Walking the Laugavegur in Iceland's south

Showing up high in the international hiking trail charts is the 55 km long Laugavegur trail which connects Landmannalaugar in the volcanic highlands of south Iceland with the green valley of Thorsmörk, the latter being only separated from the south coast by two glaciers, among them the famous Eyjafjallajökull which erupted two years ago.

We did the Laugavegur trail and added two days of hiking by climbing up the Fimmvörduhals pass between the two glaciers, walking on snow fields and the fresh lava which is still hot in some places.

It’s hard to describe the beauty and diversity of the volcanic landscapes, the black sand deserts, but I’ll surely put up some pics here once I have computer access.

Accompanying me were Daniel and Silke, and to be honest, it was Daniel who organized the whole hiking trip. Afterwards, we spent a day on Heimæy, the main Westman’s island, for a great seafood dinner, Icelandic pastries, puffin (Papageientaucher) watching and just general relaxing.

My personal highlights of these past days:

A) The river crossings - thrilling, freezing cold, and refreshing for tired feet.
B) Lying on our bellies on the highest rock on Heimæy, the Heimaklettur, watching puffins landing and taking off from very close. Puffins’ bodies looking like miniature penguins with almost too short wings and fat bum for flying, too cute.
C) Lying on the grass in the sun for a few hours, heads on our backpacks, in front of the huge Skógarfoss waterfall, after having finished the last one of 6 walking days, dirty and happy.