We move closer to the mountain area, and pass near the town Egilsstaðir where the landscape is changing from flat to hilly, and ahead of us is lake Lagarfljót. In the later part of the day we’ll ride through some forest area, and ride along the lake for a while. We’ll end the day at Skeggjastaðir farm. Accomodation at the Widerness center guesthouse.

Riding at the edge of lake Lagarfljót for the first part of the day will be a beautiful trail to start the day with. Then we’ll move into Fljótsdalur valley with its countless waterfalls and rivers. The valley has a lot of history, and we will pass many historic sites.

Our accommodation is at the Wilderness Center of Iceland, a place full of history, it has a wilderness museum and a nice spa with a stone hottub.

Today we’ll head back to the highlands, following the glacial river with many waterfalls. After reaching the highland, we’ll take a break at Hrakströnd. A small shepherd’s hut, situated by a big waterfall. Some people like to take a swim in a nearby pond with Mt. Snæfell in the background. Then we’ll continue our way to Laugarfell.
The accommodation at Laugarfell is great, with two hot springs.

We’ll saddle up and head out to Mt. Snæfell, the highest mountain in Iceland outside the glaciers. We’ll ride through peatlands in Eyjabakkar (a Unesco site), with a lot of geese and wetlands. We’ll see Eyjabakkajökull glacier and Vatnajökull glacier, as we make a turn into Þjófadalir valley with interesting stone formations. Þjófadalir means Valley of thieves, and there is a story about that. Soon we will have gone half a circle around Mt. Snæfell and there we’ll find our hut for the night.

When we start from Snæfellsskáli we are at the highest elevation of the tour, but now heading down to Jökuldalur valley. The area we’ll ride through is rather naked sand and rocks and the view is great. We’ll see hundreds of kilometers of the big eastern highlands. At the end of the day we’ll descend into Jökuldalur valley and end at the farm Brú.
Overnight at Vaðbrekka guesthouse.

From Jökuldalur we’ll continue through the highlands heading through Fiskidalur and into a mountain pass in the Þríhyrningsfjallgarður mountains. Todays trail changes from green land to more moonlike areas.
After the mountains we’ll turn north and head to Mödrudalur where we’ll stay overnight.

Our last riding day is to Grímsstaðir farm high up in the northern highlands and well known by many of our fellow riders through the years. A perfect place with good grass and nice hosts for the horses to rest for a couple of days before going on for the next part.
Overnight at Grímsstaðir farm.

After the long rides in the eastern highlands, we’ll give the horses a day to rest at Grímsstaðir. An optional activity this day is a trip by our bus to the mighty waterfall Dettifoss nearby.

We’ll ride from Grímsstaðir farm across river Jökulsá, and follow great riding trails towards lake Mývatn. On our way we’ll take a good break at Hverarönd geothermal area, with hot springs and colorful surroundings.
We’ll end the day at the village Reykjahlíð at lake Mývatn. There we’ll leave the horses and drive to Saltvík farm for the night with hottubs aside.

On our last day we’ll ride from Lake Mývatn across Hólasandur desert towards the valley of Laxá. A beautiful valley where the salmon river Laxá runs down through lava formations and birch trees. We’ll end the ride at the farm Aðalból, and spend the last night at Saltvík farm.

After breakfast we’ll drive with our bus to Akureyri for the flight back to Reykjavík.