Finally decided on our route today. We’re going to avoid the interior for now, as Alli doesn’t feel fit enough, and the residual Ross river fever is still slowing me down. Rather we’ve decided to stick to the Ring road, with as many side detours as we can fit in. Gives us more time, and is much more in keeping with our desire to keep things at a holiday pace.
We had read the traffic out of Reykjavik was not very pleasant, so decided to take the bus to Hvolsvollur (pronounced Ksvullvolcher…..I think). Very glad we did, as the first 100 km out of Reykjavik looked awful, with no shoulder and busy traffic. We saw two cyclists battling the elements – they did not look like they were having a good time.
We arrived at around Hvollsvoller around 5pm and cycled the 12 or so km to camp. We took a small back route which took us toward our first glacier – as you can see it’s remarkable, however it’s only a baby by Icelandic standards!
Also took my first Icelandic “hot tub” today. The camp site owner assured me that we had free access to the hot tubs with our camping fees, but neglected to tell us that the water is kept slightly below body temperature! I gave it my best shot nevertheless, and tried to imagine the steam coming off the surface meant it was hotter then it felt!
We start cycling seriously in the morning. I’m a bit nervous about the wind, the cold, and the weight of our bags (they came in at over 20kg at the airport, without food or water). Guess we’ll see tomorrow.
4ks an hour 