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HOLIDAYS TO ICELAND
MOUNTAIN HIGHLIGHTS
12 days from £2490 pp
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Map of tour
Walk with the world at your feet in some of Iceland’s most exquisitely beautiful spots: Landmannalaugar, Sprengisandur, Þingvellir, Skaftafell, Jökulsárlón and Myvatn. Take in plunge, chute and sheet waterfalls; sail out to the island home of thousands of piebald, orange beaked Puffins; cruise on a glacial lagoon with recently calved bergs drifting alongside you; see geysers erupting before your eyes; walk around Myvatn, circumscribed with contorted lava sculptures and dotted with pseudo craters and bathe in a heated lagoon. Our people who take you there are the direct descendants of Guomundur Jonasson famed throughout Iceland for rescuing the crew of an aircraft that crashed on Vatnajokull and other deeds of derring do, so you are in good hands.
DAY 1 UK – REYKJAVIK Scheduled Icelandair flight to Reykjavík. Transfer on arrival to and overnight at Borgartún Guesthouse.
DAY 2 REYKJAVIK – GULLFOSS –GEYSIRSKAFTAFELL Start the day savouring south Iceland’s star attractions: the Geysir geothermal area with its fumaroles stained yellow with sulphur; Thykkuhverir the viscous hot springs and Gullfoss, whose waters flow down a 3 step staircase before plunging in two stages down a crevice at right angles to the flow of the river. Continue along the coast past the waterfalls Seljalandsfoss and Seljalandsfoss; stop at Vik and then across vast outwash plains forded by bridges and Skeidararsandur [literally the black sands of the Skeidarsandur glacier] before arriving at the edge of Skaftafell National Park. Overnight for two nights.
DAY 3 SKAFTAFELL WALKING A day spent walking in Skaftafell Natural Park with its contrasting landscapes of dwarf birch woodland, glacial tongues and melt water rivers, moorland and sand plains. There is a walk to Svartifoss (literally the black waterfall) flanked by basalt columns and from there to Sjónarsker returning via Skaftafell turf roofed farm. Alternative less demanding and more arduous routes respectively are across Skaftafell moor and up to the glacial tongue Skaftafelsjökull.
DAY 4 SKAFTAFELL – FLJÓTSDALSHÉRAÐ The highlight of today’s journey is Jökulsárlón lagoon, a glacial lake filled with icebergs calving off the Breiðafjörður glacier and separated from the sea by a narrow isthmus: stop for a boat trip on the lagoon amongst the drifting bergs. Continue on to the Eastern Fjords for a two night stay by Egilsstadðir.
DAY 5 VIKING TRAILS WALKING Drive Down to the fishing village Bakkagerði in Borgarfjörður Eystri and nestled at the head of the fjord whose rhyolite environs contain extinct volcanoes at either end divided by glacial incursion and whose dark basalt coloured mountains change their hue with the weather.There are several hiking trails to choose from and today will be spent walking in this beautiful and magnificent area.
DAY 6 FLJÓTSDALSHÉRAÐ - ASKJA– MÝVATN Travel across vast desert highlands with several active volcanoes and incomparable scenery, stopping at Askja, an active stratovolcano that last erupted time1961. En route we also stop at a highland oasis Herðubreiðarlindir, a nature reserve dominated by Mount Herðubreið, often called “The Queen of Icelandic Mountains”. Arrive late evening at Lake Mývatn/Húsavík and spend the next three nights in the area.
DAYS 7 -8 MÝVATN AREA Two days to explore the extraordinary scenery and wildlife in the area: the wooded headland at Höfði with its lava pillars; contorted black towers of Dimmuborgir; the pastel coloured Námafjall ridge with its steamy surroundings and smouldering, sulphurous Krafla. Further afield there are the multi-coloured houses that hug the mountainside by the fishing village of Husavik from where we go whale spotting and puffin watching in a traditional wooden schooner; the unusually wooded canyon at Asbyrgi; Dettifoss with its dishwater grey torrent and the beautiful but somewhat forgotten Selfoss with its wide curtain fall.
DAY 9 MÝVATN - SPRENGISANDURHELLA To quote journalist Sankha Guha ‘an amazing journey with a sense of remoteness you usually have to go to the other side of the world for’. The Sprengisandur which is closed for all but 2 months of the year takes you right down through the mountainous heart of Iceland’s highlands. Overnight in the village of Hella.
DAY 10 LANDMANNALAUGAR WALKING Sometimes known as the 'pearl of the central highlands', Landmannalaugar is a landscape of sweeping mountains dotted with hot and cold springs and a bathe in one of them is a highlight of the day. Millennia of volcanic activity have left mountains of varying colours and hues which change throughout the day as the sun arcs above them. The route followed is through the exquisitely beautiful Pjorsardalur Valley with a stop at Hjalparfoss Waterfall along the way and the return takes in Mount Hekla, Iceland's most active volcano believed to be the gateway to Hell.
DAY 11 ÞINGVELLIR-REYKJAVÍK On our way back to Reykjavík we stop in the national park Þingvellir home to the Althing where Icelander’s Norse predecessors first met to give up rape and pillage in favour of setting up a parliament. At Þingvellur you are also astride the Atlantic Rift where the North American and the Eurasian continental plates meet. Overnight at Borgartún Guesthouse.
DAY 12 REYKJAVIK - UK Late morning transfer to airport for scheduled Icelandair return flight to UK.
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