This entry is part 2 of 13 in the series Iceland North to South

Distance covered: 29 miles

Day 2 is typically a tough one in fastpacking trips with no quarter. It is the day when the body is already beaten by the previous day’s effort but not yet used to the constant beating of a thru-hike. I can’t take it easy though. If I mean to cross Iceland in 13 days, I can’t just take it easy, not even for one day, not even for day 2.

Luckily and other than for the distance, it appears easy on paper. It’s a road walk. No need to think, just walk. I’m bound for a campground. No need to worry or wonder, just walk. Yet it turned out to be one of my most difficult days on the trip.

A road walk may not look like the most exciting thing to do in Iceland but the route between Kopasker and Asbyrgi is badly suited to anything else: farmland on one side and the mighty Jokulsa a Fjollum on the other. The non-road alternative would involve a long cross-country trudge in non-highland ground (i.e. vegetated) with occasional lava fields thrown in. Surely doable but not pretty.

Road walks tend to be heavy on the hiker’s morale, not only for the motor traffic but for the road itself. There must be something about the slow progress over an infrastructure meant for faster travel. It shouldn’t be too bad this time, it’s just one day.

I feel fine until Kopasker as the road is still dirt. Kopasker is tiny, yet it’s got a minuscule, tidy campground, a hostel and a village shop that is still closed as I go along in the early morning. It’s interesting to be in such a northern town, see how it is, picture life here.

Kopasker

Then it’s tarmac. It gets progressively heavy on me to the point that I can hardly keep on. I’m so worn out that I feel sick. It was my body complaining. It actually went on strike: I started feeling sleepy, while I was still walking! It went to the point of actually closing my eyes for several seconds at a time while I kept setting one foot in front of the other. Nothing like this had happened to me before.

The road took me to the outflow of the mighty Jokulsa a Fjollum, one of the biggest rivers in Iceland, which then parallels for several miles.

The Jokulsa a Fjollum

It was at this time that I stepped down from the road onto the river bank and sat down for a break and a snack. Ducks didn’t mind the cold water.

Jokulsa a Fjollum means “Glacial river from the mountains”. Birds just rock

I suddenly realized of what I really needed: I enveloped myself in the cagoule, laid down and closed my eyes. I felt I needed comfort so I hugged my pack. It was the only thing that I could hug. I rested for an undetermined time. I felt much better.

I believe it was as much psychological as it was physical that I needed some rest and comfort. I still had many miles to go but now it felt like I could.

It got incredibly long and I was still sensitive to any minor inconvenience. Only 2 miles from target, it started raining –it hadn’t yet– and it felt overwhelming at the time. Getting wet was the least desirable thing I could think of.

In the meantime, I went through the bridge over the Jokulsa a Fjollum, leaving the mighty river on my left forever. From here, I’d go all the way to the base of the Vatnajokull icecap without crossing any major river basin. This was part of the reasoning behind the route choice, rivers are a major obstacle.

Bridge over the Jokulsa a Fjollum

That’s the mighty beast heading north

It was still raining when I got to Asbyrgi. It could hardly be a better place to be in a rainy evening: there’s a cafe and shop, a visitor center and a campground with a toilet/shower/drying room. Dinner at the cafe helps with morale. Then it stops raining. The forecast in the visitor center is the only bad news, northerlies expected to continue and to bring more rain to the area in the coming days but for now I’m all set. I may have weather problems but not until tomorrow.

Asbyrgi is one of those Iceland-only oddities, a huge, horseshoe shaped chasm covered by birch woods. Some info panels explain how it was formed after some flooding from the Jokulsa a Fjollum. That river has certainly got the power but the vertical cliffs and the odd shape make it all just difficult to fathom. It’s just Iceland.

The Asbyrgi cliffs in the background

Series Navigation<< Raufarhofn to LeirhofnAsbyrgi to Dettifoss road >>