Faces of Iceland

A cycling tour that I once planed to do on my own, became a entertaining and amusing trip trough Iceland. On the first day of my journey I met Martin a Swedish guy from Gothenburg. After a little chitchat on Campsite Alex we decided to go together to Reykjavik the capitol city of this remote island far up northwest in the north sea. Martin realised quick where the good Tyrolean Speck is, and I knew immediately who is the one who will fix my bike in case of emergency. So the base was set for cycling or better challenging around Iceland.

Iceland is beautiful, big glaciers, breathtaking few around the fjords and the inland with its vast deserts were fascinating me. But sometimes we had to pay a high price to be rewarded with these beautiful gifts of nature. A few times Iceland helped us to reach its secret places, but again and again the forces of nature changed our planes.

We were climbing and crossing rivers on our way to Landmannalaugar (F208), exploring the north and watching whales at Húsavík, the powerful Dettifoss waterfall and the area around the Mývatn. I gave my road bike a hard time trough sand and gravel and myself as well with cycling against wind and rain. But on the other hand, especially on the southeaster coast, Martin and I were racing along the ring road with backwind, yelling like Russian Cossacks breaching through enemy lines.

I learned a lot on this trip. It was my longest cycling trip so far and I experienced and especially listened to my body much more than before. At least I managed to not completely hit the wall for quiet a while. But in an old tradition, pushing myself hard down to the Westman Islands (again this nice experience), somehow affected my further cycling days. Anyway as I said before, I learned a lot on this trip like all the other bikers I met in Iceland!

If you are planning on cycling Iceland as well, you might find some good hints about stages and distances, useful coordinates and nice places to visit in my travel diary.
Enjoy and let me know your Iceland experience!

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