The final official day of my Laugavegur hike was a big one. With my detours along the way, I covered about 25 km and spent around seven hours walking before finally reaching my accommodation at Básar in Þórsmörk.

Amazingly, I passed people who were doing the entire Laugavegur in only two days. It’s possible if you’re short on time and don’t particularly want to stop but I was happy with my pace.

My sleep the night before had been pretty terrible. Emstrur’s accommodation had us packed together on mattresses side-by-side, and there were plenty of snorers.

One guy had thoughtfully – and probably necessarily – brought a CPAP machine. It was practically silent and stopped him from dying.

The man beside me, however, was a bandsaw. At least he’d slept the opposite way around, with his head down near my feet, so I didn’t get the full brunt of it.

I survived thanks to a sleeping pill and earplugs, although I still woke at around 6am. I considered trying to sleep longer but figured it was hopeless, so I grabbed my belongings and went outside to pack.

After a quick breakfast, I set off before most of the hut was awake.

The weather had improved. It was cloudy but excellent for hiking: not too hot, not too cold.

The terrain was more undulating at the beginning of this section, which provided some variety after the previous day’s flat route. There were excellent bridge crossings, waterfalls, sheep roaming the valleys and mountains stretching into the distance.

And then trees started appearing.

After days of landscapes dominated by moss and lichen, seeing something taller than 30 centimetres felt like a treat.

The final river crossing of the trek came closer to Þórsmörk. Again, there was no getting around it without getting my feet wet. This one was the widest, strongest and fastest of the three. I wandered up and down looking for a narrower section but nothing seemed significantly better, so eventually I committed.

Having walking poles was essential because the current was strong. “I will not fall. I will not fall,” I kept saying to myself, as if the words might somehow act as a magical ward against being swept downstream. About halfway across, I almost lost my footing but I recovered and continued.

It was a rush, in more ways than one.

From there the trail climbed through hills and into birch forest, a landscape completely unlike much of what I’d crossed over the previous few days.

I followed the trail to Húsadalur, where I rewarded myself with a meal cooked by someone else: lentil soup, cake and coffee. It was very welcome.

After lunch, I climbed Valahnúkur, once again stunned by the views in every direction. But I reached the summit just as clouds came racing in, fast, thick and low. They ruined my chances of getting good photos of the river valley below, but I still loved being up there.

I descended towards Langidalur, then crossed the river towards Básar. Much of the riverbed was low water or little more than a trickle, while a moveable bridge had been installed over the big, raging section.

Básar was easily the nicest accommodation of the entire trek. It felt palatial. Þórsmörk is easier to reach than some of the more remote huts along the route, and the facilities were much larger.

The six of us doing the trek self-guided had much of the top floor of the enormous hut to ourselves. We each had our own separate bed. No bunks. No touching strangers. Luxury.

To celebrate finishing the Laugavegur, we bought some drinks from the bar and restaurant and swapped stories from the previous few days before having a quick dinner in the mess hall and going to bed.

The official trek was over.

Fortunately, there was still more to explore on our final day.