My friend Eric and I caught an afternoon flight from Detroit to New York, where we met up with another friend, Martha, who flew in from Austin. Hit the duty free to stock up on liquor ( a must when traveling to Scandinavia), and then caught our Icelandair flight to Reykjavik. Didn’t bother sleeping, since it was only a 5 hour flight.

We arrived very early in the morning, and picked up our rented Toyota Corolla, which we would have for the next 5 days. Lacking any real specific plans, we headed to the Blue Lagoon, which of course was closed this early in the morning. So we continued southward until we hit the Atlantic at the fishing village Grindavik, where everyone was of course asleep it being early Saturday morning. The obvious thing to do, since everything was closed, was to take the Corolla off-roading, to see what it could handle. First we headed east, until the road became impassable, where we got out and enjoyed the view over the Atlantic. Next we headed back into Grindavik, and then westward, on a road that is hard to describe, other than it was one of the funnest, twistiest, hilliest dirt roads I have ever driven, and it was smooth enough that at the speeds we where going it was a good thing no other cars came from the other direction (or maybe it was a one way road?).

After a nights rest, we cruised along the south coast passing more waterfalls, moss covered rock fields, small mountains, beaches, volcanic wastelands, etc. You name it, it was there, expect for traffic. As we entered Skeidararsandur, highway 1 suddenly ceased to exist, and we ended up on a very bumpy and dusty temporary road. This is the area that was devastated by flooding from the October 1996 volcanic eruption at Vatnajökul. Nothing much here for miles, other than volcanic dust and numerous river crossings. With the windows and vents closed, we drove through the beautiful and mysterious black terrain. Eventually we pulled into Skaftafell national park, which we had heard could get very crowded. To our surprise the campground was relatively small, and fairly empty.

At this point, Martha headed across the plain, and back towards the campground, while Eric and I tried to find a trail to take us the rest of the way up the mountain. Eventually we found somewhat of a trail leading up in a cleft between the twin peaks of the mountain. As we climbed this steep trail, it started to snow! We realized that we didn’t have any proper equipment for the type of climbing we where doing, but really wanted to see the view from the top. After a bit of a risky crossing of a steep ice flow, we finally made it to the top. From here we could see the Skaftafellsjökull valley glacier to the east, almost directly below us and the Morsarjökul glacier to the west. It started snowing quite hard, as we finished of the last of our bread and cheese.