Day 1-Uppercut

 

A boxer walks into the ring...

He nods briefly to his opponent. His opponent nods back and the first boxer starts to turn back to his corner to prepare himself for the fight when suddenly an Uppercut lands on his chin spinning him round... before he has time to react a second blow leaves his nose bloody... but he stays on his feet and raises his fists....

Thats how I feel I have been treated by Iceland today... lulled into a sense of security with a nod and then dealt an Uppercut. Its not the nicest of feelings!

The day started after 4 hours of sleep. I woke with the knowledge that I had to adjust my front brakes and then organise and stow my gear on my bike. I had time as I had to go and shop for food supplies and find somewhere selling a gas cannister for my stove.

The hotel I was in, the Nupan Deluxe, was nothing like I had expected though Im not sure now what I had envisaged. It had a homely feel to it and the rooms were cosy.

I jumped out of bed and started with the task of fixing the brakes. The problem being that the brake pads were kinda stuck too close together meaning the disc was rubbing badly. I took off the brake housing and proceeded to try and push the brakes further apart with first a spanner then a nail file on my multi tool. It was hard and a bit came flying off... fortunately it didn't seem to be a vital bit!

Eventually I won and the brake pads were prised apart, but the disc also was slightly bent and although I tried to bend it back, it still rubbed a little. Eventually I threw the tools on the bed and called it good enough. Given that the shops didn't open till 11:00, I still had time to kill. I packed the bike bags and attached them to the bike, the weight adding up. I should have brought less... but what could I do without. It is a pared back kit anyway but I added a few extra layers than normal in anticipation of river crossings and colder nights in the highlands.

The answer was nothing and so I sucked up the heavy kit and attached it to the bike. 

Eventually I was sorted and it was time to leave. The hotel were kindly storing the sturdy bike bag and I would return to the hotel in a couple weeks time, all being well.

I pushed my bike out of the door, took the obligatory start photo and headed into the town of Keflavik. It's a small town but had a sports shop and a supermarket. The sports shop unfortunately didn't sell gas cannisters so I went to the supermarket instead.

Shopping in foreign countries for travelling food is always hard. It needs to be compact, light, calorie dense and not need refrigerating. It also has to be easy to cook or prepare. My staple for hot food is pasta and pesto, to that I added some cup a soups, some rolls, cheese, salami and then some. chocolate bar things. As an afterthought I added 4 bananas and some liquorice sticks. It was a good job too as the place the hotel had recommended for breakfast didn't open on mondays so 2 bananas had to suffice!

And so I went down the high street to the N1 gas station, where, from my research, I thought they sold gas cannisters... they did!  And so I walked out with everything I needed now packed and all that was left was to set off. Of course it was now late and I assumed that my days mileage would be less than I had intended as it was already the afternoon! Still, I am on holiday!!

(That's the point I fell asleep!)

I then headed through the last of the shops and turned onto the road that would take me round Reykjanes penninsula...

BAM

The wind hit with a force that took me by surprise. It was surpising how much shelter the town had given but as I looked round the landscape there was nothing stopping the wind whipping across the desert.... I call it a desert because the volcanic stone was all that was there. 

The wind was blasting me from the side from the South and my experience in ridong in sidewinds came in hugely handy for the next few miles. Leaning into the wind is a must because then when the bigger gusts hit you you aren't blown off balance. This is all well and good until a car passes you, blocking the wind temporarily and pulling you towards the cars.

Just as an aside, I must mention that I am cycling on the wrong side of the road but after the first 5 minutes it felt fine, even the roundabouts were negotiated ok.

Back to the wind... you might get bored of this subject.

It was howling in my ears. Come to Iceland they said, experience the peace they said!

Not a chance. I could barely hear myself think and certainly couldn't hear myself talk to myself... still maybe that's just as well.

Of course, the cycling gods couldn't let the sidewind last long, not while there was a poor cyclist to torment with a headwind! The road wound to the left exposing me to the full force of the headwind. It was ridiculously strong, and I was going ridiculously slowly. 12mph had become 5mph at best. And the road was going up. nuff said.

Instead of moaning ALL through this blog about the wind I will instead describe the surroundings. I didn't know really what I expected but somehow it wasn't this. Dry, dusty, rock! That's about it. There was very little variation. Occasionally the rock turned to black sand but it was mostly just rock. Here and there you could see rock that had cooled from the lava in a funny way with folds in. Occasionally there would be a a slightly taller bit of rock.

The other thing noticeably absent was animals of any kind. No little furry things dashing about, no sheep or cattle for me to greet in passing (yes I do that), not even many birds in this stretch. It reminded me of what Mars looks like. windswept (sorry mentioned the wind again), desolate, barren. Which unfortunately gave little to distract me from the headwind and the pain and suffering I was currently experiencing. Normally I chat to the birds, pass the time looking at the different landscapes etc... none of that here, just a straightish road, climbing slowly upwards, directly into the wind... fun! 😜

What seemed like hours of slogging later I reached my first sightseeing objective.. the place where two continental plates are  pulling apart. To be fair, it wasn't much to see but it was cool knowing I was standing at the point where Iceland is moving apart. It was also an excuse to sit and eat, something I am painfully bad at doing on my cycle trips. I felt drained already and decided that stuffing down a couple rolls with cheese and salami was a good idea. God they tasted good. To be fair I hadn't really eaten in a while so anything would have tasted pretty good. Once that was done, I headed out and slogged onwards.

There was no let up in the wind really... and I was crawling along. Occasionally I got a bit of a downhill but still had to pedal... no free miles here (free miles is what I shout out when I'm having a difficult day and can freewheel more than 10mph... double free miles is 20mph)

In the distance there was some steam rising and I wondered what it was. It took an age to get there but when I did, I was confronted with some kind of industrial workings, possibly steam driven, but not sure. There was a whiff of sulphur in the air and some of the rocks around were coloured yellow, a welcome change from the grey and brown.

As I passed this I turned left to now start running along the south coast. My direction for the next 2 days. I should then have expected a side wind but it had shifted slightly and was more of a side head wind. Even if the cycling gods had been laughing, I wouldn't have been able to hear them!

Just when I thought the landscape never changed, it did. Instead of rocks... I now had rocks covered with moss. Read anything about hiking or bikepacking/camping in Iceland and you will read about the moss. It is forbidden to go off track, in case you disturb the moss, which might be millions of years old. Within the moss were lots of really small pink and purple alpine like flowers. I also started to see a few birds, hugging the ground when they flew away to avoid getting bashed by the wind I'm guessing!

I carried on down the coastline until eventually I can to another tourist stop... lava rock pools! It also gave me a chance to view the sea, crashing against the rocks with quite a fury. The sun also came out which was nice! The black lava spread down to the sea and had cooled into rock pools... kinda cool.

Again I took the opportunity to rest and eat a bit. My arse was hurting and I was incredibly weary from fighting the wind all day.

I knew that although daylight continued for a while longer, I was done. Also if I went any further than the next campsite on the road, it was a long while before the next one.

In Iceland, certainly here in the self, wild camping is frowned heavily upon. Most of the land is private and previous campers have not been good, meaning now you have to camp in a campsite if there is one near. Cycling along with the rocks at the sude of the road and stretching into the distance it was hard to see  where you could pitch a tent anyway.

And so I made the decision to stop at Grindavik, get a good rest, eat and see what tomorrow brought.

It was a good decision. As I rolled into the campsite, I was dog tired. It was a lot of effort to pitch the tent and cook some pasta and it was interesting pitching the tent with the wind so strong. That done, I was starting to get cold. I put on all the layers I had brought and snuggled up in the sleeping bag, still listening to the wind howling as I fell asleep!