Iceland Day 7

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I think we can describe today as river deep, mountain high, plenty of both and a distinct lack of bridges. And it’s been a long day on the road over 7 hours.
We started out this morning heading the same way as yesterday planning to go and visit a lake and then go on to the hotel. However, that got aborted as we watched a lorry go through one of the fords that we needed to go through and decided it was too deep and too rough for us to attempt in the car. After all, there is a sticker on the dashboard reminding you that no insurance covers you for damage in river crossings. So after consulting with the map we planned an alternative route.
The journey took in the vast volcanic desert for miles, like a lunar landscape where the ash from one of the recent volcanic eruptions has covered the ground. Then came the rivers, the worst was one that was split into three crossings by small islands, the first two parts weren’t too bad then came the daddy: rough, long and deep, and when I say deep I can say the door seals on Toyotas are top class, not a bit of water inside the car! No pictures though unfortunately.
The roads did not get much better and the weather deteriorated quite a bit – we even had a hailstorm – but all the other river crossings seemed easy by comparison.
We also picked up two Parisians Pierre and Clement who had decided that walking in the rain in the 6 degree heat of summer wasn’t as much fun as they had thought it would be.
Now at the Hotel Highland we were greeted by warning posters as we are in the fall out zone here for one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes Hekla, which is apparently four years overdue to erupt. We will get a 30 minute warning – we have to keep our phones on to receive a text message sent to all phones within the zone – so perhaps unpacking might not be a good idea.

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