Solo Hiking In Icelandic Wild, Part 5 - Making My Own Way Over Mountain Ridge

This is the fifth and final part of my solo hiking in Icelandic wild series. It's also the last post of my third trip to Iceland. Probably going to be a lengthy one since I have much to show and tell you about this last stretch of this spectacular hike. If you haven't seen the other posts of this series then you can find them below.

Part 1: Crossing the Alien Planet-like Mountain Range
Part 2: Crossing the Mossy Lava Field Valley
Part 3: Hidden Gem, Djupavatn Lake
Part 4: Lost Map and Introducing Icelandic Sheep

Now let's get to Part 5, shall we?
I had the last challenging section on my hands. I had to climb up to the mountain range to get back to where I started my hike. I had decided to make my own way over these mountains since I didn't want to use the same way I came over this ridge at the start of the journey. I had no idea how hard it was going to be or if it's even doable. Will I run into vertical cliffs, I don't know. The only way to find out is to start making my way.
I started to climb the first steep mountainside.

I saw no other footsteps there so it might be many many years since some other humans hiked this same spot. Not to mention this is really random to just choose this place and start going up the mountain. This is just one of the advantages of hiking on Iceland. Most of the places have no trees and inaccessible bushy areas. You see a mountain, you think you can climb it, you can just go and make a way you like without needing an already existing path.

The terrain up the mountain...

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I started to think that I should be at the top of the mountain ridge after I cross the visible part of the mountain. No, it's just false hope. You just see that you still have ways to go when you are up. I was pretty exhausted after a short while due to the slope being really steep. I took some 30-sec breathers and moved on.

Interesting rock formations. Looks like Mars.

Looking back down to the valley I had hiked earlier. I was pretty high up already.

It didn't take long when I was finally up the mountain ridge. I felt amazing! ... and the views were truly spectacular.
There is the Arnarvatn lake you also saw in the first part but now I was on the other side of this lake and I had to find my way around it from another side.

It was evening time so the lighting had turned more golden, loved it. There were also no other humans anywhere near nearby. It's quite probable that I was the only one on this whole mountain range at the time. The feeling of peacefulness and freedom in this wild nature was overwhelming, in a good way. I really felt at the time that I own this mountain and this lake because I had all this landscape to myself. It's hard to describe how happy I was being there.

More interesting rock formations, had to take a closer look.

Next to these rock formations, I was able to get this photo of the landscape and lake. It is also a part of my favorite photos taken last year.

Some more photos I got of the lake scape when I made my way to the other side of the mountain ridge.

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I tried to make a video call to my girlfriend to show her where I was at this moment and share a glimpse of the experience but it was hard to make it happen. I regularly lost the service and the 4G network was pretty bad even if I had the connection so I got disconnected after every 10 seconds pretty much.

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Now I was at the point of decision. Whether I merge with a trail that I used to come up the mountain ridge when I started the hike to now get back down or do I push myself to conquer the highest point of this mountain range and see the views to the other side? I still had about an hour of sunshine left so I decided to go for the mountaintop!

I did it and saw absolute jaw-dropping views over lake Kleifarvatn down below.

And another side to the ocean.

... and the lake on the mountain range I just hiked past. In the far back you also see a Djupavatn lake which was my main goal to visit during this hike. You might need to open the picture large to see it.
Basically, in every direction I looked, I had these absolutely stunning views all around.

Right next to me was a dangerous place too. An area that blew out hot sulfur steam.

I still had a bit of time to take my final shots with the sunshine I had left. The sun was already on the horizon and the golden-hour lighting was gorgeous.

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The photo below is currently my desktop photo. I was able to see the whole mountain ridge I was on from this point.

I knew I had to take a photo of myself too with this spectacular view and a lake. I had to use a timer on my camera and run to the edge of the cliff to get the perfect shots which was quite a dangerous thing to do. I failed two times to make it in 10 seconds. The third time I also failed to fully reach to the position and I wasn't ready for a photo but the shot turned out great. Even though I wasn't ready myself in the photo, I was straight and smiling with a genuine smile that captures my vibe of being in this place. So I decided to keep it. Here is the shot.

Oh man, If you only saw the place my camera was, on the side of the cliff to get the shot above. If a stronger wind gust happened my camera would have flown off the cliff to its death. It was my old camera and now it's destroyed anyway since it was smashed into the asphalt when I traveled on Madeira.

Now it was time to start going down so I can still drive back to my Airbnb when its bright outside. Going down was relatively easy. There was no trail or paths where I went down but at least there were no cliff faces and loose rocks though it was steep at times.

Below is the thermal ground of Krysuvik/Seltun which is a popular place for tourists to see. There were some people who probably noticed me and wondered what the hell is this guy doing there on a random mountain side lol. I had to reach to this parking lot you see in the photo.

Some small flowers.

Soon enough I reached down. I took some photos of the Krysuvik thermal area, although I already have photos taken from this place from 2018 when I visited it.

From there it was a short walk over the boardwalk to the parking lot.

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And there I was, back in the parking lot where I started. The loop hike I did was about 15.5km and it took me about 6 and a half hours to complete. I hope you enjoyed the full journey I had and all the five parts I wrote here in Hive. I will always remember this experience I had hiking there.

My legs were absolutely shot after that. It was not the only hike I did that day. I hiked up the cliff earlier this day too and in total, I hiked about 20km that day and the terrain was rugged, steep and harsh overall. The next day I flew back to Estonia and my legs hurt 3 days after this day of hikes, I walked like a clown. Absolutely have zero regrets tho. I would repeat any time while I still breathe and have a body that can take this kind of hike.

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