Vestari Jökulsá July 10

The day started with some important business: getting our pre-departure COVID test in the 9-11am window they would be doing tests in Akureyri. We had some difficulty finding the test location and then some further struggle correctly registering, but once that was over the test itself was quick and smooth and we were back on the road. We drove about an hour west and stopped in at the base for Viking Rafting. We caught one of the friendly guides holding down the fort between tours and had a nice long chat about rivers, eventually sorting out a plan to use them as a shuttle so that we could check out their 10km Class II+ run down Vestari Jökulsá, AKA West Glacial River. We had some hours to kill before their PM Vestari tour and so headed out to the nearby Reykjafoss for a picnic lunch and soak. This would be a B class waterfall were it not for the pleasantly temperatured hot pool right at the top of the falls. We enjoyed it for a good while then  headed back to the base to get our gear ready.

Reykjafoss (and hot spring at top left)

We had a long delay waiting for the tourist family to show for their tour ("traffic" they claimed!!??), but eventually got going. The bus dropped us in a pastoral landscape near a bridge, the river here a similar muddy brown as many other glacial rivers and moving pretty steadily with one of the longest and splashiest rapids right at the start. We stuck with the raft group for the first 10 minutes or so to be sure that we stopped at the hot spring near the start of the gorge. 

We pulled over with the others to stop at the hot spring. Dip your cup into the boiling channel, drop in some chocolate powder, and a perfect temperature cup of hot chocolate was ready to go. After the cuppa we got back in the packrafts, trying to paddle to gain some time on the raft group. 

Hot spring hot chocolate stop

The gorge consistently built in height with occasional spires and dikes to add variety to the dark walls. There were quite a number of turns in the canyon that usually had rapids piling on their outer turns. Heather was consistently on edge from the fast flowing waters, but did not give herself enough credit in reading the water and reacting. 

This 4km gorge section went by quick and I barely had the chance to turn around to snap a few very quick pictures. Around yet another turn I could see the canyon widening and knew we were at the confluence with Austari Jökulsá, East Glacial River. After a failed attempt to land in some quick sand I found a cobble bar right at the confluence and pulled my drone out as quickly as I could. This confluence of two rivers is particularly dramatic, one an opaque blue-green, the other a muddy brown-grey, mixing and swirling until their waters merged below (frontispiece). It was a neat spot I would have loved to have stayed at a bit longer but from my drone I could see the raft group would soon be upon us so I packed up, eager to not keep them waiting for the shuttle at the end. 

The guides told us the rapids would ease up for the last 4km below the confluence, and they were not wrong, but the river had now tripled or quadrupled its flow and so was now behaving like a big water river with stronger hydraulics, eddy fences, and chaotic suction-y boils which was throwing Heather for a loop. We stopped in a giant eddy to let her recollect before paddling the final section. The takeout was obvious enough but a rather step and not terribly great path back up. It was a nice enough run and piqued my interest in the blue-green waters of Austari Jökulsá, though I think it ended up being more than Heather bargained for. At one point I tripped on something and fell sideways on some protruding rebar that would leave a bruise. We packed up just in time as the rafters arrived and headed back on the bus. Though now a much later hour than we planned we still chatted with the guides a bit longer until we decided it was finally time for us to hit the road, another late night already in our future.

A short drive on the Ring Road and then a long drive on Kerlingarfjöll and then a very lengthy drive on F35 past several lakes with distant views of glaciers took us into the late evening. We stopped roadside at a lonely picnic table for our freeze dried dinners then continued on, still many miles to cover. Once again it was desolate, isolated, elemental beauty as we drove with long shadows under moody skies.

We arrived at the Kerlingarfjöll Mountain Resort, somewhere around midnight, while people were still out and about and playing horseshoes! We found a no frills campspot and called it a day.