Our 1998 trip - the 10-day Egilsstadir Tour
Three weeks of riding in 1995 did not cure Charlie and I - we were able to hold off for three years, but when the Ishestar "Club" ride was announced as being in Egilsstadir we decided to go for it. 
In this Northeast corner of Iceland the summertime weather is nicer, the terrain is steeper and the horses are stronger. The oil painting to the right is one I did called "Good Pals". These muscular horses stayed next to each other constantly the whole trip, like Siamese twins. An August, end of the summer ride, means that the horses have been working almost non-stop for 6 to 8 weeks, and no, they are not exhausted, in fact, they were prepped like Olympic athletes. Local farmers wanted their horses to be on these rides because then they would be fit and ready for sheep herding in September. At the end of the ride, Jon, our head guide and owner of most of the horses, said that this club group would finish a day's ride in 6 hours what took most other groups 8 hours to complete. We were moving out.
Halldor Laxness was an Icelandic writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature in the 50s for his book The Independent People. The setting for this book was the part of the highlands we explored one day. This was not a typical part of the normal Egilsstadir tour and we had a local guide, Lilja, to take us far out into the highlands to see the ruins of an old homestead. There were no road and no trails, just grassy patches, eroded areas and ravines and gullies. 
Lilja had a very fast fit horse and Charlie was with the group in the front that day. He said it was like a steeplechase for them, dealing with tough terrain at top speeds. Those of us in the back had more time to plan our maneuvers. It was a beautiful, isolated spot. After reading the book I realized how impossible the struggle was to survive in the highlands with no modern conveniences. The painting shown here to the left is my attempt at capturing that day. I did it based on some photos I took. It's called "Bjartur's Country". Bjartur was the main character in the Laxness book.
One afternoon we left the herd behind in a nice grassy pasture and went on a loop tour to an interesting geologic formation. After climbing a large hill we crossed a plain and then dismounted and led our horses down a steep gorge to a small stream. We followed the stream for a short distance and then crossed to the other side and started up again. The narrow peninsula of land we were on had the small stream on one side and a large river on the other. It rose steeply and narrowed at the same time to a land bridge - where it was only three feet wide with a drop of over 1,000 feet on either side. We again dismounted to cross this 10 foot bridge. Einar told us that a few years past they would bring the whole herd this way and try to control them so that only one horse would cross the land bridge at a time, but they finally decided it was too dangerous!
Much of this trip was spent going south in a valley that led to the northern end of Vatnajokull, Iceland's (and Europe's) largest glacier and then going north again in another parallel valley. These valleys had many flocks of geese in their summer range and a few times, off in the distance, we could see herds of reindeer.
Too far for my telephoto lens to capture. The majority of the tourist huts we stayed in had few amenities to offer, but they did provide a roof over our heads and shelter from the wind.
The evening we were closest to Vatnajokull we all loaded in the jeep and trailer and went for a ride right up to the glacier. We spent about an hour hiking up the glacier and exploring. You could hear the creaks and groans of melting ice and see all the streams pouring off of it. 
It was fascinating. Then the 14 of us loaded back into the small pickup truck and two-horse trailer for the 45 minute bumpy ride back to the guest house. We arrived back at the guesthouse at the same time another group arrived. 
Our horses were pastured on the other side of a hill and you could not see them from the guesthouse. The other group was in a fancy, clean backcountry bus. I commented that they must be looking at our group and thinking "Wow, is that an economy tour or what?" It was the joke of the evening for sure.
Our last night in the highlands was spent in a tourist hut on Jon's property that featured a large natural hot pool. Charlie and I spent about 3 hours there. 
The electric soup was passed around and all had a relaxing evening. I don't even remember having dinner that night, but I'm sure we did. Then we ended up hanging out in the hay barn and more booze was passed around. Finally we went and found our sleeping bags and bunks.
The next morning we woke to very heavy fog. Visibility was about 20 feet. We were told we had some dangerous terrain to navigate getting down out of the highlands and back to the Egilsstadir area. Since the horses knew we were headed home they would be very excited and eager. The riders started out first, single file on a narrow track in the heavy fog that made it all surreal. After about an hour we dismounted and started down a grassy, slippery, steep ravine. We were finally below the fog and could see. We were supposed to make it to a grassy plateau before the herd caught up to us. But part way down they came on through. Luckily we all kept control of our horses and while it was risky we all were fine. After lunch we caught up with the herd, changed horses and again left them behind. We were back in the civilized world and there were long stretches of gravel roads. Great to just let your horse gait out. The mare I was on, A-Starjna, had a superb flying pace and we had quite a few people eating our dust. A great way to end a marvelous tour.
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