Trekking Iceland - Volcanic Trails - Strútur to Hvanngil

Our day started in the usual fashion – a breakfast of muesli, porridge, crackers, cheese, processed meats and various spreads, followed by the making of our packed lunches out of more-or-less the same ingredients. Then, once Kjartan had showed us our route for the day on the map,

Daily summary of trail we will hike - Volcanic Trails - Central Highlands, Iceland — Kartjan showing us where we would be hiking today and pointing out the key features of our route

off we set up the relatively steep hill behind Strútur hut.

Climbing the ridge above the Strútur Hut - Volcanic Trails - Central Highlands, Iceland — You can see Strútur Hut below us in the river valley

The first part of today’s hike saw us traversing the black volcanic sand plain of Mýrdalssandur

Crossing the black volcanic sands of Mýrdalssandur - Volcanic Trails - Central Highlands, Iceland — Crossing the black volcanic sands of Mýrdalssandur

with a stone cairn marking one of the old travel routes from the 9^th century (did you know it is illegal to add rocks to cairns in Iceland?)

Stone wayfinding cairn from the 9th century- Volcanic Trails - Central Highlands, Iceland — This cairn has been here a long time! We are hiking in the footsteps of 9th century travellers

and the Mýrdalssandur glacier bordering our southern side.

Mýrdalssandur glacier above the black volcanic plain- Volcanic Trails - Central Highlands, Iceland — Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to get a good picture of the glacier. Aaarrrgggghhh the contrast! Some things you just have to be there to see for yourself

We took our lunch at the base of a small pass

Lunch on the black volcanic sand with the Mýrdalssandur glacier in the background - Volcanic Trails - Central Highlands, Iceland — Our lunch spot on the black volcanic sands of Mýrdalssandur with the glacier in the background. Desolate place! But very beautiful!

and I hiked up the hill behind to see what the next valley looked like from on high. Wow! What a view! And completely different to the valley we’d just been hiking through. Absolutely worth the effort of the climb!

View into the next valley from the hill above our lunch on the black volcanic sands of Mýrdalssandur - Volcanic Trails - Central Highlands, Iceland — View into the next valley from the hill above our lunch on the black volcanic sands of Mýrdalssandur. Definitely worth the climb!

In both the trek schedule provided by Icelandic Mountain Guides and in Kjartan’s briefing that morning, we’d been warned that we would need our river shoes handy for the next section of the hike. We started hiking across the river valley in our normal boots