There is also a new link to my Scottish National Trail blog. It's perhaps worth noting that I really started to appreciate Iceland once I was in Scotland. It really did make it a lot easier.
So that poses the question "What would make Iceland seem easier?" and I think my answer to that is Te Araroa. But I'll leave you to find out what that means.
Happy Hiking!
6 comments:
Hey. Is there an email I can reach you? Have a few question about the traverse I didn't find answers to.
Thanks
Hey Charlie, thank you for the great blog!
How did you plan your water points? Did you had to carry a lot of water with you? I understood that water isn't so easy to find inland.
And who did you talk to for resupply?
Water:
I guess much will depend on the weather you encounter and the time of year.
I didn't plan water much at all and seldom carried more than one litre. At the beginning it rained quite a bit, and there are generally enough streams.
However... for the section through the desert I did pay a lot more attention to where the next water was likely to be and also carried a bit more. Although as I was already carrying 12 days of food I couldn't manage to carry more than 2 litres maximum.
I looked on the GPS (and physical) map for where rivers were, but in fact sometimes these didn't exist at the time I was there. The sand (not really soil) is very well drained so any water sinks in pretty quickly even after some good rain.
In the desert I had to walk quite late one day to reach snow which was the only source of water. If you download my GPS points you will find all the places that I camped and I think I have noted somewhere which ones had water and which (few) didn't.
I also made plenty of stops for cups of hot tea when I felt like it and when there was both water and a little shelter from the wind. I generally drank a litre of tea (2 titanium cups worth) whenever I stopped to be sure I stayed well hydrated. And because I'm addicted to Chai!
Later on there are more rivers, but sometimes on the long 4WD track section I had to scoop a bit of rainwater from rocks. The rocks are impermeable so they collected rain.
I could have used a better means of scooping up rainwater than I had. You need something quite flat as they are not deep. But it did not take long to get a litre which was enough for a tea break.
Needless to say drinking water was a priority over washing!
Thanks. From where to where is the 'desert' part?
Roughly from my Day 7 (or about half way though it) to Day 13 (when I reached the 4WD track).
See my map of places to get an idea where this is.
Along the 4WD track (Days 14-17) there were also some stretches where there was not a lot of water.
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