Askja Trail - Iceland
This was our last big trip together this year so we needed to make it an excellent one. We'd spoken about Iceland in the past and seeing pictures of the 'out of this world' landscape made us say yes! We bought a guide book ‘Walking and Trekking Iceland’ and looked for a route which would be interesting and challenging. We settled for the Askja trail, a 5 day hike, covering 120km. We chose this route as it seemed a quieter one, and offered plenty of opportunity to see volcanic landscapes. Now, after completing it, we can safely say this is a quiet route. We only saw two other hikers on day 5 (doing a different route) so if you're seeking solitude this is an excellent route.
The trail itself is a 5 day, 4 night self-supported hike leaving from Herdubreidarlindir, and travelling 120km to Grænavatn, over various terrain. We opted for carrying our own camping equipment but soon released we could have done this as a hut to hut- which would have reduced the weight of our packs. This also would have significantly reduced our bank balance as some huts were quite expensive (in our opinion). We also carried all of our food as there is nowhere to stock up on route, and we had to carry a minimum of one days water at all times as water was scarce. The Askja trail is marked with yellow posts going from hut to hut but sometimes they are missing or broken so taking a GPS of the route helped a lot. We also took a map and compass, but we didn't actually use it as the GPS had no issues. We were lucky with the weather but if the clouds were down it would have been a lot harder to stick to the route. Phone signal on this route varies from 4g to nothing for days so don't rely on this.
Day 1 Herdubreidarlindir to Braedrafell
Distance: 19km Ascent: 430m Time: 9 hours Weather: It was dry but in the evening it rained lightly and was quite windy.
We always knew this was going to be a long day as we had a 2 hour bus trip to get to the start point. Rachel had arranged for us to get to the start with a tour company called myvatn tours. This turned out great as the guide on the bus talked about the area we were going to travel through and it was a good insight to the history and geology. We arrived at the start point at around 11am and spoke to the warden to let them know what we were doing. She informed us about Iceland's safe travel app for you to be able to check in if you have a phone signal. After this, we set off. This day consisted of travelling around a mountain called Herðubreið, crossing over lava fields. We were amazed at the great formations in which the lava had formed, Rachel was particularly fond of the 'ropey' lava. Movement was slow and quite tough going as, although not the most technical, you had to watch where you were going and check foot placements. We were surrounded by lava fields for the full day and the vastness amazed us both. We arrived at the hut praying there was water there due to not passing a single river. Thankfully, it had been raining a lot so the rainwater collection at hut was full. As the Askja trail is known for being short on water, the huts are equipped with either rainwater collection, or water barrels dropped off by rangers. When erecting the tent, we soon realised pegs was no use in this terrain as the ground was so hard, so we collected lava rocks and used these to instead.
Day 2 Braedrafell -Drekagil hut
Distance: 22km Ascent: 440m Time: 9.5 hours
Weather: Cloudy but dry, with wind easing.
It was weird waking up to a field of lava, but luckily enough the wind wasn't too bad and that made packing up our tent easier. From leaving our spot we headed back out onto the lava fields, picking our way to a dirt track. We were very thankful for this as it meant we could spend a few kilometres at a faster pace! Soon we went back into the lava fields, where Andy
had a little tantrum due to seeing the same scenery for too long. Not to worry though, as a quick food stop soon picked his mood up. Soon we could see where our next camping spot was a few little huts at the base of Askja. Before reaching it, we had to cross a little river which was the first sign of water we had seen on the trail so far. We also noticed that the ground under foot changed and we seemed to be walking on cork- we later realised it was pumice from the last volcanic eruption. We got to the huts and, as these were manned, we spoke to the lovely lady at the information desk and paid for our pitch. This wonderful women told us that there was a cafe selling tea and waffles on site. Waffles! In our excitement, we put our tent up in record timing and cooked our freeze-dried meals, before heading to the cafe for waffles and a hot chocolate. We went to sleep full of sugar and super excited for the next day as this looked to be most exciting day of the trail.
Day 3: Drekagil hut - Dyngjufjoll hut
Distance: 26km Ascent: 1028m Time: 14hours
Weather: Intermittent sun and clouds.
We had a later start this day, leaving camp at about 9am. Straight away we were faced with an ascent up to a little col which was at about 1350m, to drop into the cauldron of Askja where the lake, Öskjuvatn, was. The ascent was an interesting one as the ground was sandy but was dark in colour, so we thought it may have been an ash field. From this col we got our first glance into the cauldron and the stunning snow capped peaks surrounding it. On descending into the cauldron we got our first sight of the ground smoking. The ground beneath the smoke was a mixture of colours and it looked incredible. We got to Viti which is a small pool next to the lake. The first thing we noticed was the smell of the sulphur and the milky blue water. People used to bathe in Viti using it as a hot spring, but in recent years the pH level has turned too acidic for people to enter. From Viti we went to the main lake, Öskjuvatn. Rachel tried her hardest to get in for a swim but it was freezing, so after a few attempts she called it quits as it was getting late and we still had 15km to do. Leaving the cauldron, we got to the main car park where visitors park and this is where our path turned left onto another lava field. Unlike the previous 2 days this lava field was very unstable under foot and took us quite a while to cross. Rachel took a fall but lucky didn't injury herself to badly- just a couple of bruises. Her pole took most of the impact and broke, sadly becoming the first casualty of the trip. After exiting the lava field we found ourselves on a snow-covered lava field that was much firmer under foot. We had to cover about 10km on snow in total, heading up and over a snowy col. As we got higher, the snow got deeper and trail breaking was needed. This was something we didn't expect we would after do on this trip! To put into context the amount of snow we encountered, it was more than every day we spent in Scotland in February! Once we got to the top of the snowy col, we faced a snowy descent with both of our feet soaking and getting cold. We trundled down taking it easy, and collected some water from snow melt to get us back to the camp spot. Andy insisted we didn't need to fill every container up as there was a river next to the hut. Once out of the snow line, we quickly realised we were in a desert-like landscape. We were walking on sand and completely surrounded by it. The guidebook referred to the area as a desert- something else we didn't expect in Iceland! On arriving at the hut we noticed the river was bone dry and just prayed there was water inside the hut so we didn't have to backtrack, Luckily there was- lesson learnt! We pitched our tent in the sand and had a wonderful sleep- though from this point on we had sand and dust on every piece of kit we had.
Day 4: Dyngjufjoll hut - wild camp spot
Distance: 28km Ascent: 133m Time: 12 hours Weather: Sunny.
This was a vary long walk in a desert, with nothing to look at except the two-lined track we were walking on. 13km was too much for Rachel and she had her first major tantrum of the trip. She lay down, hating on the walk, and had a nap- nothing solved a tantrum like a 10-minute sand nap. While Rachel was napping, Andy thought he would take a few pictures and realised his phone had succumbed to the perils of the trip and broke- thus becoming the second casualty of the trip. Mid-afternoon, we finally came off the desert and into a lava field which offered a nice change of scenery and pace. this lava field led us to the next hut, which in the guide book was the next place to camp. We decided early in the trip that we would extend this day to make the last day shorter. We did stop at the hut shortly to have our evening meal here and agreed this hut had the nicest views- of a lovely little river and springs just outside. Afrer food, we continued on a track and the scenery started to get more green. We walked until 9pm and then found a lovely little spot to pitch our tent and get some sleep. It wasn't flat or very well-pitched, but we sleep so well on the soft sand.
Day 5: Wild camp spot - Grænavatn
Distance: 32km Ascent: 130m Time: 12 hours Weather: Sunny, little wind.
Today was the earliest we woke up on this trip, with the alarm going off at 4am. We declared this as 'pizza day' and we sprung out of bed and hit the trail, knowing it would be a long hike. The path was easy going but long and by this stage in the trek, both of our feet were hurting. We came across our second river crossing early in the day. It was deep and both our feet got soaked- which later in the day caused a few issues. The scenery got greener the closer to Grænavatn we got and, with our tired legs, the kilometres got slower and the breaks longer. There seemed to be more to see on this day of the trail, and we stopped several Golden Plover's- a beautiful bird that seemed to follow us for miles. Finally we dropped down and we could see Mývatn lake, what a site for sore feet! Near the end of the trail, we had just one farm track left to go. Andy looked at our GPS and it said 1.6km- this was by far the longest 1.6km we have ever done! It was so straight it seemed to go on much further. But eventually we got to the end and finished our Askja Trail hike.
Hitching a lift for to pizza
With the trail finished, we were facing either a daunting 9km walk back to the campsite or hitchhiking. We spent 30 minutes trying to thumb a lift, before Rachel checked the guidebook and noticed it mentioned a taxi company- 10 minutes later and we were being driven the 9km to our campsite- and pizza! Summary.
We both had different thoughts about the route, so we decided to summarise in 3 questions:
How was the hike?
Andy "I enjoyed the hike in general but it was not what I was expecting. The landscape of being able to see for miles I really struggled with and this was a new challenge for myself and it was interesting to see how my mind reacted to it"
Rachel "It was amazing to walk over so much lava. I like rocks and seeing different habitats and this hike showed me so much. I still can't believe the vastness of the lava fields!"
Would you change anything on this route?
Andy "Day 4 was a long, uninspiring day. Though thhis might be due to the awesome scenery from day 3"
Rachel "Day 4 for me was mind-numbing. We hiked 13km along a dirt road in a desert- with nothing to look at! We then did about another 8km on a lava field but it was the least inspiring out of all the ones we crossed. I could happily skip this day as the scenery was dull and the paths nothing to shout about."
What was your highlight?
Andy "Day 3 was amazing, It had everything I was expecting Iceland to be."
Rachel "I loved day 3- I've wanted to hike up a volcano for a while so I knew I've love doing this. What I didn't expect though was all of the snow on the other side of the volcano! It was incredible to go from sandy, ash, to lava, to knee-deep snow. I really enjoyed this day and would happily repeat it."
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