this is a course where you navigate with map and compass, rapelle, using VHF and tetra communication and sleep in tent.
we started friday evening at 1830 and left Arsæll station at 1915 and drove eastwards. they wouldn't let us know where...
at some time around 20.. we stopped at an isolated farm east of Nesjavellir power plant. after weighing our back packs, mine around 21 kg and some around 10, we took some things out of mine and put it in some of the others.
we headed out into the darknes all 22 participants and walked fore around 2 hours. during the walk wich was slightly uphill it was raining and blowing, something i'm not used to... arggg
we came to a place where we could camp for the night. after putting up the tent we had a snack and went to bed.
during the night i was freezing a bit as the temperature dropped and snow was falling in the mountains above us!
the next morning we where woken up by one of the instructors. he told us we one hour to be ready to leave the place with everything. most of the group wasn't ready to leave at the right time, but for half of them it was mayby the first time in a tent...
for the next couple of hours we were walking around in the terrain as one group, which made decisions difficult, but we made it to a sheep pen, where we had lunch in the sun shine. the weather had changed constantly between rain and sun!
after lunch we where divided into groups of 4 and left our back packs and went for a 3 hours orientation march. the weather was fairly good at that time.
i managed to fill one of my boots with water during the hike!
back at the sheep pen the groups slowly arrived in the setting sun, though 2 groups were missing for some hours, they just had a longer walk than us...
again we where divided into groups, this time 2 groups, one for a longer walk and one for a shorter. i managed to go for the long walk. this was all the way up on sulufell mountain 450 m, and darkness was coming. 7 of us started walking at 1815 this time with our back packs and quickly covered the distance to the foot of the mountain where we had a rest after crossing 2 rivers. we ate some bread and filled up with water before heading for the summit.
we managed to get to the top just before it got completely dark and rainy. the view wasn't much but it was great to have been there.
quickly we decended to a less hostile environment and got a new heading from the base. this wasn't to good as we ended up in a ravine filled with water wich, during night time was impossible to cross. due to some communication problems we had to make a longer walk to find the other group, which had by now camped on the other side of the river.
after walking on compass bearing for quite a time we found them and could get into a dryer and warmer place soaking wet from a lot of rain.
i went to bed at around 0100 but at app. 0430 we where woken up by shouting and lights from cars saying we had 20 min to get ready and move out. from some of the tents i could hear "nooo", "why"... it was just like being in the army again!
another orientation march in rain and darkness, lead us out into the hills in groups of 5. during the first 1 hr 20 min we had no water and were feeling it as we got head acke and felt energy just leaving the body. luckily we found a river and some water and "fueled up" again! at 0800 we arrived at a farm and the orientation part of the week end ended. agian we had a hot brew and some food while waiting for the cars to take us to a rappelling site.
the rest of the day we spent climbing up a 10 m tower and rappelling down it.
during the car trip back to town most of us fell asleep when the driver turned on the heater...
back in town we washed the cars, the equipment and stored all the gear before we could go home after a good week end in the icelandic nature.
anna and i went to the heitapottur and the went down-town to vegamot for some pizza and burges with my cousin olli and his girlfriend elisabeth.
the feet a bit sore and blistered after the trip but looking forward to the next one...
