Day 10

For the last hike of this vacation the sun was shining again and I was being fitted with an intricate system of tyraps and stings by our Frisian group member that still remembered some techniques for fitting ice-skates under your shoes. Then we started our walk to the first cottage of the 4-day hiking trail that would also pass our first campsite in Thorsmörk. First we passed through a black lava field to end at a luscious green meadow at the foot of one of the mountains of the barren and colorful mountain ridge. We had to climb up and on the plateaus there were awesome views of the surroundings. We’d walk past boiling puddles of water and holes in the ground that were producing steam and at other stretches the path would cross sheets of permanent ice. There is really not more to say about it other than that is was incredibly beautiful.
This hike entailed going to the cottage and then walk the same way back again. When at one point the path went down again just before going straight up for quite a climb up another hill, we had lunch and after that I decided to go back. In hindsight I am perhaps a bit disappointed that with about 1.5 hours ahead of us I did not push myself to go for the full stretch, but as another group member that had returned even earlier put it, at least I could look back on a final hike that I had enjoyed. Moreover, although my shoes had been holding up relatively well, we had lost the people with the sports tape that I might (or might not) need again and the path that we had taken and had to take back, had parts that were sloping to the side, which I could tell was putting quite a strain on the vulnerable system that was keeping my soles in place. (And also, clouds were rolling in again.) Willem asked if I did not mind going back alone and I have to say I really didn’t. Everywhere where we had been hiking, the trails were very clearly indicated and clear directions were given by road signs looming for instance in the middle of a lava field. Also there were plenty of people around and there was decent cell phone reception, albeit with little opportunity to charge those cell phones. In the end it even turned out that somebody else decided to turn around as well, so the two of us took a very relaxed stroll back to the camp.
On our final decent, when my shoes were really reaching their end, I walked past the only person that actually commented on my shoes. The day before, when I was walking around the mountain with two (physically) injured group members, the people that had walked over the mountain top, told me that they recognized me from above by the bright white tape around my shoes, yet although many people that passed us would look (some more obvious than others), nobody would say a word. Except this one American who was with a group of friend waiting with their bikes on their shoulders, for us to come down before they could go up. He came with the very witty question, how my shoes were holding up. Of course I should have said something like “you see poor gear, I see a fashion statement”, but all I said is that they had seen better days, but this was the final hike that was required from them. Then, shortly before turning into the lava field again, some German tourists started yelling at me to be careful in various languages. It turned out that I had almost stepped on the smallest mouse I’ve ever seen. It was hopping around, foraging and I wondered how something so small could survive nine months of snow.
That evening we drank our last (real) beers and wine. We decided that the fake 2.5% beers that we had bought in the supermarket when Vinbudin was closed and of which I had accidentally dropped (and popped) two already, were really not worth it and given that there was a place right next to our community tent that was selling the real deal we tried to finish some of our money there. Our guide and driver were clearly having a very good time with the people in the tent next to ours. When we retired to our tents we could still hear them having loud drunken fun. Until the lady in the tent next to ours made her partner go there and remind the driver that he still had the responsibility to drive us back to Reykjavik safely the next morning.