February 20.-21. 2010
The area around Myrdalsjokull ice-cap is one of my favorites. And I think you will agree after reading about our newest offroading tour. Stunning landscape far away from the stressful city life.
Gudmundur and his brother Dagur arranged the trip as a mixed 4x4 and snowmobile tour. Gudmundur leads the snowmobilers and Dagur the 4x4s. The plan is for the snowmobilers to cross the ice-cap and us to take the trail to the hut at Strutur.
Soon we have to cross the river Gygja - nice and deep and partly frozen.
There is almost no snow in the trail and that is partly the cause for the first problem. When trying to force my way through a patch of snow, I hit a sharp tire cutting stone. Since we don't carry spare wheels in shorter tours this calls for some outside help and to get the wheel back where we can get a spare one.
After some discussion and phoning up s few friends, Dagur takes me and the wheel back to Hvolsvollur, more than an hours drive back.
The local rescue unit, Dagrenning are willing to lend us a tire and after some good help we get the damaged tire off and the "new" one ready. Unfortunately the tire is old and tired and is already leaking. We use a few Safety Seal plugs to fix it and hope for the best.
Some of the mountains are amazing. This one is "Einhyrningur" (One Horned).
Eyjafjallajokull from the North side.
Tindfjallajokull.
Lots of great photo opportunities to slow us down.
Dagur's "Half Patty" and my Sport Trac.
Not much other traffic on these parts.
The hut at Strutur is located just north of Maelifell. Not bad.
It is getting late and the two other 4x4s are already there as well as the snowmobilers.
These short Patrols are not too common here. Most are the four dour version.
The evening view from the hut.
The morning is cold and clear and the looks are great for us crossing the Myrdalsjokull ice-cap.
The snowmobilers get ready. They are planning for some action before crossing the ice-cap again.
We leave the hut...
...and head south towards the morning sun.
Underneath the innocent looking ice are small but pretty deep creeks.
The Half Patty falls into one and it takes some jacking and towing to get it back up.
Harald from Norway gives us his blessings.
"Spectacular" is a word that comes to mind.
As we approach the glacier the day could not get any better.
Soon we are on our way up...
...and can look back to where we came from this moring.
Stopping to enjoy the view. Ragnar, Dagur, Brit and Harald.
Dagur looks happy 🙂
And in this bright light his Half Patty does look nice.
Getting down we can see the North Atlantic stretching almost uninterrupted to Antarctica on the other side of the globe.
Lower down the snowmobilers keep their trucks and trailers and mount their toys.
We head down to the coast line.
Dyrholaey is always interesting to see. The huge hole can be sailed through and has even been flown through in a small airplane.
The wind is blowing and the sea is showing its most spectacular waves.
After enjoying the view of the coastline looking west towards Eyjafjallajokull we head back home.
Its been a great offroading tour.
