After seeing my husband off for his flight back to LA and buying food at Kroner (a cheap Icelandic supermarket chain), I started my trip to Landmannalaugar (the names are quite a handful!)
Hitchhiking was basically the only way to get to the start of the trek that day, as I already missed the last bus to Landmannalaugar (6700 kroner/$70). Hitchhiking in Iceland works surprisingly well if you go around the island on the main road. However, getting from one place to another turns into a real challenge when you choose to hitchhike anywhere off the main circle (stay away from F roads!), especially if you start at 5 in the evening. In the end, I was patient and got to the beginning of the trail next afternoon - good enough.
The first part of my journey was quite successful. Although I chose a good spot near Highway 1, nobody stopped for a while. However, as soon as I started walking, a nice Icelandic couple in their 40ish pulled over next to me and suggested me a ride. They were going to hike for a couple of days, a typical way to spend a weekend in Iceland.
We stopped by a couple of gas stations and grocery stores - the family needed some food and I had to find a gas canister. The gas was sold out everywhere, I found the last canister at the N1 gas station near the turn to the road 30.
There are two main ways to get to L. from Reykjavik. Google navigation shows the first one as the fastest and the easiest - the road 32 to the F26 to the F208, which, I guess, most of the tourists take. The bus from Reykjavik takes the second route - the road 26 to F225, which is shorter by a couple kilometers, but actually takes a bit longer due to the road conditions. The Icelandic couple found the second route better and dropped me off near the turn to the road 26. I instantly regretted my choice: for the first 20 minutes there were no cars at all.
I walked for a couple of kilometers towards my destination (still had 96 to go!) before the first car pulled over. An Icelandic farmer was going to the summer house for a weekend - apparently, many of Reykjavik inhabitants have summer houses with animals and gardens a couple of hours away from the capital.
He dropped me off 20 km further down the road, 76 km more to go! Only 10 cars passed by during the next half an hour of walking. Finally, a huge red 4*4 stopped - a not very talkative Icelander drove me 10 km further, I needed a ride for 66 more. His farm was the last inhabited territory on the way; he generously suggested I camp at his place, I refused hoping I'd still find a ride to my final destination. It was already 6:30 pm, the sun was slowly setting down.
Two hours and 10 km of walking later only 3 cars passed by. All of them turning to F225, the exact road I needed. Nobody stopped. It was getting colder, darker and windier - I kept walking anyway.
When at around 10 pm I finally reached the road F225, a huge jeep suddenly slowed down next to me. "Are you okay? Do you need a ride?". Finally! A computer scientist with the most beautiful Icelandic girl I've ever seen (who turned out to be a helicopter pilot), were going to bike around the Highlands for the weekend. Unfortunately, they were going the wrong way for me. Nevertheless, they generously gave me a ride to an empty Landmannahellir campground, 18 km away from my final destination.
It was much better to camp at a real campground then in the middle of nowhere - under the midnight moonlight Icelandic lava fields seemed dark and scary. It was so windy that my tent flew away a couple of times before I managed to set it up. It was the first night in a tent by myself, I later realized. The cold wind wasn't the worst: it turned out that the gas canister I've bought didn't match my kitchen stove - I had to go to bed hungry, chewing a dry energy bar and drinking ice-cold water.