the first sight from the window in our roof made me very happy, there was a clear blue sky. So time to put on our swimming clothes, because we planned to swim in the Viti on top of the Askja. Askja is a big prehistoric volcano. There is a very deep lake in the crater now. It's the deepest lake of Iceland, 217 meters deep. In 1875 there has been another eruption from the Askja and made another crater called Viti. It also became a lake, but just a small lake and there is still hot air coming from the crater that warms up the lake a little. It was a little indeed, because the water temperature was about 22 till 26 degrees. So going in the water still required some nerves. But when in, it was doable. But the hardest part was getting out because it was very cold.The walk back to the camper was really needed for getting a little warmer. There was another side effect from swimming in a crater. We carried the smell of sulfur the whole day. And believe me, they better not turn it in a fragrance. Today we were going to drive to the next camp of the highlands in Nýidalur. It was 137 kilometers and we thought we would make it easily. But it was a pretty bumpy road. The road went across sand plates like desserts, lava fields (these were the worst), just rocky areas and some river crossings (these weren't that deep). And we had to drive really slowly. Like an average of maybe 20 km per hour. We also did cross the lava that was created by the eruption of the Holuhraun in 2015. So it was very fresh and young. The ranger at the campsite told us it was still warm. But the sun was shining, so it was warm anyway. Around 9 o'clock we reached the camp. It was a long day and we almost haven't seen anyone since we left Askja, maybe 2 cars. There were some times we were doubting ourselves if we were going in the right direction. So we were a bit relieved when we did reach the camp.

Geschreven door CorineDijkhuis