Sprengisandur Highland Road

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Hella

   Hella is a small town in southern Iceland, on the banks of the Ytri-Rangá river, about a hundred kilometres east of Reykjavik on Route 1, and it is the place where most riders go to get ready for the interior. Its population is a few hundred, but it serves a wide farming district of horse studs, sheep, barley fields and greenhouses heated by geothermal water. Looming to the north-east, on a clear day, is Hekla, the volcano that medieval Europeans called the gateway to hell. It rises to nearly 1,500 metres, has erupted many times, and last did so in 2000, when it gave only a few hours of warning.

   Read the complete Hella write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hella is where the day begins. Next is Landmannalaugar junction.

2. 2. Landmannalaugar junction

   Landmannalaugar looks as if someone has spilled a paint box over the mountains. The hills around the camp are made of rhyolite, a volcanic rock that weathers in shades of pink, yellow, green, blue and purple, and in the evening, with the low sun on them, they glow like embers. Beside the camp is a black lava field, the Laugahraun, and a stream of warm water runs through it from hot springs, where trekkers sit in a natural pool after a long day on the trail.

   Read the complete Landmannalaugar junction write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Landmannalaugar junction comes up about 104 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nyidalur.

3. 3. Nýidalur

   Nýidalur is a mountain hut in the middle of nowhere, at about eight hundred metres, on the long, empty route of Sprengisandur that runs through the centre of Iceland. It sits in a green valley called Jökuldalur between two great ice caps, Hofsjökull to the west and Vatnajökull to the east, with the peak of Tungnafellsjökull rising nearby, and the whole landscape around it is a vast desert of black gravel and lava, with only a few patches of moss and grass. It is about as remote as you can get in Europe.

   Read the complete Nyidalur write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 236 km into the recorded legs you reach Nyidalur. Next is Godafoss.

4. 4. Goðafoss

   Goðafoss is the waterfall of the gods, and its name comes from a story. In the year 1000, when the Icelandic parliament decided that the country should adopt Christianity, the lawspeaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði is said to have thrown his statues of the old Norse gods into the falls on his way home, and the name has stuck ever since. Whether or not it happened exactly that way, the story fits the place, where the river Skjálfandafljót drops in a wide, curving horseshoe over a basalt ledge, about twelve metres high and thirty metres across.

   Read the complete Godafoss write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Goðafoss closes the day.