Getting to Álftavatn
Progress on the trail was slow. Occasionally the flurries cleared for long enough to take a compass bearing on the next guide post. I then had to follow blindly along its line, trying to forget about travellers who had become lost and died in similar conditions on Iceland's interior tracks. But the Hrafntinnusker bunkhouse was reached at last. The next day the blizzard had blown itself out, leaving a metre of snow and clear views extending off the back of the plateau and down to brilliant green conical hills flanking Álftavatn (Swan Lake). From here there was a plain of volcanic sand to cross in unexpected sunshine, which was hot enough to strip down to a T-shirt. Near the Innri-Emstruá bridge, over a river swollen fearsomely with snow-melt, a herd of Icelandic horses were being driven to summer pasture, following a centuries-old routine. I spent the evening on a rocky ridge overlooking the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap to the south, enjoying the silence and the vast panorama of outlying glaciers spreading across the landscape below.
Reaching the Þröngá
A day later and I was at the Þröngá, the deepest unbridged river so far, though fortunately only thigh-deep at the time. Sometimes you have to wait for the level to subside before attempting to cross. On the far bank was Þórsmörk, and a striking change of scenery. After the spartan, restricted palette of the last few days, I was overwhelmed by sudden lush splashes of colour, flowers and dense thickets of dwarf birch. Þórsmörk's deep valley runs east-west along the intertwined headwaters of the Krossá, which is fed by ice caps squashing down on the encircling plateaus. There's nowhere more immediately attractive in the whole of Iceland, with a host of trails along low peaks and scree slopes to keep you active.
Trekking the mountains to Skógar
Having reached Þórsmörk, why stop there? I decided to continue south over the mountains to Skógar and the next main road. I asked Þórsmörk's resident ranger, a tough, friendly young man, how long this 25km hike might take. He considered me briefly. "For you, I think eight hours. But it is difficult to know. You see that ridge?" He pointed to the edge of the Morinsheiði plateau high above us. "Three hours is enough to reach there. Although yesterday, I ran it in forty-five minutes during a rescue operation."
