I’d been wanting to do this trip for some time. We had a family ‘long weekend’ in Iceland about 5 years ago. Back then we only stopped 2 full days so only really saw Reykjavik but did hire a car for the day and saw some of the golden circle tour. Both myself and my daughter absolutely loved the place, and when I saw a couple of bikes at the hotel I vowed to ride the roads here some day.
Fast forward 5 years and my daughter now comes on bike trips with me. We went to Lake Como last year so wanted to do something different this year and after looking at the options for hiring a bike, Iceland seemed like a good bet.
For anyone else thinking about a similar trip I’ve put the more detailed logistics and costs at the end of the report. The short version is that we hired a GS from Biking Viking for 4 days, then rode our own bike over to Manchester Airport.
The initial plan was to ride the ring road, which is about 800 miles around the whole of Iceland, but when I thought more about it I realised that whilst the mileage was doable, we’d literally just be constantly riding with no time to stop and see anything. So with that in mind I decided to stick to the south and go as far as Hofn.
Day 1 - Harrogate to Reykjavik
As mentioned, I thought it would make sense to ride our bike to Manchester airport, partly to avoid public transport but also to make sure that we didn’t overpack!
IMG_0404 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
IMG_0160 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
We set off heading for the M62 with what I though would be plenty of time. Unfortunately the traffic was bloody horrendous, and whilst I could filter through the first stretch of congestion, we then hit the 50mph zone with narrow lanes, meaning we had to sit and wait it out. When we finally got through it was a bit of a mad rush to get there in time! I’d tried to research parking beforehand but couldn’t find any concrete information - even phoning them up they only suggested some offsite parking place which I wasn’t keen on. I did find a few recent posts on bike forums that suggested there was free parking right by T1, in an underpass, and sure enough (to some relief as time was short!) this proved easy to find so we hurriedly unpacked the bike and headed for departures.
IMG_0162 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
By the time time we’d dropped off the bag and got through security the flight was boarding so we just walked straight on the plane. The only downside to doing it this was was needing to stay in hot and heavy bike gear for the flight, but although the airport was uncomfortably warm, once the aircon kicked in on the 757 it was actually fine.
IMG_0164 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
At the other end we got the Flybus to the Apartment, which I’d chosen as it was exactly halfway between Reykjavik town centre and the bike pickup (about 15 mins from each). That night we headed to a great fish restaurant just around the corner called Resto - this turned out to be the best meal of the trip - I didn’t realise at the time as my phone was dead, but it was rated as the 2nd best restaurant in Reykjavic on TripAdvisor, which was a bit of luck really as we chose it at random as we walked into town!
IMG_0170 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
After dinner we were booked on an evening city walking tour. I always like to do these as it gives you a good background to a city and are often run by students with a good sense of humour. Now, it seems that Reyjavic doesn’t really have all that much known history or architecture compared to a European city, however the guide was a pretty entertaining guy so it was 90 minutes well spent, partly learning about people that claim to have sex with the elves that live in the lava fields! I thought he was taking the **** but a quick google suggests this is in fact ‘a thing’!
IMG_0184 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
IMG_0180 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Day 2
The next morning we packed up and headed for Biking Viking to pick the bike up. This wasn’t what I expected, as I thought it would be an older model out of the back of a lockup. it turns out they have a proper BMW franchise so all the latest bikes on display and our bike was a newish WC, albeit with 40K KM on it. It was a base model with aluminium panniers but no GPS, which I thought was provided. I’d bought a map anyway and the road network is pretty basic so it wasn’t needed, and actually was quite nice to go ‘old school’ again! It took 10 mins to complete the paperwork and pack our gear onto it then we were headed out of the city by 11:00.
IMG_0191 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
P1020761 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00027 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00036 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Our evening stop was going to be on the south coast between Reykjavik and Vik, so we decided to take in some of the big attractions on the Golden Circle Tour. Whilst we’d done some of this 5 years ago, the weather then was pretty poor, so it was great to see in in glorious sunshine and blue skies. First visit was Þingvellir, which was both home to the original viking parliament and also where the European and American tectonic plates meet and are clearly visible. There’s a decent visitor centre here (as well as hordes of tourists that it does a good job of absorbing!).
DSC00044 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00040 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
After that we headed up to Geysir where Strokkur goes off every 5 minutes or so. We also stood at the Geyser itself, which is much larger but hasn’t gone off for over 10 years. This is a fascinating area, with the water almost ‘breathing’ before shooting into the air. You can also hike up the hill to get some awesome views.
DSC00054 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Click image below for Strokkur slow-mo
IMG_0195 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00078 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
By now we needed to start heading south, but navigated there via a few excellent gravel roads before picking up route 1. We were stopping at an AirBNB for the night, but just before we got there we came across the most stunning waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. The sun was shining creating a really vivid rainbow, and you could walk right behind the water. Turns out there was no pot of gold though!
DSC00087 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00093 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
IMG_0208 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
The AirBNB was actually a horse farm right at the foot of Eyjafjallajökull volcano (the one that caused al the air track disruption a few years ago!) and we were greeted by one of the intern/farm hands, a pleasant young german woman, a few years older than Olivia who was spending the summer there. She showed us to our rooms which were basic but clean. We were joined shortly afterwards by a nice american family from Washington, and then Snaeborn, the owner appeared. He took us down to see the horses which Olivia absolutely loved and demonstrated his well trained sheep/horse dogs, which switched from being affectionate pets to barking working dogs at the whisper of a few Icelandic words - impressive!
DSC00097 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
IMG_0223 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
IMG_0232 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Now, once you get out of Reykjavik it’s incredible how remote everything is, so we were lucky to have a restaurant close by, just 5 mins down the road, so headed off there for a pretty mediocre burger!
IMG_0236 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
I thought it would be a nice gesture to take some beers back for everyone, so bought 6 (at £5 a bottle!) and put them in the panniers….only to find they had all either broken or popped open on the harsh gravel road back to the farm. So I then spent 20 mins cleaning out the beer (and the smell) from the panniers. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts!
Day 3
The next morning we were up early to a great breakfast laid on by our hosts. We had a good chat over toast, meats, cheeses and Skyr and Snaeborn was quite a character, and well travelled. A genuinely nice guy with some big plans for the farm to turn it into a riding stables.
We said our goodbyes and headed off east on the ring road, stopping shortly after at Skogafoss waterfall, where we climbed up the 428 steps (yes, we counted them!) in full bike gear. This was much bigger than yesterdays waterfall, but not as picturesque and in all honesty the near heart attack at the top probably wasn’t worth it.
DSC00099 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00110 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
After leaving there I wanted to try and find an abandoned crashed aircraft that I’d read about. I had some instructions as to where the turn off was, which is onto a black stony beach. Once you find the right turn off its quite easy as someone has staked out a route in the rocky sand, which is about 4KM across the beach towards the sea.
P1020602 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
You don’t see it until the last minute as its behind a dune, but it makes for some excellent photos! It’s a US Airforce DC3 that crashed due to icing in 1973 - all the crew survived but the fuselage was left. Its really quite eery, especially in the bleak landscape. We hung around for a while to get some pictures and then headed back to the road.
DSC00129 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00116 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00126 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
We were booked on a boat trip into the Jokulsarlon Ice Lagoon at 2:30, which was about 250KM away. The time should have been fine but the speed limits in Iceland are really low at 90KMH and everyone sticks to them so you feel like a bit of a dick going much faster. Up until now we’d had some great weather, and even though it wasn’t warm at about 10 - 12 degrees, the sun on your face made it pleasant. Then, just as we hit probably the bleakest part of the road, with literally nothing but black sand and lava fields for about 75KM, the clouds rolled in, instantly dropping the temperature and then the rain started. Then it started getting heavier and heavier until it was blasting us with high wind and hail.
I have a Schuberth C3 and other owners will know that the visor drops down at about 55mph, so I’d done the common fix of putting in a rubber gasket to the visor mechanism. The downside to this is that it doesn’t seal 100% and whilst its never been a problem in the Uk or European rain, within 5 minutes the inside was streaming with water meaning I had to flip the visor up to see - that’s when I felt the millions of needles of hail that were hitting my face. Luckily for once I wear glasses so whilst it was quite painful, it wasn’t going into my eyes so I could keep going, albeit at about 50KPH. After about an hour of this we finally came across an N1 filling station so dived in to warm up with a coffee and hotdog. Spirits were a little low at this stage, especially for Olivia as her hands were freezing and we still had 150KM to go with no sign of the weather improving.
P1020716 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Fortunately we did eventually come out of the other side and the textiles started drying out. I wound the throttle on a bit and we just made it to the lagoon for 2:25pm….to be told they had sold our tickets to another couple as you were supposed to be there 20 mins early. I was thoroughly ****ed off at this stage and made them quite aware of it! To be fair to them they were good about it and transferred us to another trip the day after, which as we were staying in the area was doable. We were stopping at a guesthouse nearby but couldn’t check in for an hour so hung around and had a couple more coffees trying to warm up. It worked out for the best anyway as we probably weren’t in the best frame of mind or condition to spend an hour on an icy lake and the day after the weather was much better.
DSC00134 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00137 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
The guesthouse was only 12km from the lagoon in the middle of nowhere but right on the coast. These places are bloody expensive by UK standards but well placed. Dinner was ok, but essentially like a Sunday roast for £25! They did sell Einstock Pale Ale though, which is a cracking tipple
IMG_0267 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
The next day was going to be largely off the bike. As well as the rearranged boat trip, I’d also booked a trip onto the nearby Vatnajokull glacier - the largest in Europe. We arrived at the meeting point and were picked up in a super jeep with several other tourists.
We then had a 30 minute ride up an F road, climbing about 1500M to the foot of the glacier.
DSC00163 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00165 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00168 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
When you first see it it’s a real ‘wow’ factor. The scale is immense. The guides were good with a real dry sense of humour that seems quite common in Iceland. It’s similar to the british sense of humour and I think the (many) Americans just don’t get it and think they are being rude. When one american woman asked the guide if he loved his job he said ‘Not really as most of the tourists are really boring’. It was obvious he was having a laugh but she seemed genuinely upset!
We then transferred onto snowmobiles to go onto the glacier itself which is between 200 - 400M thick. The snowmobiles were awesome - very similar to riding an offroad bike where you have to relax and let it find its own way. They let us wind them up a bit to about 40KMH but it felt like it could go a lot faster. We had about an hour on the snowmobiles before returning back to the hut for a drink before heading back in the jeep. Whilst it was pretty touristy, it was still a fantastic experience.
DSC00172 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00173 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00176 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00187 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00180 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00191 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Back at the meeting point and I asked the guide where the nearest petrol station was…45KM up the road to Hofn. That was the wrong direction for the lagoon, but as I only had 60KM range we had to had to burn 90KM there and back just to fill up!
The 2nd attempt at the boat trip went much smoother! A lovely bike ride there in glorious sunshine, arrived in plenty of time, got changed into some fetching safety gear and then heard an american accent saying ‘hey, you’re the guys we met on the walking tour’. Small country! They were a nice family from New York we’d met on the first night and happened to be on the same boat trip as us 400KM away.
DSC00210 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
I quite like boats, but must admit it felt a bit precarious 8 of us just sat on the edge of the rib as the guide took us deep into the lagoon. The views here were the most stunning of the trip and you couldn’t help but take decent photos! The icebergs fall from the glacier as it slowly pushes down, float through the lagoon and eventually out to sea. You could see layers of black volcanic ash in the icebergs which had been forming for over 1000 years. As we approached the actual glacier we saw a seal basking on a flat iceberg. The guide slowly eased the rib over to it and it was quite happy to sit there posing for pictures - definitely a trip highlight
DSC00213 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00220 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00230 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00233 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00250 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Click image for video:
Clip7 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Click image for video
Clip8 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00252 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00264 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
That night we were stopping at the same guesthouse but couldn’t eat there as they were full with a coach trip. The staff told us about another restaurant in the nearby museum. It looked like a cafe but the food here was great (much better than the hotel) and the smoked Atlantic Char was delicious
Next day was a long 400KM ride back to Reykjavic to drop the bike off by 6pm, so we got up early to allow time for plenty of stops along the way. Its amazing how this road looked so much more scenic now the sun was out compared to the ride here in the rain! We stopped at a glacier and smaller lagoon to take a few pictures - if you look at the one below, the bottom half is actually water just perfectly reflecting the glacier. You see a lot of that here - still water like glass.
DSC00270 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00289 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00292 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00293 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
P1020657 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
As you’re riding along in Iceland there are so many horses in the fields. We stopped a couple of times for Olivia to say hello to a few. Their coats are really soft compared to most horses, and they are obviously used to people stoping for a stroke!
DSC00308 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00310 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
We carried on, having lunch at Vik, roughly the hallway point. We’d made good time today so I turned off at Selfoss as I really wanted to see the volcano lake called Kerið, which is a stunning 250M wide red rock volcano that erupted about 3000 years ago. We walked around the whole perimiter and then down to the lake itself.
For a sense of scale, see the size of the people on the other side!
DSC00316 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00325 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00334 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
We were getting close to Reykjavic now and still had a few hours spare so took the scenic route back through the gravel roads that run on the opposite side to the national park.
P1020758 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
P1020736 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
P1020753 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
P1020757 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
DSC00337 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
It was quite a culture shock when we eventually reached the outskirts of the city and started encountering traffic again! We had to return the bike full, so stopped a filling station a few KM’s out before dropping the luggage off at the apartment (same one as the first night) and then returning the bike after 1068KM on it.
IMG_0368 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
They had given us an upgrade on the apartment this time (probably because it was midweek and end of season) which looked a lot more like the pictures on the website compared to the first night! We’d booked a restaurant in town for a last night ‘blow out’ meal which was excellent, including smoked puffin and rudolf the ‘medium rare’ reindeer. The Flybus was picking us up at 4:30am so it was an early night!
IMG_0394 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
IMG_0395 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
IMG_0396 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Again, I thought we’d have loads of time to kill at the airport as we were there 2 hours before the flight, but the queues for the bag drop and security were huge - you realise what a popular tourist destination it is when see the numbers at the airport!
A smooth flight home, a long wait at UK customs and we were back on our GS heading home. I must admit after spending 1000KM on the WC, my TC did feel heavy and a bit agricultural. I never liked the WC when I test rode it last year, but I’m changing my opinion. Whilst the gearbox was stiff (even after 40K) the smooth engine was nice to use, and even though it had no ESA and I never adjusted the suspension, it felt more stable on the road 2up with luggage. The screen was good and I even got used to the indicators. I do think the apparent lack of weight is to do with the side stand being longer though! It was much easier to lift the WC off the stand when it was so much closer to the balance point to start with. That said, by the time I got home I’d gelled with my bike again so will probably just keep it.
IMG_0402 by Dave Wrightson, on Flickr
Overall though, a fantastic trip. I absolutely love Iceland and am planning to go back next year, maybe with my son, although Olivia is thinking of getting her own bike too. It’s such a unique place, with breathtaking screnery around every corner. In fact everything is about the scenery and nature. There’s very little in the way of architecture or nice towns to visit (Reykjavik being the exception, but even then it’s more about the atmosphere, coffee shops and bars) but just miles and miles of beautiful solitude (even on the tourist routes).
Next time I’d ship my own bike and go for longer to explore the northern half. There are restrictions (as well as cost!) when hiring a bike, including not being insured on F roads. There are still plenty of gravel roads you’re allowed on, but the F roads allow you to get into the highlands. Whilst it’s so remote no one would even know anyway, as the bike was new and unmarked I didn’t want to risk my 2000 Euro deposit. That said, for a shorter trip the bike hire is an easy option and worked well for us on this trip.
Logistics and links
We flew from Manchester Airport with IcelandAir for £430 (2 tickets)
Bike hire from http://www.rmc.is/en/biking-viking/ at a cost of EUR260 per day
Flybus is easiest for connections from the airport to Reykjavik - https://www.re.is/flybus
Packing - We took a 109L Ortlieb dry bag with shoulder straps and just put our 2 pannier bags plus other bits and pieces in. Put the pannier bags into the aluminium panniers (extended vario bags fit perfectly) and then rolled the back up with the rest of the stuff to make a back rest!
Accommodation - we stopped at the Stay Einholt apartments in Reykjavik. Perfectly positioned to be 15 mins walk to the city centre and about the same to the bike hire place. https://stay.is
Airport parking - this is quite hard information on online, but there is free motorcycle parking right outside T1 just at the underpass. They have ground anchors so just take a heavy chain. There are bollards around it so a van couldn’t just drive up. It’s not ‘secure’ parking as such, but I wasn’t worried after seeing it.
Fast forward 5 years and my daughter now comes on bike trips with me. We went to Lake Como last year so wanted to do something different this year and after looking at the options for hiring a bike, Iceland seemed like a good bet.
For anyone else thinking about a similar trip I’ve put the more detailed logistics and costs at the end of the report. The short version is that we hired a GS from Biking Viking for 4 days, then rode our own bike over to Manchester Airport.
The initial plan was to ride the ring road, which is about 800 miles around the whole of Iceland, but when I thought more about it I realised that whilst the mileage was doable, we’d literally just be constantly riding with no time to stop and see anything. So with that in mind I decided to stick to the south and go as far as Hofn.
Day 1 - Harrogate to Reykjavik
As mentioned, I thought it would make sense to ride our bike to Manchester airport, partly to avoid public transport but also to make sure that we didn’t overpack!
IMG_0404 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrIMG_0160 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrWe set off heading for the M62 with what I though would be plenty of time. Unfortunately the traffic was bloody horrendous, and whilst I could filter through the first stretch of congestion, we then hit the 50mph zone with narrow lanes, meaning we had to sit and wait it out. When we finally got through it was a bit of a mad rush to get there in time! I’d tried to research parking beforehand but couldn’t find any concrete information - even phoning them up they only suggested some offsite parking place which I wasn’t keen on. I did find a few recent posts on bike forums that suggested there was free parking right by T1, in an underpass, and sure enough (to some relief as time was short!) this proved easy to find so we hurriedly unpacked the bike and headed for departures.
IMG_0162 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrBy the time time we’d dropped off the bag and got through security the flight was boarding so we just walked straight on the plane. The only downside to doing it this was was needing to stay in hot and heavy bike gear for the flight, but although the airport was uncomfortably warm, once the aircon kicked in on the 757 it was actually fine.
IMG_0164 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrAt the other end we got the Flybus to the Apartment, which I’d chosen as it was exactly halfway between Reykjavik town centre and the bike pickup (about 15 mins from each). That night we headed to a great fish restaurant just around the corner called Resto - this turned out to be the best meal of the trip - I didn’t realise at the time as my phone was dead, but it was rated as the 2nd best restaurant in Reykjavic on TripAdvisor, which was a bit of luck really as we chose it at random as we walked into town!
IMG_0170 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrAfter dinner we were booked on an evening city walking tour. I always like to do these as it gives you a good background to a city and are often run by students with a good sense of humour. Now, it seems that Reyjavic doesn’t really have all that much known history or architecture compared to a European city, however the guide was a pretty entertaining guy so it was 90 minutes well spent, partly learning about people that claim to have sex with the elves that live in the lava fields! I thought he was taking the **** but a quick google suggests this is in fact ‘a thing’!
IMG_0184 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrIMG_0180 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDay 2
The next morning we packed up and headed for Biking Viking to pick the bike up. This wasn’t what I expected, as I thought it would be an older model out of the back of a lockup. it turns out they have a proper BMW franchise so all the latest bikes on display and our bike was a newish WC, albeit with 40K KM on it. It was a base model with aluminium panniers but no GPS, which I thought was provided. I’d bought a map anyway and the road network is pretty basic so it wasn’t needed, and actually was quite nice to go ‘old school’ again! It took 10 mins to complete the paperwork and pack our gear onto it then we were headed out of the city by 11:00.
IMG_0191 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrP1020761 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00027 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00036 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrOur evening stop was going to be on the south coast between Reykjavik and Vik, so we decided to take in some of the big attractions on the Golden Circle Tour. Whilst we’d done some of this 5 years ago, the weather then was pretty poor, so it was great to see in in glorious sunshine and blue skies. First visit was Þingvellir, which was both home to the original viking parliament and also where the European and American tectonic plates meet and are clearly visible. There’s a decent visitor centre here (as well as hordes of tourists that it does a good job of absorbing!).
DSC00044 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00040 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrAfter that we headed up to Geysir where Strokkur goes off every 5 minutes or so. We also stood at the Geyser itself, which is much larger but hasn’t gone off for over 10 years. This is a fascinating area, with the water almost ‘breathing’ before shooting into the air. You can also hike up the hill to get some awesome views.
DSC00054 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrClick image below for Strokkur slow-mo
IMG_0195 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00078 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrBy now we needed to start heading south, but navigated there via a few excellent gravel roads before picking up route 1. We were stopping at an AirBNB for the night, but just before we got there we came across the most stunning waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. The sun was shining creating a really vivid rainbow, and you could walk right behind the water. Turns out there was no pot of gold though!
DSC00087 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00093 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrIMG_0208 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrThe AirBNB was actually a horse farm right at the foot of Eyjafjallajökull volcano (the one that caused al the air track disruption a few years ago!) and we were greeted by one of the intern/farm hands, a pleasant young german woman, a few years older than Olivia who was spending the summer there. She showed us to our rooms which were basic but clean. We were joined shortly afterwards by a nice american family from Washington, and then Snaeborn, the owner appeared. He took us down to see the horses which Olivia absolutely loved and demonstrated his well trained sheep/horse dogs, which switched from being affectionate pets to barking working dogs at the whisper of a few Icelandic words - impressive!
DSC00097 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrIMG_0223 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrIMG_0232 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrNow, once you get out of Reykjavik it’s incredible how remote everything is, so we were lucky to have a restaurant close by, just 5 mins down the road, so headed off there for a pretty mediocre burger!
IMG_0236 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrI thought it would be a nice gesture to take some beers back for everyone, so bought 6 (at £5 a bottle!) and put them in the panniers….only to find they had all either broken or popped open on the harsh gravel road back to the farm. So I then spent 20 mins cleaning out the beer (and the smell) from the panniers. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts!
Day 3
The next morning we were up early to a great breakfast laid on by our hosts. We had a good chat over toast, meats, cheeses and Skyr and Snaeborn was quite a character, and well travelled. A genuinely nice guy with some big plans for the farm to turn it into a riding stables.
We said our goodbyes and headed off east on the ring road, stopping shortly after at Skogafoss waterfall, where we climbed up the 428 steps (yes, we counted them!) in full bike gear. This was much bigger than yesterdays waterfall, but not as picturesque and in all honesty the near heart attack at the top probably wasn’t worth it.
DSC00099 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00110 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrAfter leaving there I wanted to try and find an abandoned crashed aircraft that I’d read about. I had some instructions as to where the turn off was, which is onto a black stony beach. Once you find the right turn off its quite easy as someone has staked out a route in the rocky sand, which is about 4KM across the beach towards the sea.
P1020602 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrYou don’t see it until the last minute as its behind a dune, but it makes for some excellent photos! It’s a US Airforce DC3 that crashed due to icing in 1973 - all the crew survived but the fuselage was left. Its really quite eery, especially in the bleak landscape. We hung around for a while to get some pictures and then headed back to the road.
DSC00129 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00116 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00126 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrWe were booked on a boat trip into the Jokulsarlon Ice Lagoon at 2:30, which was about 250KM away. The time should have been fine but the speed limits in Iceland are really low at 90KMH and everyone sticks to them so you feel like a bit of a dick going much faster. Up until now we’d had some great weather, and even though it wasn’t warm at about 10 - 12 degrees, the sun on your face made it pleasant. Then, just as we hit probably the bleakest part of the road, with literally nothing but black sand and lava fields for about 75KM, the clouds rolled in, instantly dropping the temperature and then the rain started. Then it started getting heavier and heavier until it was blasting us with high wind and hail.
I have a Schuberth C3 and other owners will know that the visor drops down at about 55mph, so I’d done the common fix of putting in a rubber gasket to the visor mechanism. The downside to this is that it doesn’t seal 100% and whilst its never been a problem in the Uk or European rain, within 5 minutes the inside was streaming with water meaning I had to flip the visor up to see - that’s when I felt the millions of needles of hail that were hitting my face. Luckily for once I wear glasses so whilst it was quite painful, it wasn’t going into my eyes so I could keep going, albeit at about 50KPH. After about an hour of this we finally came across an N1 filling station so dived in to warm up with a coffee and hotdog. Spirits were a little low at this stage, especially for Olivia as her hands were freezing and we still had 150KM to go with no sign of the weather improving.
P1020716 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrFortunately we did eventually come out of the other side and the textiles started drying out. I wound the throttle on a bit and we just made it to the lagoon for 2:25pm….to be told they had sold our tickets to another couple as you were supposed to be there 20 mins early. I was thoroughly ****ed off at this stage and made them quite aware of it! To be fair to them they were good about it and transferred us to another trip the day after, which as we were staying in the area was doable. We were stopping at a guesthouse nearby but couldn’t check in for an hour so hung around and had a couple more coffees trying to warm up. It worked out for the best anyway as we probably weren’t in the best frame of mind or condition to spend an hour on an icy lake and the day after the weather was much better.
DSC00134 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00137 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrThe guesthouse was only 12km from the lagoon in the middle of nowhere but right on the coast. These places are bloody expensive by UK standards but well placed. Dinner was ok, but essentially like a Sunday roast for £25! They did sell Einstock Pale Ale though, which is a cracking tipple
IMG_0267 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrThe next day was going to be largely off the bike. As well as the rearranged boat trip, I’d also booked a trip onto the nearby Vatnajokull glacier - the largest in Europe. We arrived at the meeting point and were picked up in a super jeep with several other tourists.
We then had a 30 minute ride up an F road, climbing about 1500M to the foot of the glacier.
DSC00163 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00165 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00168 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrWhen you first see it it’s a real ‘wow’ factor. The scale is immense. The guides were good with a real dry sense of humour that seems quite common in Iceland. It’s similar to the british sense of humour and I think the (many) Americans just don’t get it and think they are being rude. When one american woman asked the guide if he loved his job he said ‘Not really as most of the tourists are really boring’. It was obvious he was having a laugh but she seemed genuinely upset!
We then transferred onto snowmobiles to go onto the glacier itself which is between 200 - 400M thick. The snowmobiles were awesome - very similar to riding an offroad bike where you have to relax and let it find its own way. They let us wind them up a bit to about 40KMH but it felt like it could go a lot faster. We had about an hour on the snowmobiles before returning back to the hut for a drink before heading back in the jeep. Whilst it was pretty touristy, it was still a fantastic experience.
DSC00172 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00173 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00176 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00187 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00180 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00191 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrBack at the meeting point and I asked the guide where the nearest petrol station was…45KM up the road to Hofn. That was the wrong direction for the lagoon, but as I only had 60KM range we had to had to burn 90KM there and back just to fill up!
The 2nd attempt at the boat trip went much smoother! A lovely bike ride there in glorious sunshine, arrived in plenty of time, got changed into some fetching safety gear and then heard an american accent saying ‘hey, you’re the guys we met on the walking tour’. Small country! They were a nice family from New York we’d met on the first night and happened to be on the same boat trip as us 400KM away.
DSC00210 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrI quite like boats, but must admit it felt a bit precarious 8 of us just sat on the edge of the rib as the guide took us deep into the lagoon. The views here were the most stunning of the trip and you couldn’t help but take decent photos! The icebergs fall from the glacier as it slowly pushes down, float through the lagoon and eventually out to sea. You could see layers of black volcanic ash in the icebergs which had been forming for over 1000 years. As we approached the actual glacier we saw a seal basking on a flat iceberg. The guide slowly eased the rib over to it and it was quite happy to sit there posing for pictures - definitely a trip highlight
DSC00213 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00220 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00230 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00233 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00250 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrClick image for video:
Clip7 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrClick image for video
Clip8 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00252 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00264 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrThat night we were stopping at the same guesthouse but couldn’t eat there as they were full with a coach trip. The staff told us about another restaurant in the nearby museum. It looked like a cafe but the food here was great (much better than the hotel) and the smoked Atlantic Char was delicious
Next day was a long 400KM ride back to Reykjavic to drop the bike off by 6pm, so we got up early to allow time for plenty of stops along the way. Its amazing how this road looked so much more scenic now the sun was out compared to the ride here in the rain! We stopped at a glacier and smaller lagoon to take a few pictures - if you look at the one below, the bottom half is actually water just perfectly reflecting the glacier. You see a lot of that here - still water like glass.
DSC00270 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00289 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00292 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00293 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrP1020657 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrAs you’re riding along in Iceland there are so many horses in the fields. We stopped a couple of times for Olivia to say hello to a few. Their coats are really soft compared to most horses, and they are obviously used to people stoping for a stroke!
DSC00308 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00310 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrWe carried on, having lunch at Vik, roughly the hallway point. We’d made good time today so I turned off at Selfoss as I really wanted to see the volcano lake called Kerið, which is a stunning 250M wide red rock volcano that erupted about 3000 years ago. We walked around the whole perimiter and then down to the lake itself.
For a sense of scale, see the size of the people on the other side!
DSC00316 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00325 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00334 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrWe were getting close to Reykjavic now and still had a few hours spare so took the scenic route back through the gravel roads that run on the opposite side to the national park.
P1020758 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrP1020736 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrP1020753 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrP1020757 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrDSC00337 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrIt was quite a culture shock when we eventually reached the outskirts of the city and started encountering traffic again! We had to return the bike full, so stopped a filling station a few KM’s out before dropping the luggage off at the apartment (same one as the first night) and then returning the bike after 1068KM on it.
IMG_0368 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrThey had given us an upgrade on the apartment this time (probably because it was midweek and end of season) which looked a lot more like the pictures on the website compared to the first night! We’d booked a restaurant in town for a last night ‘blow out’ meal which was excellent, including smoked puffin and rudolf the ‘medium rare’ reindeer. The Flybus was picking us up at 4:30am so it was an early night!
IMG_0394 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrIMG_0395 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrIMG_0396 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrAgain, I thought we’d have loads of time to kill at the airport as we were there 2 hours before the flight, but the queues for the bag drop and security were huge - you realise what a popular tourist destination it is when see the numbers at the airport!
A smooth flight home, a long wait at UK customs and we were back on our GS heading home. I must admit after spending 1000KM on the WC, my TC did feel heavy and a bit agricultural. I never liked the WC when I test rode it last year, but I’m changing my opinion. Whilst the gearbox was stiff (even after 40K) the smooth engine was nice to use, and even though it had no ESA and I never adjusted the suspension, it felt more stable on the road 2up with luggage. The screen was good and I even got used to the indicators. I do think the apparent lack of weight is to do with the side stand being longer though! It was much easier to lift the WC off the stand when it was so much closer to the balance point to start with. That said, by the time I got home I’d gelled with my bike again so will probably just keep it.
IMG_0402 by Dave Wrightson, on FlickrOverall though, a fantastic trip. I absolutely love Iceland and am planning to go back next year, maybe with my son, although Olivia is thinking of getting her own bike too. It’s such a unique place, with breathtaking screnery around every corner. In fact everything is about the scenery and nature. There’s very little in the way of architecture or nice towns to visit (Reykjavik being the exception, but even then it’s more about the atmosphere, coffee shops and bars) but just miles and miles of beautiful solitude (even on the tourist routes).
Next time I’d ship my own bike and go for longer to explore the northern half. There are restrictions (as well as cost!) when hiring a bike, including not being insured on F roads. There are still plenty of gravel roads you’re allowed on, but the F roads allow you to get into the highlands. Whilst it’s so remote no one would even know anyway, as the bike was new and unmarked I didn’t want to risk my 2000 Euro deposit. That said, for a shorter trip the bike hire is an easy option and worked well for us on this trip.
Logistics and links
We flew from Manchester Airport with IcelandAir for £430 (2 tickets)
Bike hire from http://www.rmc.is/en/biking-viking/ at a cost of EUR260 per day
Flybus is easiest for connections from the airport to Reykjavik - https://www.re.is/flybus
Packing - We took a 109L Ortlieb dry bag with shoulder straps and just put our 2 pannier bags plus other bits and pieces in. Put the pannier bags into the aluminium panniers (extended vario bags fit perfectly) and then rolled the back up with the rest of the stuff to make a back rest!
Accommodation - we stopped at the Stay Einholt apartments in Reykjavik. Perfectly positioned to be 15 mins walk to the city centre and about the same to the bike hire place. https://stay.is
Airport parking - this is quite hard information on online, but there is free motorcycle parking right outside T1 just at the underpass. They have ground anchors so just take a heavy chain. There are bollards around it so a van couldn’t just drive up. It’s not ‘secure’ parking as such, but I wasn’t worried after seeing it.
