Iceland!

Iceland by bike in October?  It did seem a bit risky, but we were hopeful.  We landed in Keflavik with duffel bags stuffed with winter clothes and gore-tex and our bikes in cardboard boxes.  It was a warm welcome with mostly sunny skies and temps of 7 degrees. Perfect!

The bikes went together and we pedaled the 30km to a guesthouse in Grindavik, hungry, cranky, and jet-lagged. After a couple days of resting and finding supplies we hit the road heading east.

Our first day was reassuring- warm, no rain, and not much of a headwind!  We got our first taste of the lave fields; jumbled and jagged piles of volcanic debris coated with neon green moss so thick it looked like it had been there for centuries. These gave way to black sand beaches with wiry yellow grass clinging to the dunes. The scenery was wild, camping options were plentiful, and we were feeling pretty good about our plans.

The next few days we got stuck in farmland. It was fun at first, pedaling past shaggy Icelandic horses who would watch us ride past, then gallop ahead a few hundred feet, to stand and watch us pass again. The sheep were fun too; they would watch us then run away as we got close. This novelty soon wore off however, when the headwinds started. Our speeds dropped and our effort skyrocketed. We’d fight for hours and make hardly any progress. This led to a few nights of less than ideal sleeping arrangements… one night we pitched our tent in a ditch between farms because we’d made it nowhere that day. We started worrying about out timeline… the ferry was already booked! Would we make it?

After a few days of struggle Iceland gave us a break. It was raining, but the wind had stopped so spirits were high. We escaped the farmland and now rode past craggy peaks and waterfalls, marveling at the sketchy positions the sheep had managed to get themselves into on the cliffs.  A steep climb up a 12% grade led to a satisfying downhill bomb into Vik, where we ate lunch on a black sand beach overlooking the sea stacks of Reynisdrangar.  Next came more lava fields, the moss so colorful and vibrant that it looked like a perfect home for Iceland’s mythical elves.  Some of the rocks actually looked like little creatures, with tufts of grass stuck on top of them like hair. 

Coming around a corner we were greeted with a distant view of Vatnajokull, the largest icecap in the world outside of the polar regions! We kept passing tongues of this glacier for days, which made for some pretty nice campsites and some gorgeous alpenglow sunsets.  

At one point, this glacier reaches right down to the ocean, and chunks of it calve off and float around in a lagoon before drifting out to sea. The landscape was surreal – Misty grey skies, calm grey water, glowing blue icebergs moving ever so slowly past. The ones that make it to the ocean get stuck on the black beach and pounded by the waves as they roll in. Jokulsarlon was one of our favourite sights in Iceland for sure.

As we got further east, we entered the fjords.  Here the wind became even more challenging than the farmland. As we left Djupivogur, the gusts got so strong that they were actually blowing us off of our bikes. Too windy to ride, so we pushed.  The gusts got stronger and started ripping the bikes out of our hands.  Too windy to walk, so we found some marginal lumpy shelter on a hillside as the wind raged around us.  We packed everything away tightly just in case the tent blew to shreds, but thankfully it held.

We got another weather break just in time to get up and over Oxi pass. It was a hard but enjoyable suffer-fest pedaling (mostly pushing) the bikes up 17% grades, but the views were worth it.  Coming down the other side, the temperatures dropped and the wind howled.  Out came the winter gloves and puffy jackets.  We pressed on until the wind started picking up small rocks and hurling them into our faces, then figured it was time to call it a day. That night we camped near some waterfalls whose streams were being blown away into oblivion before they reached the ground.

Our last day of riding was up and over the final pass to Seydisfjordur. 9 degrees and no wind, we grunted up steep switchbacks to a 600m pass. We rode through alpine meadows with half-frozen ponds and streams before a delightful descent back down to sea level, rolling around smooth corners through steep bluffs at 60km/hr. What a great way to end the first leg of our trip! 

Overall Iceland has been great. The biggest challenge was the wind. We knew about the wind before coming, but somehow nothing quite prepares you for it until you’re pedaling downhill as hard as you can into a gale, only managing 3.6km/hr. Aside from wind I think we were quite lucky. There was a fair amount of light rain but only one 24hr period of sideways rain that required us to take shelter behind a boulder.  We woke up to frozen water bottles once, but otherwise were pretty warm and managed to stay dry. Despite the hard days, or maybe because of them, we’re pretty satisfied with our time here. It was nice to avoid prime tourist season and enjoy quiet roads and sights. This morning, our last day in Iceland, we woke up to a chilly wind and snow on our tent, so I think we timed it just right. Next stop Denmark!

Iceland Round-Up

ODO Start:  0km

ODO Finish: 804km

Top Speed: 62km/hr

Avg Speed: 11.41km/hr

Ride Time: 70:11:36

Days: 19

Cost per day per person (excluding the 2 guesthouse nights in Grindavik, flight and boat): $24.53

Days cycled at least 10km:  17

Paid campsite nights: 5

Wild camping nights: 12 

Days battered by strong headwinds:  7

Strongest wind gusts: +100km/hr 

Times bikes blown from hands while walking: 2

Number of bar-tacks torn on our new tent: 1

Rainy days: 6 worth mentioning (some rain most days)

Packages of Hobnobs consumed: 9

Passes crossed: 2

Flat tires: 0

Crashes: 0