Day 9 – Overlanding Iceland

A wet a windy night in the tent.  Sleep in 3 layers as much as anything so that when you get up in the morning or need to pee in the night it’s just the waterproofs that need to be put on.

Today we drive through the Vatnajokull National Park, a huge canyon that ends at Europe’s most powerful waterfall – Dettifoss. It pouring with rain and this makes the waterfall even more spectacular. We have to be positive, the rain has after all been non-stop for days.

Just upstream from Dettifoss is the Selfoss waterfall. Another outstanding water feature that are just everywhere across Iceland.

The plan for the afternoon is to continue south into the remote Central Highlands of Iceland and camp with a view of beautiful Herouibrei, Iceland’s ‘Queen of the Mountains’. However and bearing in mind it’s 31st July we can’t as snowfall is quiet heavy and our driver has been advised not to attempt the roads. One of the great things about this trip in light of the at times shocking weather is the ability of the Madventure team of Karen & Leanne to come up with alternative plans at very short notice.

We stop at Asbyrgi for a walk in the rain en-route to our new base. The crystal clear lake is surrounded by towering cliffs and Obi our bus driver plays a couple of numbers on his trumpet to demonstrate the fantastic natural acoustics.

We head for a campsite at Modrudalur where we’ll stay for 2 nights. En-route we watch the women’s euro finals on one of our phones and cheer as England take the lead keeping our fingers crossed that the WiFi doesn’t let us down. The game goes to extra time and we find ourselves in the middle of the road at our new base, anxiously watching the clock countdown. Not only do the Lionesses do us proud and win the final 2-1 against out perennial enemy Germany, but we discover that we can if we want to,upgrade to a dorm room for the next 2 nights and escape the wind and rain. What a great day!!

Möðrudalur is a farm settlement in Norður-Múlasýsla in Eastern Iceland, and the highest inhabited place in the country, at 469 m above sea level. A number of the dwellings are built with basements and thick turf placed against the outside walls and on the roofs for protection against the harsh Icelandic climate. It has a Lord of the Rings / Hobbit feel to it with big skies and snowy mountains in the distance.