Six Years in the Making 🇮🇸
- Wednesday 28th August 2026
- Edinburgh, Scotland 🏴 – Reykjavik, Iceland 🇮🇸
There are some trips that you plan, book and go on. And then there are the ones that somehow take six years to actually happen.
We first visited Iceland back in 2018 and like most people who have been, we left completely smitten with the place.
The landscapes were unreal, the scenery looked like something from another planet and we knew almost immediately that we wanted to or infact we needed to come back.
Last time there had been one problem…there was something we hadn’t managed to do…..A certain hike.
We couldnt make it happen last time as the timing wasn’t right. The season wasn’t suitable, so the trail had to wait and wait and wait!
We kept saying we’d get back to Iceland and finally do it. Then 2020 happened, everything got cancelled (lets say no more about that), followed by a few more years of life getting in the way (mostly uni and work), of us saying “maybe next year” (hoping and hoping) and somehow that little unfinished adventure had been sitting on the list for six years.
But finally…we’re going back. And this time, we’re not messing about.
The Challenge 🥾🌋
We’re combining two of Iceland’s most spectacular trekking routes, the 55 km Laugavegur Trail with the 25 km Fimmvörðuháls Trail, creating an epic 80+ km journey through some of Iceland’s wildest landscapes.
We’ll start in Landmannalaugar, surrounded by geothermal activity and those ridiculously colourful rhyolite mountains and eventually make our way all the way to Skógafoss.
🌋 Five days.
🌋 80+ kilometres.
🌋Camping/Self-sufficient
Mountains, valleys, volcanic craters, black deserts, glaciers, rivers and landscapes that look like they’ve been designed by someone with a particularly wild imagination.
Now, we’re under no illusions that this is NOT going to be our toughest hike ever. We’ve tackled some pretty serious mountain days before, so the distance and terrain themselves aren’t necessarily what we’re most worried about.
Icelandic weather, however, is a completely different story. 😂
One minute you can apparently be enjoying sunshine and blue skies and the next you’re wondering why you’re being attacked sideways by rain, wind and whatever else Iceland has decided to throw at you.
And that’s where the real challenge could lie.
We’re camping the entire way and carrying pretty much everything we need on our backs, tent, sleeping gear, clothes, cooking equipment and most importantly, five days’ worth of food.
Because apparently walking 80 kilometres across Iceland wasn’t challenging enough. We decided we’d quite like to carry a small supermarket with us too.
We’ll be setting up camp each night before heading out to explore some of the surrounding landscapes and viewpoints, so the days won’t necessarily end when we reach camp.
The beauty of this trek is that the scenery changes constantly. Colourful mountains give way to black volcanic deserts, glaciers appear on the horizon, geothermal landscapes bubble away beneath our feet and the further we go, the more spectacular it becomes.
Of course, Iceland has its own ideas about plans.
Weather conditions can change quickly and wind, rain, cold, visibility and the state of the trails could all have a say in how our five days actually unfold.
So while this might not be our most technically difficult adventure, we’re definitely expecting it to test us in other ways.
And there’s every chance that somewhere around kilometre 60, with a heavy backpack, tired legs and questionable weather, we’ll be asking ourselves:
“Whose stupid idea was this?”…..the answer….”Probably mine”. 😂
But that’s part of the adventure.
We’re not going to Iceland for an easy five-day stroll.
We’re going to see what happens when you take two people, two backpacks, a tent, far too much food and a slightly questionable sense of adventure and send them walking across an Icelandic wilderness for 80+ kilometres.
And after waiting six years to finally do it….we’re more than ready.
A little heads-up: This won’t be a live travel blog. Once we head into Iceland’s Highlands, phone signal will be few and far between, so I’ll be sharing each chapter whenever we’re back in civilisation. Think of it as coming along with us… just a few days behind!
Mary's Outdoor Adventure's 