The trip to 'hell'

In Askja we wanted to have a something to eat and go over which way to go next. As we were trying to cook on our primus in the wind, a German chef showed up. He felt a bit sorry for us, so he offered us to come and cook in the German kitchen tent. Yamal turned out to be working in Askja as a chef for German tourists. Which turned out to be really handy for us, since we got to cook our pasta and our instant soup in the tent. After finding out that Gæsavatnaleið was closed and hardly anyone heading towards Sprengisandur we decided to go next to Mývatn and Húsavík and check out the geothermal pools there, and go from there to Sprengisandur. But for now we were in Askja, so it was time to go bathe in ‘hell’ (Víti)! It didn’t take long to get a ride up to Víti, but on the way up it started raining… and then it started to pour down..! When we reached Víti the slope down to the crater lake had become impossible to walk and the people who had been down there when it started to rain just barely managed to get back up. So unfortunately we didn’t get to bathe in ‘hell’, at least not this time round.

When we returned to Askja campsite it had stopped raining. We jumped into our tent (not remembering that we were camping on gravel, for there was no grass to be seen there), switched to dry clothes and got to cook in the german kitchen tent again, for the exchange of vodka. We spent the night with Yamal, the chef, and a German retired policeman, in the kitchen tent, drinking ‘medicine’ tea! After warming up a bit with the tea, we returned to our not so soft resting place, which was freezing cold, but after heating the tent up a bit with our primus, we managed to fall asleep by the footsteps of Askja.

Wednesday morning we got up early, hoping to be able to hitch a ride with some of the Icelanders that had been staying in the cabins. After more than two hours by the side of the road, and all the Icelanders gone, we decided to head back to the German kitchen. Yamal and his driver were heading back to Mývatn, after having spent 18 days in Askja! We managed to get a ride back with them in the back of their van, with coolers as our seats.