As we got underway this morning we did not know what the day would hold. Our plan was to venture into the highlands of SE Iceland and see how far we could get on the Icelandic F roads (mountain 4x4 trails) before our way was barred by a "closed road" sign. From last nights camp our way led up a steep series of switch backs on paved road to an alpine plateau and then south for some miles to a spot that provided our first views of Vatnajökull the massive ice sheet that covers a good portion of SE Iceland.

Continuing on we came to a large reservoir and its associated dam. The water level was down considerably (a local information board told us that this was usual at the end of winter) and the wind was blowing up large clouds of dust from the dry bed. Our road continued across the top of the dam which gave a great view of the incredible river canyon downstream from the dam.

Past the dam our road turned into a recently graded but still rough single lane track that took us north for some miles. We were surprised by this road as we had been told that all the F Roads were closed, but here we were driving on one.

Throughout the remainder of the afternoon we followed a connected series of these F roads eventually connecting with trail F910 (now heading south) towards Kverkfjöll, an area famous for its ice caves. The scenery on this part of the drive was simply breath taking, vast valleys composed entirely of grey/brown gravel, bounded by similarly colored hills. Not a spec of vegetation to be seen. Once onto F910 we came across some other vehicles, and some of the water crossings for which the F roads are also famous.

Towards the end of the afternoon we decided to stop for the day so pulled off the "road" a couple of yards and settled in to our afternoon rituals. About an hour later a friendly National Park Ranger informed us that we could not "park off the road" (one needed to keep 2 wheels on the road at all times). So we moved onto a side road and parked in the middle of the track (seems like a stupid rule but it is their country).

All was going well with our evening when we suddenly remembered that this evening we were supposed to telephone our son in the US to check out our mail before he and his wife head out on a vacation for 3 weeks. So after some discussion we decided that since it was not going to get dark tonight we could drive out of this wilderness and find a place with cell phone reception - yeh right you might be thinking.

So that's what we did 160km later we were back in the town of Egilsstaðir (only about 35 km north of last nights camp) with cell reception. We made our call and then found a picnic area a bit south of town for our nights stop.