We’ve come to the end of our Icelandic adventure. It’s been a wild ride, and while we wouldn’t necessarily choose to repeat the experience, it’s something we both will never forget and will be eternally glad we did.

The good

1. Awe-inspiring scenery – from vast moonscapes, to massive snow capped peaks and sheltered lush fiords.
2. Cycling for over 200kms beside the largest glacier/ice cap outside the arctic (see photos).
3. Tail winds that push you along at 30-40kms an hour.
4. Quite, sheltered and relatively tourist free roads in the East Fiords.
5. How easy it was to get away from the hoards of camper vans and tourists when you wanted to, and hike/bike in beautifully rugged terrain and not see anyone all day.
6. The thousand different types of lollies available to keep us fuelled up (see the section on liquorice in Favourite Icelandic food finds).

The bad

1. Head winds that keep you battling to crawl along at 8km an hour.
2. Gusting winds that knock you about and make it hard to stay on the road, or hard to keep your tent in one piece.
3. Cross winds that threaten to push you off the road, or into oncoming traffic.
4. Swirling wind that makes it impossible to seek shelter.
5. Cold rainy wind that stings your face and soaks everything to the core.
6. And then there is the torrential rain…

The surprising

1. The abundance of good, and cheaper than expected, groceries and wine.
2. The lack of public shelters in such a wet, windy and cold country (see Tree? What tree?).
3. That we would frequent swimming pools, and water slides, in Iceland, and enjoy them so much.
4. The apparent lack of activity in most towns we visited. Maybe not helped by the rain and cold, but we seldom saw people out and about and many towns appeared to have little in the way of spots where people would hang out, outside of their homes (like pubs or comfy cafes).
5. Just how good it can feel when the sun comes out after a prolonged period of rain and fog.
6. How tightly controlled alcohol is in Iceland. While you can buy it in all restaurants and bars, purchasing ‘take-away’ alcohol can only be done through government run bottle shops. These are open for only a few hours each day (and often not at all on Sundays) and only stock a limited range (good wine, but mainly only Icelandic beers). Light Icelandic beer (2.5%) is available in supermarkets and service stations, and was surprisingly good after a hard days cycling.

For anyone interested in the route we took through Iceland, see the map below.