Iceland, Day 2

We had arranged to be picked up from our hotel by a large 4 wheel drive minibus which was to be our transport for the trip. This turned out to have massive 33” wheels which were to prove very useful later in the trip.

Our warm up peak was Mt Botnssulur (1095m) which is a short drive north of Reykjavik. The route to the peak followed an old path whose Icelandic name translated to “broken leg path”. We should have taken this as a warning of possible condition of the track. The route passed close to the deep canyon of Glymur, Icelands highest waterfall which was quite impressive.

As we continued up the mountain the ground became much rougher with large areas of volcanic debris to cross. The weather was cold, wet, snowy, misty and windy when we finally reached the mountain hut just below the col. 

We enjoyed a well earned tea break inside the hut.

The group all reached the summit of our first peak and managed to avoid the large pieces of rime ice being blown from the rocks. We retraced our route back to the vehicle.

On the way to our hotel we made a short visit was made to Pingvellir which is situated on the edge of the 5km wide fault that divides the American and European tectonic plates.