Stage 2: Egilsstaðir – Jökuldalsheiði

Next day the weather hasn’t improved too much but as soon as I take off by plane I see that the clouds are only over the Reykjavik peninsula and for the next 50 minutes I get the most stunning views over the interior of Iceland before we land in Egilsstaðir. In Egilsstaðir it is 16 degrees and sunny. The small town is situated in a green meadowed valley surrounded by snow-covered hills. This is more like I thought Iceland would be. The girl at the reception assures me the good weather will last for another couple of days but unfortunately she’s as wrong as one can be because next day is filled with pouring rain and strong winds. I skip the daytrip I’d planned and spent most of the time with a Swiss couple in the local pub.

Egilsstaðir

The rain goes on all night and next day there is little reason to expect any improvement that day. Nevertheless I pack my stuff and hit the road heading North. The wind is terrible, blowing from the North-East, and I crawl at 15 kph through the brown and deserted moorlands. After 10 kms it stops raining and further North I see some lighter sky that might even be better weather. The wind is still strong but I know that after 20 kms from the camping I left this morning the road turns to the West and that is the part where I should get back winds. I can see miles ahead here and I see the road slowly climb to a nameless little pass of 213 meters high before it plunges down into the valley of the river Jökulsá á Dal (a not really original name that basically means “glacial river in the valley”). It must be my luck day today; not only do I have back winds now, but also the weather in the valley is significantly better than it was in the moorlands. The Temperature is still an uncomfortable 5 degrees but at least the sun peeks through the clouds every now and then.
It is here that I encounter the first gravel road but it appears to be of very good quality. I’ve heard terrible stories about it but the road has a hard and rather smooth surface with very little stones on it. My map is clearly out of date because it reads that the road will remain gravel more or less all the way to the Mývatn but after 15 kilometers or so the tarmac starts again. Clearly some serious upgrading is going on.
My plan for today is to spend the night at Sköldólfsstaðir since there is a small camping site near the school building. Unfortunately, there is no such thing, nor is there the café the Lonely Planet guide mentions. There is someone coming out of the house straight across the gas station when I get there and I try to ask what happened. The man doesn’t speak English so he calls out his daughter. She tells me the school turned into a home for troubled children in 1999 and therefore the camping site that was part of the school in summer was closed. The café lasted another year but was then closed down by the government for unclear reasons. She invites me in for a cup of coffee and I gladly accept. Over a cup of coffee she explains she can’t get me a place to sleep since they’re rebuilding the house and thus have only one room left to sleep in their selves. She advises me to go on for another 15 kilometers or so to an emergence shelter along the road where I can either pitch my tent or stay inside; whatever I like. At least I will have radio communication if needed during the night. When I ask about the opportunity to go to Möðrudalur she starts to laugh; it appears that road number 1 has been renewed and now no longer passes there. The old road is still there but not open yet and therefore the café at Möðrudalur (that happened to be owned by her parents) is still closed too. I thank her for her hospitality and decide to move on to the emergence shelter.

Valley of the Jökulsá á Dal

The first kilometer the road is under construction, which means I have to find my way through a thick layer of gravel while huge lorries pass me. Directly after the road works the road climbs out of the valley; not in a really subtle way as the road goes straight up at 12-14% for several hundred meters before turning and continuing less steep but still a memorable 8-10%. The summit is much further than I thought it would be and I have to use my last reserves to get there. Just after the summit the road becomes tarmac again and rolls through a spectacular landscape. All around me I see rolling lava hills that are still half covered with snow; in the far distance there are more mountain-like hills. I find it hard to enjoy it right now as my legs feel more dead than alive and the road has some steep short climbs to be taken. The last kilometers I crawl along the almost straight road to the emergency shelter. I pass the side road (that used to be the main road) to Möðrudalur though this is not noted on the road sign. The old main road is now numbered 901 and according to the sign says it goes to Sænautafell (13km).
The emergency shelter is small, dirty and has a bad smell. The floor is covered with mud and dead flies so I decide to pitch my tent at some distance behind the shelter. There is hardly any traffic on the road, the sky is clear blue by now and the wind has gone so it is a perfect (but cold) evening.

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