Day 2 - Landmannalaugar

Day 2

"Hold the door!" Jk, not that dramatic, but close enough. 

When people say the weather in Iceland is unpredictable, is crazy unpredictable.  From a cloudy misty yesterday, the day started out  beautiful, sunny clear blue skies. Perfect day to head to Landmannalaugar to backpack. The 3-4 hour shuttle we passed by lands that looked like the moon to green lush lava fields ful of sheep and horses. Driving through the Highlands is insane and it's heavily regulated that only  4x4 with high clearance can drive thru. I'm glad we took the shuttle, it's no joke. There are several water crossing (yes the car drives thru a river!) and the road is not paved. We all had on our seats on the shuttle after flying out of seats. Over all a good ride. 

The winds were really strong and my little tent would be torn apart,   so I set up camp nestled  in between the largest tent I could find and this army of orange tents. I would've gone right in between them if I could Hahaha. 

I saw others building a 'rockwall' around their tent so I did the same.  I wanted to encourage the wind to go up and over the tent, which paid off in the end cus alot of my neighbors (non-orange-army) fell down during the midnight wind and rain storm. It felt like the tent was lifting up. (Thank goodness for strong Big Anges tent stakes! They all held up!)

We had to hold up the walls to keep the tent upright. Hhw winds blew so hard the walls were almost vertical. I was afraid the poles would snap so we had to stay up for a good hour or so to brace the poles. The winds calmed down and we passed out. 

We took a hike to see the hot springs and the geo-thermal rocks. The sulfur smell  is strong. If you place your hand over the holes it's hot! 

This is why there's no shortage of hot water! 

I was really excited to see a goat/sheep/whatever  this close on the trail. 

It rained, so we hid in our tent and made mushroom miso soup. The big tent next to us offered us a hot bowl of rice, which we accepted.

We decided to head back early to the city on the first bus that arrived. We had to pack up in the rain which was unpleasant but hey that's the Icelandic weather for ya! Haha