Iceland – Hellismannaleid, Laugavegur & Fimmvorduhals

I went on the trip to Iceland with almost no expectations and some exploration of the terrain I would be exploring on foot. I’m generally not a person who plans trips much, and it’s (almost) always a good idea because I’m surprised and the days can unfold naturally without any expectations or plans. But on the trek we did this time I was in awe almost every half hour of the new, even more “unimaginably psychedelic” landscape and all the formations that were around us. Terra details that Mother Earth decides to hide for most of the year under an impervious snow blanket. I was impressed by the goldenly shining moss, the mountains gleaming in all shades of white, black, yellow, orange, and red—the full spectrum of multiple rainbows—and those brave, tender, and tiny flowers celebrating the short yet so rich summer festival. I am glad that I could witness and observe in detail all of this and allow myself to be touched by the absolute perfect connectedness of these surroundings. It moved me deeply to see how everything works together in perfect harmony, and I carry this experience with me, feeling an even greater accountability to act responsibly towards our environment so that this beauty will be available also for those arriving to this planet after us.

I love long journeys and expeditions. Mostly because there is nothing like being cut off from the outside world for a few days and watching our minds gradually shed the layers we carry from our impulse-filled city life. I also found it interesting to observe how thoughts of individual people, events that I may not have heard anything about for a long time, but suddenly appear in their full glory in my dreams, come into my mind. I observed how stuck I was in my thoughts about finding meaning, about analyzing my destiny and my direction. I’ve found that my thoughts can really consume me and become monsters that suddenly are impossible to grasp.

I’ve found that what really matters is authentic relationships. And connection. And that it’s important to be independent, but not alone. It reaffirmed to me that I’m afraid to grow up. That I’m afraid of being in charge of myself, my life, and others.

I’ve found that routine is good for me. That it gave me an almost divine peace that every day was “just” getting up, eating breakfast, walking all day, setting up my tent and then falling back asleep. And that went on and on. A sense of one clear task and direction. No big decisions. Meeting R in the evenings and gradually getting to know his journey. Just a piece of information every night. A wind that often didn’t even let us have a conversation or allow us to focus on anything other than every single step we could take to move forward on our journey.

I fell in love with the harshness, unpredictability, calmness and at the same time perfectly orchestrated chaos, shyness and brilliance of the Nordic nature.

The longest part of our journey consisted of a nine-day trek combining the Hellismannaleid, Laugavegur and Fimmvorduhals Trails. This remarkable hike connects three trails in Iceland’s central highlands, showcasing a stunning mix of snow, ice, fire, volcanoes, lava and ash fields, waterfalls, glaciers, alpine lakes, rivers, and steaming mud pots and hot springs.

Hellismannleid to Landmannalaugar

This was the very first impression of the hike that we will go to – when I asked M where the bus drivet will drop us off, he said that it would definitely not be in the middle of nowhere and than we ended up in the biggest wind and rain in the middle of the harsh Icelandic no-where-ness. The driver just told us “Enjoy” and left. Robert started with us and I was just digesting and getting mentally ready on anything what will come. It was raining a lot. All the time.

I was already so impressed by these landscapes and i didn’t even know that the real stuff will come one day later. NOt really possible to capture all the impressions by simple camera, but here I really felt so energized by the landscapes that I didn’t even care about the rain and wind that was just step by step sneaking in under my skin.

These are moss fields and they are just insane. Like sometimes it just feels that you are entering some kingdom of creatures that are hidden and they are just waiting for you to pass to again start doing their day to day things. Again, something very very hard to be captured in the way it actually is.

First spot where we camped. We were so lucky to actually build our tent just next to a bathroom where we could make our stuff dry.

Second daz was supposed to rain but the onlz thing that came was EXTREMELY strong wind. I could literally just lay on the air. IT was insane. So strong

Very very powerful landscapes. Stones were flying and circling around us and were so powerful that they were injuring our legs. We were scared to go through them. It was really as uf tgre were some ghosts welcoming us in their kingdom. I was really amazed by everything. It is something unexplainable and can be shared only with those who experience such thing.

Crossroad where I felt so exhausted, hungry and thirsty. I thought that we are already almost geting to the next destination but we still had many hours to go. My Achilles tendon started to hurt and I was not aware at that moment that it will be a sensation that I will feel for all the following days.

Walking now in this endless valley. Very powerful moment happened when we observed a hurd of horses very far. It looked like from some western movie. There were so many of them and a guy ahead of them.

This was very very powerful. Suddenly after long day of hiking this sohwer up and I just noticed how surreal it is and that again the feeling and all of it what was just in front of my eyes is something that you just can’t explain to anyone. It will forever stay between those who share the experience together and I felt that it is so beautiful and that I feel a lot of gratitude that I can experience such powerful moments

Finally arriving to Landmannalaugar. My feet hurt so much and there I noticed that I am just so scared of being injured. I thought that it would be a good idea to just stop and not continue but than I noticed that it might be the only time that I am on the place and also I felt that it took already so many days to get there that it would be just pity to stop. And that maybe sometimes it is ok to not having the health on one place when I can postpone it a little bit. Bathing in the hot spring felt special. We were the only naked beings there and I just was thinking how muchI changed and how comfortable I am with being naked around people.

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And the rest of the trip I will let the images to speak for themselves