Tour 12 – Thingvellir and around Lake Thingvallavatn

The tour starts in the evening. Tour members who arrive the same day to Iceland should take the Flybus from the airport to the ending bus station BSÍ in Reykjavík. We will greet you at the bus station or at your hotel/ guesthouse in Reykjavik between 17:30- 18:00 and drive you to our farm Vellir near Hveragerði. There you will be lodged at our new guesthouse. We will get to know each other during dinner at our Hotel Eldhestar. The day will end with a detailed description of the tour.

From Hveragerdi, in the Ölfus municipality, we follow the old route to Hellisheidi. When we reach the moor, we continue to the Hengill volcano along the Kristnitökuhraun lava field. This lava came from the eruption of Hengill in the year 1000, the same year Iceland officially became Christian. The old folktales say that the eruption was the revenge of the old gods Thór, Ódinn and Freyr. We continue on the track between lava and hills (“milli hrauns og hlidar”), down to Kolvidarhóll, where people have stopped to rest for hundreds of years. We spend the night at the farm Vellir.

Riding time and distance: 21 km, 4 hrs.

We continue north below the Húsmúli and Hengill mountains. We dismount and lead the horses through the narrow cleft to Marardalur (Valley of Horses). We ride through Dyrfjöll (Door mountains), and when we reach the mountaintop, we will have a view over Lake Thingvallavatn. The track continues along the lake past Hestvik to the farm Heidarbær. After that, we see the sights at the old Althing (Icelandic Parliament). From here, it is not far from Skógarhólar, where we spend the night. Iceland’s big national horse competition was held at Skógarhólar until 1978.

Riding time and distance: 38 km, 6-7 hrs.

Today we ride across the Thingvellir National Park. From Gjábakki we have an exceptional view over the park. We can see Lake Thingvallavatn, the largest lake in Iceland. This is also the area where the North American and European crustal plates meet. We cross Lyngdalsheidi Moor, where we stop at the Laugardalshellir caves. From Laugardalsvöllum we go back to Lyngdalsheidi Moor, and we finish the day’s ride at the cottage Kringlumýri.

Riding time and distance: 30 km, 6-7 hrs.

From Kringlumýri we continue along soft riding paths called Drift. Here we have a nice view over Lake Thingvallavatn. We will pass the water power station Ljósafossvirkjun, built in 1937, one of the first water power stations in Iceland. The ride continues along the south side of the lake to the farm Villingarvatn, from where horses and guests are driven back to Eldhestar’s farm, Vellir.

Riding time and distance: 15 km, 3-4 hrs.

We first ride along the slopes of Reykjafjall mountain and continue on nice riding trails surrounding the small village Hveragerði. The path then takes us through a green forest to a colourful geothermal valley with hot springs, an area which expanded dramatically during an earthquake in 2008. On our way towards the green hills surrounding the volcano Hengill, we have good opportunity to try the “tölt”, the special gait of the Icelandic horse. The horses then take us on a leisurely pace following narrow trails up into the valley Reykjadalur. We pass the beautiful waterfall Djúpagilsfoss and some hot springs before we reach Reykjadalur valley and will have the opportunity to take a relaxing bath in a warm stream. During the ride down the valley, we enjoy fascinating panoramas over the surroundings, the village Hveragerði, picturesque farmland and all the way down to the coastline, where we might see the Westman Islands, weather permitting. We continue along the mountain slopes again back to our farm Vellir where the tour ends. After some refreshments, we will go around 16:30 by car back to Reykjavik, where the tour ends.

Riding time and distance: 19 km, 5 -6 hrs.