Stage three of the Laugavegur, we trekked from Hvanngil to Emstrur. But before we left Hvanngil, we took a morning side hike into the Hvanngilskrókur - the Hvanngil gorge. It is an easy hike of a few kilometers, with no real elevation gain or loss. But it does have some nice views of waterfalls that are not visible from the main Laugavegur trail.
We left Hvanngil hut in mid-morning. The distance is just over 12 Km, though by the end it seemed that we had hiked further than that. We enjoyed ideal conditions - there was no wind! The volcanic plains are notorious for blowing ash and grit into the faces of the hikers (especially north-bound hikers), but we had no issues with flying particles. The one river crossing where we had to wade, the Bláfjallakvísl, was only shin deep. Because of the clear skies, we could see mountains in the distance around us. All day long, we could observe the distant glaciers Mýrdalsjökull and Eyjafjallajökull on our left side. On our right, we hiked past the conical mountains of Stórasúla and Hattfell.
The Emstrur huts are partway down in a valley, so they cannot be seen in the distance. There are three identical huts, and, unlike the nearly deserted hut at Hvanngil the previous night, at Emstrur every bed was taken. I had expected every hut to be fully occupied on this trip - an average of 10,000 hikers do the Laugavegur each year, and the hiking season is just from mid-June to mid-September. I was always surprised by the number of people opting to camp out. Hauling a tent would be heavy, and sleeping in a tent when the wind is relentless and the night-time temperature drops would be miserable.
From the Emstrur huts there is a loop trail that takes hikers to some marvelous overlooks of the deep, colorful Markarfljót canyon. The gorge is 200 meters deep, but because it's narrow, with steep cliff-sides, it appears dramatic. My pictures don't do the canyon justice, I wonder if taking this short trail would yield better pictures in the morning light.
The showers at Emstrur require five 100 Kr coins to operate, and the hut warden ran out of coins. Fortunately, I happened to purchase our coins before we headed out to the Markarfljót hike, so we went to bed clean and happy.
This is the map of stage 3 of the Laugavegur. Most of the day is a march across the black ash plain of Mælifellssandur.
