Iceland 1/2

Iceland part 1
4. 6. 2017 - 12. 6. 2017       718,5 km

We arrived to the Oslo – Gardamoen airport on 3th of June afternoon already so we had enough time to pack our bikes and backs. Every Airline has different conditions of bike transportation. Therefore we were searching for some cartons on the way to the airport because it’s the most common way of bike packaging. Luckily the Norwegian Airline which we used let the way of packing on us. So we put off the handlebars and pedals, blew out the tires, packed the most sensitive parts with paper carton and wrapped all our bikes over with a foil.

The departure took place at 8:35 on the very next day. We thought we could have slept nicely in the airport hall but we were wrong. Hard and uncomfortable banks, endless crowds of people and blunt co-travellers didn’t allow us to sleep a lot. The arrival to Reykjavik was stated at 9:25 so not even in the plane was too much time for rest. ,,Well, never mind, at least it’s gonna be a quick flight” Kata was looking forward. But it was 9:47, we were still sitting and the plane didn’t look like preparing for landing. Nobody from other travellers seemed to be destructed by that so we figured out there must be a 1-hour time lag. When we were still sitting in the plane at 10:40 we already started to think if being in the right plane. Maybe we could have found out before travelling to Iceland that there is actually a 4-hour time lag. Never mind, at 11:25 UTC we finally landed. Not in Reykjavik how we expected but in Keflavik, 58km from the capital city. But it wasn’t a big deal to us. We were glad that all bikes and backs arrived in order and we could have put them together. We found a bike work room right by the airport with bike holders so it was easy. There were several warnings painted on the wall such as bad and even worse weather, sharp stones, blunt drivers, road closures, side winds and birds pecking bikers into their heads. We found it funny at that moment. Before we fit bikes together the sky went very dark. Well one could expect that on Iceland. We were very hungry and thirsty after the long flight so despite the rain we set off to the city. It was Sunday and the stores have shorter opening hours. We found Bónus, one of the cheapest grocery store in Iceland, which was open between 12 and 18. Our clocks were showing 13:30 but the shop was closed. There was an old Icelandic man who tried to explain to us that of course it’s closed, it’s open between 12 and 18 after all. We were really confused by the time. So we went away. We came across a small supermarket and ran hungry inside. We faint away from the prices though. A litre of water for 399 ISK, 500g yogurt for 450 ISK, bread for 650 ISK, spread for 499 ISK, cheese for 1898 ISK. We didn’t really expect that but what we could have done. The rain stopped and we were getting dry. Our plan was to use the road no.1 on which we could have biked over the whole Iceland. However this road didn’t go through Keflavik so we needed to connect to it somewhere else. We wanted to use the offline maps to find he way but ups, we didn’t have the Icelandic maps downloaded. Of course not, we only wanted to use the one and only road, you see? We set off to Reykjavik then, to find the road no.1. It started to rain again, widely this time. Iceland was showing us its real face. The rain drops were stabbing us into our faces and our shoes were full of water. Everywhere around there was only a moon’s land, nothing we could have hid under. Intuitively we left the main road and continued to the thermal spa The Blue Lagoon. We spotted an old ruin house in the long distance and we headed for it immediately. We hid under what’s left from the roof and were thinking what to do next. We didn’t have any other chance than to sleep over there. At least there was a nice clean little lake.

On the next day we were continuing to the Blue Lagoon. We saw a rising smoke from a far distance and it looked tempting. But when we came closer it looked just like some factory so we left this attraction for later if we had enough time. The Reykjanes landscape which we were biking along were covered by many lava cops overgrown with mos. On the horizon there were snowbound mountains and banks were being splashed by the sea. We came to Grindavik where, finally connected to wifi, we downloaded the map of Iceland. By the look at the map we weren’t very wisdom. Minimum of roads and even smaller amount of towns. That’s gonna be a ride! On our way we were passing by sky blue ponds and smoking ground which was smelling like sulphur. Slowly we got out of the black grey scenery and all of the sudden we were surrounded by fields full of lupines so the smell was much better. Finally we found and went on the road no.1. In Hveragerđi town we found an information centre and got the paper maps which was sufficient for us. We learned from them that we needed to leave the road no.1 again to see The Strokkur Gusher (still active) and one of the most beautiful waterfall in Iceland – Gullfoss. After a few kilometres we were caught by a terrible wind. It was blowing from side, then against us. After one hour of fighting with this natural element we gave up and encamped thinking it was getting better till tomorrow. Well it didn’t. We were extremely struggling with the strong wind which was pushing us out of the road and let us cycle only in speed of 8km/h. A nice variegation for us was the 6500 years old volcanic crater Keriđ. Then the biggest motivation to go on was to see the gusher and the waterfall to which we really- with speed of snails- got eventually. Despite of all the tourists it was an amazing experience which was worthy for the sweaty t-shirts. Like a bonus the wind was pushing us towards on the way back up to the lovely canyon by the Hvítá River by which we finished for that day.

After this thug day we were sure we couldn’t have managed to cycle over the whole Iceland. First, there was always something interesting what to stop by and second, local weather was really a strong competitor. We chose couple of places which we really wanted to see. One of them were the Rainbow Mountains Landmannlaugar. On the way to them we needed to cross a river at a ford. While Paja was super excited about it, Kata was taking heart to make it. We were going on a challenging and hilly off road at which end we, totally exhausted, came to the restriction sign with a tense chain. The whole day cycling was useless. Our disappointment was compensated with the Hekla volcano which is taking place very nearby. Its majesty with snowbound top was fascinating. We learned from an informative schedule that Hekla explodes without any warning every 15 years, for the last time in the year 2000. The sky was overcast, everywhere around us only ground covered by ash. It was a place off the beaten track. Suddenly we were feeling a bit anxious. Nevertheless the exhaust we put the pedals to the metal and got out of that place. Kata refused to sleep nearby the volcano. 20 km later there was no sign of any ash, the sky went clear and the path was bordered by fenced endless lands. We were hoping to find at least a small piece of free land to build a tent. The further we cycled the clearer it was we were gonna to sleep in a camp on that night. The nearest one was in Helle though, which we reached after 135km at around 10 pm. However the sun was still up. Drivers were still wearing their sunglasses.

Back on the road no.1 we were going on to the iceberg lagoon called Jökulsárlón. Fenced green fields were changing for fenced mountains, brooks, even seas. Only the touristic attractions stayed permissible so we could have taken a pleasure in the walk-through waterfall Seljalandsfoss on which there was a rainbow thanks to the sunshine. And again the horrible headwind from east against us. It was blowing really strong, every kilometre was a suffering but we didn’t find any other place to stay over so we had to continue. We were slowly approaching the famous Skógafoss waterfall by which there was supposed to be a camp. Behind a first turn we spotted a tent right by the path and a car with Czech flags on the mirrors. Of course, who else than Czechs could solve it this way. We built our tent just few meters further in short trees so we weren’t visible that much. We went to look at the waterfall in the morning. It was sunny and we were in a good mood. But just when we set off the real hell started. An incredible headwind! We haven’t had experienced anything like that back home. We were trudging on a flatland in 6 km/h speed. It was taking not only physical but also psychical strength from us. We were desperate, exhausted and about to cry. And all the green fields around, why are they so fenced? We had to come at least to Viku, 37 km away, which was almost beyond one’s reach in that moment but we knew there was a camp. After couple of hours of a real grind (we had to pedal even downhill) we got to the camp after all, built our tent, and didn’t show a leg out of it even though the wind was extremely shaking with it. We were thinking what to do next. We were separated by the desired Lagoon by 200 km but if it was supposed to blow so much it would have taken a week to get there and we didn’t have so much time. We made a new plan sustaining of a return back to Reykjavik, visit of a national park and relax in a spa.

But in the morning there was a perfect silence, windless and sunshine. Iceland had a mercy on us. We quickly sat on bikes and were peddling as much as we could have. We were going through a monotonic landscape made of lava fields and distances between civilized places were getting bigger. We met only two “towns”. They were very much alike. A camp, hotel, gas station with a minimarket and 3 houses. Near to the other town our tachometer was showing 140 km. We were resting at a lay-by by which there was a monument of a bridge destroyed by flood in 1996. There was also a very nice piece of grass perfectly fitting to our tent. It started to rain slightly so we didn’t wait and built it. Kata was just about to open her beer can when a strange man a woman showed up. We first thought they wanted to camp as well. The woman greeted us politely and said something like: ,,My name is Rosa. I’m the protector of this national park. It’s absolutely out of the question you to camp here. It’s restricted to camp in the national park. There are no toilets here. Take all your stuff and go to the near camping place.” We were so surprised we were just staring at her with our mouths open. We packed everything together and left. We were going to the place she sent us while it was raining. We didn’t have any other chance though. There were only flat fields around, Rosa would have surely found us. Just before the camp we spotted a sign signalize the national park. And also Rosa was just passing by. We stopped her and told that the national park begins only in here so why we were not allowed to camp on the lay-by. She was arguing that there was a new novel in place which says that if there is a camping place anywhere nearby you had to go to stay there. If that’s true we don’t know, we haven’t read it anywhere. But after her reminding that there were no toilets on the lay- by and that last summer there was so many sh*** we can’t even imagine, we understood that this might be the main deal. We just want to remark that the free camping in nature is legal in Iceland. In countries where it is not we use the camping places. On the very next day we were almost praying for the good weather to sustain so we could have get to our destination. And it worked out.