Day 5 - Laugavegur trail day 2

I woke a couple of times in the night, about 2am there was the patter of rain on the tent and the wind has got up a bit, but nothing alarming.

The weather starts to clag in

This is the most sketchy spot on the trail in terms of camping, and sometimes the rangers won't allow it and you have to go on to the next hut, another 12km away. By the time we got up, it had clagged in and you could barely see the tenters loo hut about 20 metres away.

Today was a day of Debs disasters. Firstly, while boiling water for my coffee and breakfast, I managed to tip the billy of hot (but thankfully not yet boiling) water all over myself. I was wearing rain pants so didn't burn myself. However I also tipped over the still burning gas cooker, flames shooting where they shouldn't, and briefly set fire to the carry case for the billy which was sitting on the bench.

Oops

I was able to right it and turn it off, before anything else caught alight. As the whole debacle unfolded, there was a collective "Ooooooohhhh" from the rest of the people in the hut. What a dufus.

The billy case has scorch marks and a couple burn holes.

After breakfast and a last stop at the long drops that reeked of ammonia so bad it made your eyes water, we packed up camp and prepared to leave. My tent was wet, so I strapped it to the outside of my pack, to stop it soaking everything else, and allow a greater turnover at the top/more waterproof.

We set off and by now the weather was appalling. Horizontal rain with gale force winds, very low cloud so no views to reward our discomfort. Based on my experience of Wellington's wind, I would guess at least 80kph, gusting more. We slogged up steep accents, across ridges where the wind was so bad you had to anchor yourself with hiking poles to not get blown over the edge of the ridge. As soon as we stopped, we got real cold real quick, so just had to keep moving, the wind was relentless.

If you are squeamish about snot, skip this paragraph. When I exercise, my nose runs (it's actually a real thing, called exercise induced rhinitus). My body was working hard to keep moving, and producing copious amounts of snot. I mopped up as quickly as I could, but the wind would whip it away sideways if I wasn't quick enough. I know what you pack in you should pack out, but there was no way I was chasing down those boogers, they are staying in Iceland. Hell, with that wind, they are probably in Norway by now.

We began the steep descent down, about 400m of elevation drop over a very short distance, on a switchback path strewn with rocks. I managed to land badly on my left foot and my big toenail is a gonna, already black and lifting up. Sigh.

There were a few brave souls coming the other way, one poor girl on her own asked if the wind was as bad further up, and looked a bit shocked when we said no it's actually worse. I would not want to be doing that climb, it was very steep.

By this time we were down in the valley and sheltered from the wind a bit, so we stopped briefly for a snack.

Next up was our first river crossing. This one has a wire strung across to hold on to. We took our boots off and swapped for "waterproof" socks, and made it across. The water was knee high and quite fast flowing, but not that cold, which was surprising. The socks are not actually waterproof.

Disaster #2 for the day. When we stopped on the other side to swap footware again, I realised my tent was missing. Goneburger. No longer strapped to my backpack. What the heck. When did I lose it? I was behind Belinda most of the way, so she didn't notice it had gone. After a few minutes berating myself for my stupidity, I figured I would have to go back and look for it. At least to the area where we'd stopped for a rest, in case that's where it came off as I sat down. The huts are all fully booked, so without it I would have nowhere to sleep. I was in the middle of changing back into my river crossing shoes when a woman with a halo and wings, appeared, holding up my tent. I don't think I've ever felt so relieved in my life. We both thanked her profusely. Selma had found it further up in the steep section of the trail, and debated whether to bring it or not, in case it had been dropped by someone going in the other direction, who might backtrack to look for it. Thankfully she decided to bring it with her.

By the time we reached our intended destination for the day, Altavatyn Hut, I was exhausted. Belinda had gone on ahead of me, she was getting cold while I was still changing back into my hiking boots.

She'd spoken to the hut warden, who are all very friendly and helpful, and they had suggested we carry on to the next hut, another 4km along the trail. We had a coffee in the restaurant, it was a basic hut serving meals, but it was a warm and very welcome rest. The camp site here is very flat and exposed, with no shelter for campers to cook meals or hang out, and as it was only early still, about 2pm, we decided to continue on to the next hut Hvangill. It was a good call, the weather was much better there and the camp site was in a stunning location. We met a family hiking with a collection of silly hats, bear and racoon, so they were dubbed racoon family. If you think we are bringing a lot of stuff, they had camp chairs !!.

I felt pretty sick at this point, so once we'd set up camp I lay down for a bit. I think I hadn't drunk enough water during the day, so I felt better as I rehydrated. I managed to cook dinner (boil water to rehydrate my tasty chicken mash freeze dried meal) without tipping anything over or burning the tent down. Yay me!