One of the numerous reasons that made this trip so attractive was the perspective of taking road F910 north, one the wildest track in Iceland, connecting Nyidalur to Askja through lava fields and sand deserts!
























But this amazing thought could vanish in a second if we could not cross the first ford of the day...
As Sola suggested, we woke up early that day and were ready to leave around 7:30 am. Three other vehicles followed the rangers car towards the river: a bus of french people with an icelandic guide, a german trailer, and a 4x4 of german professional photographs. It was very sunny and windy, each car leaving behind it a thick cloud of dust.


Upon arrival at the river, the flow was as high as expected. The rangers crossed the river carefully but successfully and told us it was safe to follow them. The german 4x4 crossed easily, followed by the bus, which managed to do it but seemed to break something in the direction commands. The bus finally left, but quite slowly.

















It was a bit frightening but in fact our two cars crossed the ford without any problem, except Pinto II which almost lost its registration plate ! At that time we understood the "registration plates totem" standing proudly in front of the rangers office in Landmannalaugar ;-)

F910, here we are !













Shortly after the ford, we made a quick stop at Jonafoss, an impressive waterfall in the middle of this amazing and wild scenery.







Just before the junction of 910 North and South, Alex decided to take a road on the left and after 5 minutes drive, we arrived to a natural hot spring ! Some of us put on their swimsuits and could enjoy this moment completely, facing Vatna glacier ! What a wonderful reward for the early wake up and the luck of crossing the river.
















At that point, we were only 96 kilometers away from Askja. But almost 9 hours were going to be necessary to reach our goal. The first part of the track is just lava fields on which driving is quite an experience ! Hence we made our way quite slowly but we were the only one car in this extra-ordinary landscape.



























































We stopped for lunch around 12 pm close to a creek. So weird to see flowers, grass, running water in the middle of such a mineral and still landscape.





































Upon departure, we decided to switch cars and thus got in Pinto II Defender. Shaky ! All the more than there is a brake and clutch issue ! Everything went fine until we reached a sandy spot the defender could not climb. Everybody tried his best, digging ruts and putting stones under the wheels. After a twenty minutes fight, the car - and its trailer! - managed to climb the sandy hill.






















Shortly after this episode, we reached the end of the lava fields. Not the end of the road yet, but the toughest part is supposed to be behind us... A quick check under both cars to see that everything looks fine and we hit the road towards Askja.






















The last part of the 910 North road is mostly a gigantic sandy desert. But due to strong winds blowing over the region during the past couple days, the height of sand was unusually high ! And the Defender started to show some signs of difficulty finding its way through it. The clutch issue did not really help and Alex had to be highly concentrated on the road to keep the car moving fast enough.

















At some point, we managed to catch up with the bus of french people we left earlier in the morning close to the ford. Its direction commands seemed to be completely out of order and the bus was driving very slowly. We could not slow down and had to overtake the bus, but while doing it, we entered a deepest region of sand and the car bogged down in it ! Here we were, stucked in the middle of nowhere, only sand 360° around us.

















































In the meantime, the handbrake of the trailer got jammed, but we managed to release it and O. jumped in the moving car, the shovel in his hand ! The end of the road was quite stressful as no one in the car wanted to get bogged again, but we finally reached Askja successfully.





















We parked the cars close to the refuge where we could sleep for one night. A charming two-storey "chalet", with a lovely terrace bathed in sun. After unloading the trailer, we decided to go and stretch our legs in the neighboring canyon. A thirty minute walk led us to Drekagil waterfall, nested at the bottom of the canyon and carrying pumice from the sides of the mountains.





During the dinner, Alex presented the two options for the next day: in order to reach the heart of the caldeira, we could either climb the mountain or take the car ! O and I decided to go for the hike, with Alex, S., J., and H. We thus put our luggage on the first floor so that we could leave early the next day while the rest of the group could sleep on the second floor.








After dinner, when everybody went to bed, O and I stayed outside, chatting with the german group and helping Alex fixing the clutch of Pinto II. We also made a short walk around the campground which is at the foot of the caldeira. The whole soil is made of fumice and is thus very light and mellow.
We finally went to bed around 11 pm.