I wouldn’t call myself a hiker even though I do enjoy hiking. I just don’t enjoy strenuous hikes, or hiking with a backpack, or basically hiking with anything else than a water bottle and a small snack. So I think I probably would call myself a lazy hiker. But I do enjoy popping up on a small mountain once in a while.

So that is where Vindbelgur comes in. Vindbelgur is about 529 meters high and there is a trail going all the way to the top. It isn’t a super easy hike but it isn’t too hard either. If you are super slow as me it takes about 1 and a half going from the parking area up to the top. But half an hour of that is basically walking towards the mountain and that is just an easy stroll.

Since it was great weather the sand and gravel up the mountain was dry. That made it easy going up just wearing sneakers. It is interesting going from the grassy lowlands to blueberry shrubs and then finally to sand and gravel. On the top of the mountain, there is a cairn and a box for a guestbook (that was missing when we got to the top).

What you need to think about when hiking Vinbelgur is what Mývatn is named after, midges. Yes yes, there are no mosquitos in Iceland blah blah. But we still have insects that sting, like the midge (also known as black fly) and there can be clouds of them in still summer weather around that area. So be prepared for those bastards.

We got incredibly lucky since there just a couple of the midges even though there was almost no wind!

It was so worth walking up Vindbelgur for that view! I think that the Mývatn area is quite different from other parts of Iceland and worth visiting. Apparently, it is even more beautiful during the wintertime!

Katrin