Let’s just say the night wasn’t exactly restful. Huge gusts of wind blew all night long, rocking Big Ben and leaving us barely able to sleep a wink.
But hey, we didn’t come to Iceland to sleep! A coffee, some breakfast and off we go again.
1Drekagil 9:40
2Víti 10:08
Next stop, Víti. We’ve got about 14 km of track left to reach the car park. Once there, no question of lounging around in Big Ben: boots on and off we go for a 2.5 km walk to Víti lake.
We’d already been here on our previous trip, but honestly, it was well worth coming back. And a 5 km round trip first thing in the morning really wakes you up! The tally by midday: 10,570 steps and almost 8 km on the clock. Not bad after a near-sleepless night!
3Vikraborgir 11:23
Back at Big Ben, we hit the road again towards Mývatn, this time via the F88.
4Drekagil 12:12
7F88 ford 13:47
And an F track in Iceland always means a bit of excitement!
Along the way, three fords to cross, one of them a pretty serious one. We get chatting with some Swiss travellers we met on the track and, inevitably, it turns into little video breaks: everyone films everyone else on the ford crossings. Always lovely, these impromptu encounters in the middle of nowhere!
Once again the F88 treats us to those utterly mind-blowing Icelandic landscapes: vast desert plains, tracks lost in the middle of nothing and that feeling of being alone in the world.
8Hrossaborg 15:44
Before reaching Mývatn, another stop at Hrossaborg, a huge crater that looks like a film set. And that’s not just an impression, since the area was used as a set for the film Oblivion with Tom Cruise (released in 2013).
Obviously, no way we could leave without getting the drone out! A quick flight to enjoy this lunar landscape from above before hitting the road again.
The Oblivion crater
NReykjahlíð night
This time, the end-of-day goal is far less touristy: find a campsite and settle in, because tomorrow morning Big Ben has a date with reality.
After the shock absorber problem we spotted yesterday, we want to be at the garage first thing tomorrow to find out exactly what’s going on and, above all, how to carry on with our Icelandic adventure.
So here we are, settled in at the campsite, tired but with another great day behind us (147 km in total): Víti, a hike, the F88, three fords, a Swiss encounter, Hrossaborg and a few drone shots.
Now, just one mission for tonight: SLEEP!
Fingers crossed that Big Ben doesn’t have an existential crisis right in the middle of Iceland.