From now on

It's 7:45 am and the group meeting is at 8:00. I just wake up and I haven't had a shower, I haven't had breakfast either. But I remember very well asking the guesthouse clerk yesterday, after a 30 hours without sleep long stretch, for a wake-up call at 7:00. And I also remember his answer while he was programming the phone: “no problem Mr., at 7:00...”

So I run in the shower, grab something to eat and head out to the guesthouse front door with all my gears for the meeting. Out there, there is the couple from Washington I met yesterday and CA the girl who was mistakenly originally booked as my co-chamber yesterday! She's from the States too. There are 7 other people all from the UK. We are 11: 2 couples and 7 singles and the women are majority. After a few minutes arrived KO and CY, our guides. KO also British will walk with us and CY a genuine Icelandic will carry the heavy equipment with is modified big Nissan truck.
After a 3 hours drive including a stop at a small town shop to buy the essential goods some of us has forgotten to pack. We travel another half hour but this time off-road until KO says “We're arrived!” Everyone gets out of the vehicle and try to find some kind of geographical reference but after a long look around, everyone agrees that we're definitely in the middle of nowhere! There is no trail, no river, no lake, no trees only strange red, black or yellow mountains.

Before CY drive away and leave us alone in this unreal environment we take a rudimentary lunch beside the bus. After we say goodbye to CY put our backpacks on and start to walk in the direction chose by KO. Soon after we reach our first lava field. It's a young (1930) and still an unstable lava field. KO gives many information on it and on the surrounding, very interesting. After this lava field we start climbing small mountains, it's quite an easy walk so far.

At some point, during a break, KO asks us to stop making any noise so we can experience the Icelandic inner land silence. Wow! Amazing. A real total silence: no civilization, no birds, no bugs, no wind in the leaves, absolutely nothing! I have the feeling that my tympanums are trying to get deeper inside my head. It was certainly not the last silent break of the trek, it's too amazing!

We walk the rest of the afternoon going up and down the hills. The weather is perfect, maybe even a little too much, it hasn't rained in Iceland for the last four weeks and the around 20C temperatures are really abnormal for this country. We make another stop this time at a lake to fill our drinking water supplies. What a great feeling to collect pure and fresh water directly from a lake, It's an impossible thing to do in my part of world.

At 7:30 our tonight mountain hut is in sight and as soon as we put our feet in the place a gentle mist begins. It will last all supper long. And around 10:30 the sky clears again and we can see this beautiful sunset on the nearby mountains. The sun will eventually completely set but it will stay so close under the horizon line that at the question asked “At what time it will be dark?” the answer you get is “August!”


We all sleep inside the hut(girls at the second level beds, guys at the first) except for the young couple and the guide, they sleep outside, inside their tents. So far the group looks okay. Everyone is respectful with every one. It's a good first day.





more photos in my ICELAND 2007 PHOTO ALBUM

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Note:

This is the first chapter of my Iceland trek report. But from the beginning, I would like to sensitize you about a big problem that is facing the Icelandic community.

Among these majestic unspoiled landscapes are some big glacier rivers and those rivers are in the target of some big companies like ALCOA or ALCAN(A company from Quebec )
They want to dam those rivers and built hydroelectric complexes. The Icelandic people has no need for this electricity surplus. It will only benefit those companies.

The tragedy is that if they dam those rivers they will completely destroy this still virgin and unique environment. The Icelandic inner lands are without a doubt something worth conserving intact. It's an amazing open air laboratory with its glaciers, volcanoes and arctic vegetation. After walking an entire week inside this one of a kind land, I can't believe that I will be one of the last that will witness one of the last unspoiled part of this planet. The Icelandic people needs international backup to help them fight back those multinationals invasions. A group of activists called Saving Iceland is the main protesting voice against these nature's destructors.

They hold many actions at many places. The first day I was in Reykjavik, they had a manifestation, some kind of “streetparty” right down the street in front of my guesthouse. I strongly recommended you to visit their website. You will learn more about the issue and you can help by email your disagreement directly to the concerned companies or your local Icelandic embassy.

www.savingiceland.org

Thanks.

Despite the distance she has travelled during the last months, she looked fresh and healthy. She even gains some little weight...

Well, this way she might keep herself warmer in the cold winter nights.

But I don’t think she will spend winter here, she didn't look like someone who was ready to settle down. In fact, I’m sure she will continue her journey around the world.

Like they say: travel broadens the mind.




Click on these links if you want to follow her epic journey so far.

When she left home • 1st stop • 2nd stop • 3rd one • 4th one • 5th • and 6th