Finally, here comes the last day of the journey!
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Laugavegur - Itinerary of Day 4
- Start & End / Direction: Emstrur to Þórsmörk / North to South
- Distance: About 16 km
- Time:
- Official: 6 - 7 hr
- Actual: 5 hr (07:00 - 12:10, Sep. 1, 2023)
- Descending about 250 - 300 m (Altitude 491 - 228 m)
- Route: Emstrur - Þórsmörk (Thorsmork)
- Weather: Sunny then cloudy.
Time Table of Day 4 of Laugavegur
- 07:00 Departed from Emstrur
- 12:10 Arrived at Þórsmörk
- 14:00 Departed from Þórsmörk by shuttle bus
- Before 19:00 arrived at Reykjavik
Track of Day 4 of Laugavegur
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| Track of Laugavegur in day4, descending overall / Img: Self-recorded track on the screen of the Taiwanese App "Journal in the Woods" |
Laugavegur - Day 4
The last day.
I felt relieved that finally I was "logging out", but felt reluctant to leave here at the same time.
Not sure if I will be here again in the future.
When leaving the huts / campsite, I found some flowers like huge cauliflowers.
Comparing to the views days ago, this place was FULL of vegatation.
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| The green vegetation around Emstrur / Photo: Yun (Me) |
The weather was wonderful! I even felt TOO warm.
It was the lucky hiking day for me, same as the first day.
What? Oh yeah. I've been lucky all along the way!
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| The jaw dropping view between Emstrur and Þórsmörk / Photo: Yun (Me) |
The view I saw on this day was the broadest one.
I really felt that human were small while hiking there.
As what I write for the detour on the 3rd day, it didn't take long for hikers to reach the place where they had to cross the bridge upon the valley of Fremri Emstruá river to the other side.
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| Bridge upon the valley of Fremri Emstruá river / Photo: Yun (Me) |
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| Fremri Emstruá river and valley / Photo: Yun (Me) |
It was smooth and safe to hike to and on the bridge.
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| Bridge upon Fremri Emstruá / Photo: Yun (Me) |
On the other side, there are even a metal handle on the cliff, which was very nice and considerable.
And then I hiked upwards, leaving the valley. And another endless land unfolded before me.
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| The spectacular view between Emstrur to Þórsmörk / Photo: Yun (Me) |
There was no shades on the land.
It was 8:30, and the sun just came up but still behind the mountain. That's why the view were back to the light.
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| A part of the Earth, between Emstrur to Þórsmörk / Photo: Yun (Me) |
Then I crossed a small river called Ljósá upon the bridge.
By 11:10, I reached the final river to ford in this journey. Þröngá river.
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| River Þröngá, Laugavegur / Photo: Yun (Me) |
If Bláfjallakvísl river on the 3rd day was the coldest river, then it'd be Þröngá to be the deepest one.
Probably heated by the sun, or because it was closer to the sea? River Þröngá was warmer than Bláfjallakvísl, but it was really quite deep.
It reached to the middle of my thighs, so I had no choice but to take off my hiking pants entirely.
(There were just 4 women on spot.) (And even there had been men, I would not feel awkward at all... It's survival.)
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| River Þröngá, Laugavegur / Photo: Yun (Me) |
Before fording the river, I asked the mother and the daughter ahead of me about the depth and the way to make it through.
Since the water was quite turbulent, I followed their instruction of facing the upstream, walking sideways like a crab.
Allow me to suggest you sincerely to bring a pair of slippers / sandals. It was scary to ford the river without ones.
Also I'd like to thank Allison who occasionally hiked with me on the trail.
We met on the 2nd day, and forded some rivers together.
Hope she's doing well in the U.S.!
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| Thorsmork / Photo: Yun (Me) |
After the river, the weather started to get bad. A storm was coming actually!
I found that the grass grew high, and even trees appeared here. 😳
Trees, which I see everyday in Taiwan and in the mountains, were RARE on the first 3 days of Laugavegur.
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| Thorsmork, destination of Laugavegur / Photo: Yun (Me) |
Around Thorsmork, there were many different trails in different colored signs, since there were extension to further South.
Remember to follow the right color, or refer to an offline map.
The trail came to an end gradually.
I had been having fun for nearly 3 weeks and already wanted to go home. It was AMAZING to finish Laugavegur safely and luckily.
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| The end of the trail, thorsmork / Photo: Yun (Me) |
In order to catch the bus, I hiked fast (at least for me) this day. But actually it didn't have to take so much time as the official estimation.
I felt moved when I reached the destination!
I finished solo hiking on the 57-km Laugavegur trail, Iceland!
Although the distance was short, and I spent 4 days hiking and looking around. Very chill.
But still, it marks the 2nd success of my solo hiking!
The most important of all was that I had been LUCKY all along the way.
The weather was beautiful overall, so I didn't have to worry the most worrying thing -- the weather of Iceland!
Around 12:10 I arrived Thorsmork. We took some time resting in a big tent which shielded us from the winds.
At 14:00 I took the TREX bus with extremely hug tires successfully to go back to Reykjavik.
(The person sit next to me looked like a Viking... I had watched Vikings, a TV series)
And it was until the destination with service that I got the notice of flight cancellation / delay for 24 hr due to the severe storm.
So I temporarily made a reservation of a hotel, and ended up staying one more night in Iceland.
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