This week I decided to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: I’m going to walk Iceland’s Laugavegur Trail and I’m going to keep a diary of the preparation and the real thing, partly to keep track of everything and partly to make sure I have no choice but to do it.
I’ve done a reasonable amount of walking and from what I’ve read, the walking itself isn’t going to be overly challenging on this one. It’s 55km over four days, which works out at about 7.5 miles the first two days and 10 the last two days. That’s fine. The terrain is relatively flat and easy and there are four huts along the route. Everything I’ve seen has marked this two, occasionally three, boots out of five for difficulty so that’s fine.
It’s navigation that’s potentially the problem. I say potentially. It’s marked the whole way with marker pegs and signposts. In good weather, you don’t really even need a map. But in bad weather, you’re not going to be able to see from one peg to the next which is why you need to take a map and compass and/or GPS. People have got lost in the fog and the cloud and died of exposure, particularly on day two. The Icelandic landscape is glorious but it doesn’t have much in the way of landmarks. Day two in particular is largely a long walk across a plain of ash and lava – which I love. Providing it’s clear enough to see it, I’m looking forward to this.
Combine this potentially lethal weather with the fact that I’ve never done a long-distance trail before and I’ve opted for guided. It’s three or four times the price of doing it on your own but I’m going for it for two reasons. One – having a guide means I’m more or less guaranteed to get to the other end alive. Two – you get your luggage transported between huts!
Not that I’m sleeping in the huts. I’m opting for camping because it knocks a good chunk off the price. I’ve camped at Landmannalaugar before. It was fine, other than that I was there two nights and I packed my tent up first thing on the first morning, took a photo of the patch of weedy grass underneath it and ten minutes later put the tent back up again. Long story. I’m also more or less expecting the tents to already be up when we get there.
Now – as for the price… I’ve costed this myself and if you go on your own, unguided, using the public buses and sleeping in the huts, it costs a little over £400/$570 at current exchange rates. Which is lunacy! It’s £99 for the bus passport and it works out at around £60 a night in the huts! Plus an extra £3.50 per shower at each hut. I believe it’s only about £8.50 a night camping but if you camp you’re not allowed to use the huts’ kitchens or common rooms.
So while guided looks horrifyingly expensive, doing it alone is still pretty expensive and I’m pretty sure that the longer I wait, the more expensive – and the more crowded – it’s going to get. So let’s do it this summer. I wanted to do it in 2015 for my thirtieth birthday but couldn’t bring myself to bite the bullet price-wise.
Not that I’ve booked it yet. Oh no, that has to wait until I get paid. I should have booked it by the time this is published, though (I get paid two-thirds of the way through the month, for some reason).
Preparations so far: I already had the recommended map from years ago. It’s 1:100 000, which seems absurdly big, especially when the OS Explorer maps I’m used to are 1:25 000. It’s Mál og Menning’s No4 Landmannalaugar – Þorsmork – Fjallabak map, if you’re interested. I also have the Cicerone Walking & Trekking in Iceland guidebook, also from years ago, and that details each day right down to “turn left at the chunk of lava” type detail. It’s small but it weighs a ton so I’ll probably copy/photocopy & stick the relevant bits into my Laugavegur diary.
Next: footwear. I have some great walking boots but as I learnt in November in Wales, they are seriously not waterproof. To be honest, I’d probably be happy walking the whole thing in my mountain sandals. I’ve climbed mountains in them before, they don’t rub like boots can and I don’t need to faff around getting changed to ford rivers. But guides expect to see boots and I could do with some half-decent waterproof boots anyway so I’m writing this while breaking in a pair of Mammut Nova Base Mid GTX boots. I’m probably going to keep them but I’ve been ordered to wear them around the house for thirty days first to see if they rub anywhere. They’re not Serious Mountain boots but this isn’t a Serious Mountain Trail. I’ve heard of people doing it in trainers. You’ll find out in the next part of the Laugavegur Diaries whether I do end up keeping them.
That’s it so far. I’m probably going to need a good sleeping bag in the next few months too and I’m definitely going to need to work out what to eat – I’m Very Special Dietary Needs, so that’ll be fun. You can add special food to the trek for a fee but I’m too special. My own grandparents never mastered the art of arranging suitable food so a total stranger is never going to manage. It’s mostly the evening meals that might be problematic so watch the Laugavegur Diaries for some experiments on that front.