org/iceland/
Avenu Shalom Alechem
We finally arrived at camp after a really long day drudging up and down snow fields (check out the photos), all our boots and socks were soaked through and we struggled to keep warm if we stopped at all. We ended the day trekking through lava fields.
As we neared camp we had a completely surreal moment when we ran into a group of Israelis and all of us broke into a rousing chorus of 'Avenu Shalom Alechem' - literally in the wilderness of Iceland!!!
As we neared camp we had a completely surreal moment when we ran into a group of Israelis and all of us broke into a rousing chorus of 'Avenu Shalom Alechem' - literally in the wilderness of Iceland!!!
We wrote Chai in the snow.
Amanda's found a brilliant solution to wet socks and boots. She used sandwich bags around her socks.
Crossing the lava fields!
So much snow!
Loads of wet socks and drenched boots! So much snow it's not even funny!
Daniel Burns 'it's not called Iceland for nothing!!'
Having a tea break with some amazing views!
A new day....
Tuesday
This morning we had a 6 am wake up call as we have a 12 hour trek ahead of us to the 'Hrafntinnusker Hut' (yes that's really how its spelt) over snow fields. We will be trekking approximately 26 km today but mostly up hill!!! It's still cold but the sun is out this morning!
Tent Life
Good Morning!
Good Morning!!!
We slept in everything we had! It was freezing!
Breakfast in a lovely warm mess tent. The porridge has set us up
for a gruelling day!
Making sandwiches for lunch!
Monday 6 July 2015
Fed, watered and ready for bed!
We are fed and watered. It was mushroom soup and pasta for dinner tonight. We are all absolutely exhausted and trying to keep our eyes open. Apparently we have a freezing night ahead - it's going to be 0 degrees. Oi vei! We're about to put ALL the clothing on that we brought!
Wish us luck and think of us tucked up in your cosy beds (with no rocks underneath) in warm London!! It's not called Iceland for nothing!!!!!
End of day one!
End
of a great day trekking... through fields of snow, Basalt lava fields and rock
formations, through river deltas and open valleys surrounded by snow - capped
volcanoes. We finally made it to camp and put our tents up on rather rocky
ground... their may be some sore thighs in the morning. Hot drinks ahoy!
Pitching our tents...we are pleased with ourselves!
We climbed to the top!
Domadalur Valley behind us and Hekla in the background.
We climbed up to the top.
Our first night in camp
Apparently, there is more snow this summer than in the last 30 years....it's bloody cold!!!
We pitched our tents in an area called 'Hidarendi' at the foot of some snow covered hills by a river. We executed the task by ourselves to varying degrees of success. I can't pronounce the name of the cook (let alone spell it, plus he is literally 7 foot tall, will send comparative photo shortly), anyway, he made us warming vegetable soup and cod for dinner then gave us the night off from 'washing up the plates in the freezing cold river' duty....phew! Nobody thought to bring their marigolds!
Peter our Icelandic guide gave us our briefing for the next day. We need layers as the weather is changeable (ya think?).
A strange night . It was hard to sleep with the rain beating down on our tents with the cold and the light! We had 3-4 hours sleep average and lots of runny noses. Did we mention that it's unusually cold here for this time of year??? Too cold to get up in the night and go to the loo which didn't help!
Finally its time to get up and ready for the long day ahead - I can't really say at dawn cos there is none here - it stays consistently light at night!
Sunday 5 July 2015
Heckle Volcano!
Heckle Volcano means we've arrived! Incredibly barren countryside as we wing our way to our first campsite. It's cold and wet as kind of expected! Some of us likened the feeling we have to being in the programme 'Northern Exposure'. People are few and far between. We've just seen our last farm house. A huge expanse lays before us.
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