Day Four - Jun 15, 2014

Sandartunga, ISL to Hella, ISL

High Point: F208 to Landmannalaugar

Low Point: Not being able stay in Landmannalaugar longer

Miles By Automobile: 110

Today's Weather: Rainy in the morning, spots of sun in the afternoon, drizzling in the evening. In the 50's

Tonight's Lodging: Our luxurious Mitsubishi Pajero in Arhus campground

Touristic Events: Landmannalaugar, driving an Iceland F Road

Wildlife: Sheep

Daily Didactic

We woke at an almost time zone adjusted 8:00am in the rainy Sandartunga campground a few miles west of the visitors centers our car rental expert had aimed us toward for last minute F road opening information. F roads are government maintained back country roads that we hear lead to really cool places. Today's goal was Landmannalaugar, a small camping outpost nestled in what we were told were cartoonishly colorful mountains. Landmannalaugar is only accessible by three F roads, all of which were closed two days ago. It looks like, however, that one has opened up from the north, F208. We headed for the first visitor center, which turned out to be for a power plant. The folks were super helpful, but uninformed. The second visitor center was less useful, requiring a hike and not opening for another hour. Undetered we continued on, eventually finding a small hotel in Hrauney Jar that knew what we were asking. The road had indeed just opened and we headed on. The road to Landmannalaugar was one of the most spectacular we've ever driven. The colors of the geology were bizarre and fascinating. A couple of hours later, at the end of the no more than 40km road, we found our destination. Stopped about a five minute walk outside of the camp by a river ford (that we probably could have made), we parked and took the footbridge on in. The camp is four decent sized permanent buildings (a camping hut, WC, warden station, and cooking shelter), along with lots of tent campers and a few small businesses in school buses and wall tents. We got a quick bite at the Mountain Mall, a school bus with food and sundries. We had intended to camp for the night, but not wanting to risk the rental on the river crossing left us without facilities in a small parking area. So, assuming we were calling this a day trip, we had two choices. A hike or the natural hot springs. A little under two hours of soaking later, we hit the road back towards pavement. We eventually took a south on the road to Hella, calling it a night in the Arhus campground.