Askja

After a quick stop at Egilsstaðir for resupplying and for a fuel refill, we started driving again… our adventure for the day was to reach the Dreki Campsite and hike to the crater of the Askja Volcano! We decided to go along with this plan just after checking the weather forecasts and the road conditions and making sure to understand if our car model was able to survive this off-road expedition, since it included river crossings.

The off-road drive was long (5h 30min)… but so exciting! We drove our 4x4 Dacia Duster on the roads F905 and F910, hence along the recommended and “easiest” roads on the way to Askja. The roads were anyway no joke… they were very rough at times and crossed 3 rivers. Luckily, we queued behind two other cars and tackled the road and rivers together.

”The Last One CLOSE IT!”

This was a sentence that an Italian guy driving one of the cars to Askja screamed at us, once he opened a gate to cross a bridge. As we were the last car passing, we needed to close the gate behind us. This wouldn’t be funny in a normal situation, but for us it was hilarious… this guy was so motivated and excited by the off-road adventure, and for us it seemed like watching an action movie… the loud river in the back, the guy running towards us, the sentence screamed at us with such passion! Of course we never stopped repeating this sentence for the whole duration of our holidays!

Once at Dreki, we planned to first hike along the red A-2 trail (3 hours) to Víti Crater and to then walk on the shorter blue A-1 trail (30 minutes) to reach the parking lot. At the parking, we were kind of hoping to find a good soul to hitch-hike back to Dreki.

Once we started hiking, the desertic landscapes reminded us of Star Wars and we picked up a good pace while singing the soundtrack of the movies.

We reached the top of the crater after 2h 30min, and the Crater Lake Askja opened up in front of us… it was so special!

We also hiked down to visit the smaller Víti Crater. Unfortunately, authorities did not recommend to bathe in it, because of the recent increased activity of the Volcano and of the very acidic pH of the water in the crater.

However, the views were stunning and it was a once in a lifetime experience to see the two craters filled with water!

Unfortunately, no car was leaving once we arrived at the parking lot… we started hiking back on the road, hoping that someone would drive by at some point. In the end, we ended up walking all the way back to Dreki, 8 km along the road… but we had so much fun, as we talked and talked and laughed a lot!

In the evening, we were suddenly attacked by a storm of very annoying midges. We therefore cooked in a rush and I bet we were kind of funny to watch… as we couldn’t stay still without being attacked by the insects, we constantly moved our bodies in the most bizarre and non-elegant ways ahah!