Iceland trek 2008 - Simon Pask
Simon Pask raised over £2,700 when he trekked in Iceland in August 2008. Here is his diary.
Friday 15th August
The evening before I leave - 9pm. Packing. Trekking gear has been accumulating on the spare bed for a few weeks and it is now time to get it all packed. Feeling excited and a little apprehensive.
Saturday 16th August
Woke up at 5am and dozed until getting up at 7am. I signed up for this trek in January, seven months ago, and the day to go has now arrived and I just want to get on with it. It is clear and bright at home and I'm wondering what it is like in Reykjavik. We have been told to expect 'changeable' weather, so it could be anything! I will find out in a few hours time. I catch up with news of the Olympics whilst having breakfast. Rebecca Adlington has won her second gold medal overnight and the sailing has been delayed because of bad weather. I am concerned that we will not hear too much news whilst we are away, so I may now not get an update until next weekend. First weekend of the football season too and Deborah has instructions to text me as soon as Chelsea have beaten Portsmouth.
Arrive at airport around 9.45am for 1pm flight. Everyone is standing around like the first day at school not knowing anyone, but I'm sure that all will be different in a few hours time. First guy I speak to, Jarryd, is rowing coach. . . a ROWING COACH! I immediately feel a little inadequate and am concerned that I will be the least fit in the group. However, when I look round and see the shape and size of some of the other people, my mind is put at rest! Find a couple of keen football fans Angus (Liverpool) James (Chelsea, good boy!) and Ray (Man United). We get talking about football and then have our names called out over the PA as we are the last onto the flight! Oops! Flight leaves and arrives on time.
First sight of Iceland as we descend into Keflavik airport is of flat land in a thin strip and lots of sea. There are a few houses dotted around and I can see one very narrow straight road with three cars on it. Not much sign of life at all! Weather is dry and bright. Airport comes into view still with water on both sides of the plane. Turns out that Keflavik is on a cape and really does stick out into the sea.
"Welcome to Iceland. The local time is ten past three".
Take bus from airport into Reykjavik, about a fifty minute journey. Land is flat and barren, it is windy and starts to drizzle.
Hotel is fairly basic and is one road back parallel to seafront, presumably the Atlantic Ocean. Looking out it is all a bit bleak and miserable with cloud covering the mountains in the distance. I am sharing with Eddie who will be my room-mate and tent-mate for the week. He is from Belfast and works for local hospice there. Our room is the smallest twin room you could imagine. There are two (small) beds and a (very small) bathroom. . .and that's it!! We go for a walk to try and find the city centre – from now on to be called the town centre. Not much to it at all – just one main street. There are a few recognisable retail names (L'Occitane, Clarks) but not many.
We have a buffet meal in the hotel and then a fairly lengthy briefing from the Discover Adventure (DA) team on the plan for the week, teamwork, putting up tents etc. Quick drink in the hotel bar with Eddie (Irish), Tricia (Irish) and Karen (Welsh) – I understand MOST of what they say!!
Sunday 17th August (Day 1 of trekking)
This is the day it really starts. Alarm set for 6am. Due to leave hotel at 7.30am for two and a half our coach drive to Mount Hekla. We should be walking about three hours today. We have been told to prepare for some potentially bad weather. Hekla is the most active volcano in Iceland, having erupted in 1947, 1970, 1981, 1990 and 2000 and we will be seeing lava flows from some of those eruptions today. We have to drive off-road for around 20 minutes to get to the base of Hekla. We get out to find the weather is WINDY – very windy. The little people amongst us are in danger of getting blown away! We walk for around two hours, seeing lava flows and a massive crater in the side of the mountain. In what seems no time at all, we see the coach again and the first day of trekking is almost over! We knew this was the shortest day but it has gone so quickly. We still have the challenge of getting the tents up in the wind!
Good teamwork to get all tents up. Six people to put a two-man tent up in the wind – interesting! We have two large tents for eating in and a cook's tent.
Monday 18th August (Day 2)
Up at 6.30am – it was a very windy, noisy night, but not too cold. Early morning is very dry, bright and peaceful. Sun comes up over mountains and it is a beautiful sight.
Walking this morning is past beautiful lakes with great reflections – hopefully these will come out well in the photographs. What it will be difficult to capture are the panoramic views. This morning we are surrounded by mountains and lakes.
After a couple of hours we are starting to get hot. Can you believe it, we are too hot?!. . . in Iceland. It is baking. We are walking towards the sun and it is 20 degrees and there is no wind at all. We have quite a few stops to take on water. We are walking on fine black sand and are convinced we have signed up for the wrong trip – surely this is the Sahara, not Iceland? There are a few rocks around but the scenery really just consists of sand, sun and an absolutely clear blue sky.
Mid-afternoon and a few people are starting to flag a bit and are quite a long way behind the main group of us. Totally understandable as it is still so hot and we have pretty much run out of water.
Camp tonight is at one built right at the edge of a lava flow from the 15th century. There will be hot springs there, which will be our bath for the evening! Total time trekking today was eight hours. Camp is on stony ground.
Hot springs are brilliant, but very weird sensation being in natural hot water. Pretty much every goes in and we have a fair bit of alcohol in there too. Warm Amaretto is great!! Stay in for about an hour which warms us all up before we go to bed.
Tuesday 19th August (Day 3)
Longest day due today. Up at 6am, tents down and breakfasted by 7am. Sarah, who suffered a lot yesterday with lack of water is not going to be with us today – good decision. Hopefully she will be back tomorrow.
An hour into the walk, we are surrounded by steaming rocks. . . very strange. Take a few photos. Initially there is no smell, but as we get closer to the steam it becomes smelly, sulphurous bad egg smell – not nice!
A couple of hours later, we come across our first snow. Hooray! As expected, a few people try and make snowballs and start throwing them around and stuffing snow down each other's backs, fronts, shorts etc. So, this is a glacier – a moving flow of snow and ice, albeit only moving at a rate of a few inches a year maybe.
So, within the first two and half days, we have come across most of the expected types of terrain – solid rocky lava, black sand, light brown pebbles, lakes, snow – and are now on what looks like hard brown clay.
Oh, a new thing . . . a spurting geyser! Not massive, but a sort of sideways spurt of hot water – quite noisy and again, a bit smelly. Fantastic sight.
Towards the end of day three . . . we have been out for about eleven hours today. Camping tonight is at lakeside at Altavatn. Considering it has been the longest day everyone seems in pretty good condition.
Hold on, there is a bit of a race to get to camp first - gotta go . . .
Didn't quite win as I was taken unawares when I was doing this dictation diary . . . cheats!
Summing up of first three days; Day one – crosswinds, Day two – sun and sand, Day three – glaciers and geysers.
Wednesday 20th August (Day 4)
Feel very tired this morning and struggle to carry my overnight bag to the bus, which seems miles away. I didn't sleep great due to Eddie's snoring (although he flatly denies he ever snores). Think I might tape him tonight! Most people are not quite so bubbly today and I think the cumulative effect of the trek is now starting to kick in. Again, we were up at 6.30am, breakfast 7.30am due to leave 8.30am. This is the least good I have felt this week, but hopefully I'll be ok once we get going.
Fairly uneventful day today. No particularly new sights. Don't wish to sound blasé about the scenery as it is still absolutely stunning but it was 'just' mountains, sand etc today! Some very long stretches where all we could see was the track in front us as far as we could see – a bit monotonous at times.
Although we are all trying to get to talk to everyone during the week, inevitably we have formed little sub-groups and spend more time with some people than others. Our Famous Five (don't ask!) who tend to walk at the front is me, Angus, Tricia, Manda and Katy – together with the local Icelandic guide, either Andrea or Helga.
Angus is the comedian in the group, so funny. His impersonations and accents (including of our Belfast friends) have everyone in stitches. Once you know him a bit, he is one of those people like Tommy Cooper or Billy Connolly who you just know is going to make you laugh as soon as they open their mouth. He is also very knowledgeable on football (and most other sports). I think we have bored some of the rest of the group (and local guides) with our in-depth conversations at times!! But really, they should have just listened and learned!!
Thursday 21st August (Day 5)
Bright day again. We have been amazingly lucky with the weather. Cold at night but good during the day.
No problems at all with feet and legs – thankfully. Doc has been doing a 'surgery' each morning and evening taping up feet etc. but I have been incredibly lucky not to have suffered.
Largely uneventful day. Again a little sluggish to start with but after a while you get into your stride and just get on with it.
Had some quiet time on my own today listening to my music for a while. Physically most people have been fine all week. It has been more the emotional side of it that has been a bit of a surprise. I guess because of the nature of the event itself and the reasons for which people are doing it, everyone will all being having times when they are thinking why they are there. We had a minute's silence on day 2 to reflect on why we were there, but I think that most people think that most of the time. We have bonded as a group amazingly well and everyone has been there for each other when they have needed a reassuring hug or a shoulder to cry on. That has probably been the best feature of the week: the teamwork, team spirit and being there for each other.
End of fifth day of six. I can't believe how good I feel – we have been out for about ten hours and a few of us feel as though we could do another couple of hours walking! (But we don't!)
Best campsite of the week tonight. Very green everywhere, including grass and trees which we haven't really seen this week. Real showers, a bbq (me and Ed looking after the salmon – man's job obviously!) and even a little bar (bit like student bar / tuckshop). We are kept supplied with drinks as we look after the bbq'ing fish.
Friday 22nd August (Day 6)
Final day today! We take the coach first thing to the base of some caves which we go in and find stunning waterfalls. Everyone is on a bit of a high this morning in anticipation of finishing later. I get a lesson from Tricia on the troubles in Northern Ireland (which I now partly understand) and how it has affected her family. All very sad.
Just before the end of the trek we are told by Dave (DA) to all wait together just before a ridge and to give the DA team a few minutes to get ready for us. We leave it a bit longer (in the hope they wonder what has happened to us!) and then all go over in one long line to be faced with the most stunning view of the week of a massive glacier coming into a lake. Fantastic view! Queue lots of cheering, crying, hugging, photographs, calls home, texts (for those too emotional to speak!), congratulations, more photos, etc etc.
Coach was little quiet going back to hotel in Reykjavik as we all reflected on what we had done.
Celebration meal was had in cabin type restaurant in centre of the town (not city!). Buffet meal included lamb and fish (which we were getting used to) and also puffin. Shared a couple of expensive bottles of wine with Jade (house wine £28 per bottle!). We sat through a few congratulatory speeches, two trekking poems and received completion certificate.
Went back to hotel for drinks until . . well, quite late!
Saturday 23rd August
Spare day in Reykjavik. A few people had planned day trips, but we just wandered round Reykjavik for the day. The annual festival was taking place with lots and events on so we dressed up in the Photography Museum and had our faces painted. Fireworks finished the day off in the harbour at 11pm.
Sunday 24th August
Going home today! Go to Blue Lagoon on the way to the airport but I don't go in. It is sad to be saying goodbye to everyone but I'm ready to go home now.
I really can't believe that I could go from not knowing a group of people last Saturday to getting on so well with them and then, possibly, never seeing them again. Whilst the scenery and the views etc. have been stunning and something that will remain in my mind and in photos forever, it is the people that really made it. Thanks to them all for the spirit, laughs (Angus!), stories (happy and sad) . . .everything.
Monday 25th – Saturday 30th August
Strange feeling. As happy as I am to be back home, my mind is still in Iceland. A lot of people of have sent 'thank you' emails to the group this week and it appears my feelings are shared by many others. A reunion is proposed for January 2009 in Devon. I currently have mixed feelings on that. It is going to be IMPOSSIBLE to recreate the spirit of last week and I wonder how we will all get on in a different environment. I'll see how I feel nearer the time.
So, it's now all over. Seven months of planning, training, fundraising and in the end we did it. I thank everyone who supported me – I couldn't have done it without you.
Simon
Saturday 30th August 2008
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