Italian hiker Francesco Magistrali undertook
an adventure of a life time through Iceland last
year. He kindly shared his adventures and experiences
with us.
On the First of August I will leave from the
Malpensa airport, Milan (see photo of the
duomo to the right), Italy, and I'll get in
a few hours to Reykjavic, Iceland. Another
flight will quickly take me to a small town
called Akureyri, that lies on a deep fjord
on the north coast of Iceland. The expedition
will start right from this fjord, and I'll
go to the south coast of the island, just
walking, coast to coast, the complete traverse
of Iceland alone, on foot, just with my huge
backpack, carrying with me equipment, food,
stuff.
ABOVE: My own footprints. A simple but "trippy"
pic. It seems to be on the Moon, first time
ever a human being leaves a sign of himself
on the ground. It's cool to think that you
can't know where these footprints come from.
I was drawing my personal path through the
desert. I used to look back sometimes to make
sure I was the only one to leave footprints
in the sand, to make sure no one was chasing
me!
Why go?
I decided to do such thing in Iceland because
it is an incredible environment, hard, strange,
and the inside territories are completely
uninhabited. I will come across vulcanos,
glaciers, plains of lava, rocks, sandstorms,
rivers. Sometimes it will be necessary to
ford small streams to go on with the trip
southward. Just a simple idea will motivate
me to go on everyday: I'll have to reach the
seaside on the south coast, traversing the
whole island. Considering various factors,
I'll manage to get finished with the traverse
in about 15-20 days.
The Preparation
The preparation of this expedition took me
and my team of friends weeks of preparation,
for the logistics, and to find sponsors, equipment,
contacts. And to train properly. We did it
quite professionally, even if this is the
first time we are working on such thing. But
a lot of people believed in us, a lot of people
liked this project. The traverse of Iceland
on foot is a thing that has been done by lots
of people before, of course, but it's going
to be a great experience for me, it's the
first time I manage to organize such a trip.
It's a good test, just to break the ice!
ABOVE: I pitched the tent just a few meters
from the gate the night before. A really rainy
night. After sunrise I was happy to see it
was going to be a sunny day, and I had the
chance to make my tent dry up in a while,
before starting to walk.
I would like to explain now more about the
things I'll do, the route, the environment.
But I have to hurry up with the last things
to prepare, and I'll write you all about the
expedition once back home. I'll take lots
of pictures, I'll keep a diary, and a newspaper
in my town will issue the reportage and an
interview when I'll be back.I have to thank
a lot of people for making this dream come
true, but especially my friend Tancredi Maino,
who is the official Logistics Manager of the
LightWings, the Team we founded that will
work to make ideas and projects become reality.
So the first mission of the LightWingsTeam
is this Expedition in Iceland.
Above: Self Portrait. I took this one at Reykjavic,
where I slept the day I arrived from Italy.
Wish me luck
We'll have an official website, and I'll tell
you all about it when it'll work. First, we
will upload it with the complete diary and
pictures of the Expedition. I wanted to write
you more details, but time flies, and I have
to go. So wish me luck, and say a little prayer
for me. Everything will be fine.Thank You
All!!!
