Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

Want to hear every guide’s favourite joke to tell visitors to Iceland? Here it
is: ‘How do you find your way out of an Icelandic forest?’ ‘Stand up.’
Not the best joke in the world then, but as a guest you’re obliged to
give it a polite giggle. Every time.
My guide, Siggi, grew up among the island’s treeless recesses. His home town,
Hvolsvöllur, is known for having the country’s biggest abattoir; its backyard the
setting of Njál’s Saga, an epic pre-medieval legends enumerating the
Shakespeare-style demise of its leading characters. And while the landscape is as
bleak as its reputation, there’s an uncanny beauty to the area’s wilderness that
lures countless travellers from every corner of the globe.
They come to complete the Laugavegurinn, Iceland’s premiere hike, which
tackles a sequence of lunar landscapes over the course of several days. The name
translates into ‘Hot Spring Rd,’ which seems appropriate, especially at the
trailhead, Landmannalauga, where Siggi and I scamper over to soak our legs in a
bog-ridden brook gurgling with steaming sulfuric water before setting off on our
hike. The first time Siggi and I hiked the trail, we finished the traditional four-day
adventure to Thórsmörk in only two, with enough energy to continue on through to
the epic portion of Fimmvörduháls, a volcanic spur leading all the way back to the
coast. And to us, the entirety of the course has remained our true version of
Laugavegurinn ever since.
Now, 10 years later, Siggi and I wade in the warm swampy waters and continue
to reminisce about our first adventure together. I remember the flecks of
shimmering pebbles (Siggi called them ‘raven stones’) at the beginning of the hike;
a field of shattered obsidian reflecting and refracting the Arctic sun.