It’s raining. We eat breakfast on the floor of common toilets, because it’s the only place where we can hide from the rain and wind. We collect our still wet clothes, tape the blisters and set off.
Just a few meters behind the hut, we cross the first river and several others during the day. Alexis excelled again and carried us all, with our backpacks, across a river on his back so we didn’t have to take off our shoes. The wind is still getting stronger, it is around 50 km/h in the morning.
Before we know it, cloudy but calm weather turns into a blizzard and a cloudburst. We’re not stopping, it’s not possible. We walk for about 24 km in one go, before we reach another river, we need to cross.
But the weather really took a turn since this morning, the wind is blowing at a speed of 70 km/h, the river is about 40 meters wide and half-thigh deep, the current is strong and I’m not even talking about the temperature of the water. None of us have the motivation to take off our shoes and pants and jump into a glacier river, so we try to find another solution. Unfortunately, the situation is not any wiser anywhere around, so we decide to set up our tents and cross in the morning, in hopefully more suitable weather.
This is where the real fun started. The tent we thought was the most durable couldn’t withstand the onslaught of the Icelandic wind. One of the tent poles broke in half and made a hole in the tent tissue. So, we have 2 tents left for 6 people. We try to build protection against the wind from stones, but during the construction our tents flew away 10 times. Let me tell you, a tent for two is pretty tight for three with three backpacks.
We cook food inside and we are so hungry that we devour lunch and dinner at the same time, and for dessert also dinner for the next day. Soon after, we get ready to sleep, because there is not much else left for us to do. We fall asleep in daylight.
We will give an update on how we got through the night tomorrow. Wish us luck.
