Tag: Iceland

Iceland trip 2: The north

Day 7 (13.7) – Seyðisfjörður to Húsavík

The ferry arrived to its final destination in Seyðisfjörður in the morning. Customs just asked how long I was planning to stay and put a sticker in the windshield of the bike. I shall write about the town when I tell you about my last day in the country; that day I just had to get going.

MAN adventure truck disembarked in Seyðisfjörður (Iceland)

One thing that caught my eye is this MAN KAT1 truck that also disembarked. This one is unique and has a luxury interior, you can see it here. It made me dream of traveling in a off-road truck, maybe when I retire.

Leaving Seyðisfjörður you reach Egilsstaðir, a good place to get provisions. I bought a road map for 17.5 € and groceries for 25.2 €. I also spent 43.2 € in gasoline. I filled the motorcycle tank and the empty Rotopax cans.

It was raining and cold, so I also put the Gore-Tex layer of my jacket and trousers in the toilet of the gas station. It was difficult to prevent my clothes from touching the dirty wet floor.

All set, I took the Ring Road north and then F88 south. The F88 is a fun road of black sand and stones that goes through a beautiful area of petrified lava. It was cold, it never stopped raining and I hardly crossed any other vehicle.

My plan was to spend the first night in Sigurðarskáli; and visit the ice caves of Kverkfjöll, Askja caldera and Herðubreið the following day. But when I came across the first river crossing, I thought it was wiser to turn around. You can see the conditions of the river and the weather, and part of my route back north, in the video below.

You may argue that river can be crossed in a motorbike. But bear in mind that I didn’t have any experience, the conditions were bad, and if I got in trouble it looked like I wouldn’t get help in hours. I thought of the high risk of ruining a trip that cost me a lot of time and money to prepare, the very first day. I still think I took the right decision.

Later in the trip I crossed many other rivers. Now I think I could easily cross that one. I would definitely try if I weren’t alone. One of a hundred reasons to go back to Iceland, some day.

Anyway, I went to visit Hverir Geothermal Area and then went to Húsavík, where I booked a whale-watching tour and was going to stay the following two nights.

Day 8 (14.7) – Húsavík and Jökulsárgljúfur

I stayed in Húsavík Campground. To be honest, the facilities were quite bad. The showers just had a few hooks to leave your clothes and the floor was dirty with the outside mud (Some people took their shoes inside the shower room instead of leaving them outside). The eating room had a few chairs, half of them broken. At least they had a very convenient heated room to dry your clothes, I give them that. But unless you are traveling in a caravan with all the facilities, I would avoid this campsite.

Most Icelandic campsites don’t have an office, someone passes by collecting payments in the morning and afternoon. It would become my routine to arrive in the evening and pay the following morning. This one costed 19 € for two nights. There is a Camping Card, but not for every campsite and definitely not worthy for the amount of nights I would use it. However, I got the impression that campsites that accept the Camping Card have good facilities, so it’s a good reference.

That morning I went on the whale-watching tour that I booked the previous day. I had a coffee while waiting for the ship (2 €).  The tour costed 82 € but it was worthy. We were extremely lucky to see a whale breaching, very rare in cold waters.

Whale-watching in Húsavík (Iceland)

After that I took the bike to do road 862 south. 862 is a nice challenging road full of potholes and probably ponds after raining. The views were great. The picture below was taking in this location.

Road 862 (Iceland)

I must confess that my morale was low that day. I missed important sights the previous day, the weather was always bad, the campsite disappointing… I had a difficult entry to the country and I was regretting I came. But in Jökulsárgljúfur, I started to realize what Iceland has to offer.

I don’t want to waste time with long descriptions of the sights when you can find plenty of information, images and videos in the Internet. But whatever you may read or see, can’t compare with being there and seeing it for yourself.

Ásbyrgi (Iceland)

My first stop was Ásbyrgi, a beautiful canyon with a pristine river and gorgeous vegetation. There is a campsite right there. There are other campsites in amazing locations in Jökulsárgljúfur.

Dettifoss (Iceland)

I’m only going to tell you one thing about Dettifoss: It turned out to be the best, most spectacular sight of my entire trip. After reaching the south end of the road I went back to spend my last night in Húsavík.

By the way, it was that day in road 862 when I lost a pannier for the first time. Back in Húsavík, I got a Vodafone data SIM card (14.5 €) that I should have bought the previous day in Egilsstaðir.

Day 9 (15.7) – Húsavík to Sauðárkrókur

You see, I made quite a detailed plan of the route I was going to follow. Accordingly to that plan, from Húsavík I was going to do the Sprengisandur route (F26) south. The F88 showed me that I had underestimated the difficulty of river crossings, so I double checked the F26. I came to the conclusion that it was way too much for my skills. I wonder if the entire route can be done in a motorcycle, actually. I had to redo all my plans in a way that I still used the accommodation bookings I had. I would later learn that the weather can ruin your plans too.

Things can always go wrong and you have to adapt and improvise. That morning I stepped on my glasses while I was looking for them inside my tent. One glass cracked but still stayed in place, and I had the prescription sunglasses if the sun showed up some day. I later noticed that my tent has pockets in the corners.

Anyway, I picked my tent, filled the tank with 14.5 €, and I was on the move again. Until then, I had been filling the tank with the gasoline from the panniers as soon as I could. Better keep the cans empty if you don’t need them.

First I went to Krafla. I think the main sight there is Víti crater, but instead of that I want to show you the shower of thermal water that stands here, in the middle of nowhere. Somebody actually came by car, took a shower and continued her trip.

Thermal shower in Krafla (Iceland)

If you want to see what Mývatn has to show, go around by the southern road 848. That’s the next thing I did, and I took the picture below in this location.

Mývatn (Iceland)

Then I made a stop at Goðafoss waterfall and continued west in the Ring Road through Öxnadalur valley, where the road is dull but the views are great. The picture below was taken in this location.

Öxnadalur (Iceland)

Somewhere along the route I had lunch and ice cream for 35 €. The meals I don’t mention, it’s because I just made a sandwich with the things I bought at a supermarket, which was usually the case.

Finally I arrived to Sauðárkrókur, where I filled the tank again with 20.2 € and was going to stay two nights.

Day 10 (16.7) – Tröllaskagi

The camping in Sauðárkrókur only has toilets and showers, but at least they are new and good. It costed 19.2 € for two nights, plus 4 € for using the showers twice. In most Icelandic campsites you pay extra to have a limited time of warm water in the shower.

That morning I spent 11.3 € in groceries and off I went. The plan was to go around Tröllaskagi peninsula. I didn’t visit any special sight but the route and the landscape were epic.

I first went around in road 76. Parts of the road didn’t have asphalt and even had potholes, like in the picture below taken in this location. This uses to be the case in Iceland, secondary roads with different surfaces depending on the part.

Road 76 (Iceland)

I stopped in this place to have a coffee and a sandwich for 9.2 €. I totally recommend it. After that I took the tunnels to Ólafsfjörður and from there I took roads 802 and 82 west back to road 76. You may notice that for Google Maps that is not road 82, but accordingly to my road map and the Lonely Planet guide, it is.

802 and 82 are dirt roads with pot holes. Not that challenging, but the mountain pass of 82 was spectacular. Notice the birds flying in front of me at the end of the video. I don’t really know the reason of their behaviour, but I think they were acting as bait to lead me far from their nests. Many Icelandic birds nest on the ground due to the lack of  trees, and they can be very aggressive if you approach theirs nests.

After these, I just took 76 back to Sauðárkrókur. It was cold and raining all day. The Gore-Tex layer did its job, but when I arrived to the campsite my gear was soaking wet. I had to go straight to sit on the radiator of the toilets until I stopped shaking. That was my first lesson in how bad the conditions can be in Iceland, but it wouldn’t be neither the last nor the toughest.

Day 11 (17.7) – Sauðárkrókur to Stykkishólmsbær

I picked my tent again and continued west, after filling the tank with 13.6 €. I went around Vatnsnes peninsula, taking roads 716, 717 and 711. They are good dirt roads with some gravel and potholes. The peninsula has many nice sights, like the remains of a fortress on top of the hill of the picture below, taken in this location.

Fortress hill in Vatnsnes (Iceland)

I made a stop in this location and between the uneven terrain and the strong wind, the bike ended as in the picture below. I was removing the luggage to be able to pick the bike up when some cars came and I stopped them for help. They saw my broken glasses and it took me a while to convince them that I didn’t have an accident and I was fine.

Bike pushed by wind in Vatnsnes (Iceland)

I made a stop at this station where I filled the tank again with 12.9 € and had a vegan burger for 14.7 €. N1 gas stations usually have good services. Then I went south to take road F586 west.

I think road F586 is a hidden gem of Icelandic off-road driving. It goes through mountains like 82; but it’s narrower, bumpier, curlier, more steep, and you get to cross a narrow river several times. If you are a rookie like me, it’s one of the first roads you should do: it will challenge you without putting you in trouble. Regardless of your experience, it’s the second best road I did in Iceland. I had a video but it seems I accidentally deleted it when freeing space in the memory card. So, unfortunately, I can only show you the turf house in this location.

Turf house next to road F586 (Iceland)

To get into road F586 from the Ring Road, you need to cross a gate. Make sure you leave it closed behind you. The reason for the gate and its fence is the sheep that roam freely in most of the country. Be extra-careful with them: the lack of predators hasn’t made them most cunning or agile animal on earth. For some reason they like to be on the roads; and they have unpredictable reactions or not react at all when you get really close. It’s not rare that they stand in one side of the road and cross in front of you at the very last moment.

I continued west through road 54, which was a good dirt road. The views of the coast were great, like the picture below that I took in this location.

View from road 54 (Iceland)

I spent the night in Stykkishólmur, from where I started the western part of my trip.

Iceland trip planning: Packing list

It took me long to prepare this post about my Icelandic trip. I thought it would be useful for others to share a detailed list of all the stuff I carried with me. It was my first long trip, so I had no idea of what I was going to need and made the list by guessing and asking people. I obviously ended up missing many things, and carrying many more that I didn’t need.

Unfortunately I didn’t have any proper gear or many of the things I needed, so I had to buy them for this trip. The good side is that I can tell you what I paid for almost every item.

I have divided the list in sections to make it more manageable, and I include comments based on my experience. Those items I don’t make comments about, it’s because they served their purpose and I was happy to carry them.

Motorcycle gear

Adventure gear

I made quite an investment in good gear, but I think it was worthy. I’m not going to repeat what you will read in most reviews in the Internet. My only complain about the Sidi boots is that the plastic doesn’t protect the spot where I touch the shifter, closer to the tip. The leather is getting worn there, so I bought a cheaper pair of enduro boots for my day trips.

I can’t tell whether the neck brace was worthy, I only saw one rider wearing a much smaller model. I wore it attached to the jacket with the connection kit. This made the jacket bulky and slightly more difficult to put on and off. It’s one of those things you better never really need.

I hope I find the time to write a post about all my gear some day, then I could tell you more.

Clothes

Here is my first big mistake: I was warm with the motorcycle gear, I was warm sleeping in the bag, but I was freezing in the morning and evening with these clothes. It was July and I needed, at least, a better sweater.

A friend told me that I only needed three changes of clothes; I took five, and he was right. The thing is that it’s very difficult to dry your clothes in the Icelandic humid weather, specially during the night. So you better have just one change of drying clothes per day, meaning that you must wash yesterday’s clothes every day. Thus, you don’t need more than three changes.

Another good advice from the same friend was to use gym tights as underpants. That way you can change your trousers out of the tent without being in underwear. There had been occasions in which I had to stop anywhere and take my motorcycle trousers off to put or remove the Gore-Tex layer.

I didn’t use the merino wool tube scarfs. The cheap tube scarfs that I had for riding were enough.

Camping

  • MSR Mutha Hubba NX 3 tent (469 €).
  • Terra Hiker Sand tent pegs, pack of 12 (10 €).
  • HelSport Alta sleeping bag (139 €).
  • Exped Airmat Lite 5M matress (70 €).
  • WellPur Volda pillow (10 €).
  • Small broom and dustpan set (2 €).
  • Head torch (5 €).
  • 20 meters of 2 mm rope (9 €).
  • Set of 12 clothespins (1 €).
  • Viltpose Småvilt 75×50 net bag (5 €).

If you are riding a motorcycle, you want to keep your gear out but protected from rain. Mine did the job, but a smaller tent with a bigger vestibule would have been better.

The broom and dustpan were a recommendation to keep the tent clean. It was useful, but bulky to carry despite it was a small hand set. I’m not sure if I would take it again.

The rope did its job to hang the clothes, but now I think I should have taken something shorter and stronger that I could also use to pull the motorcycle in case I needed it.

I used the bag to carry my wet clothes, hanging in my back from my neck brace. Quite useless for drying them, but at least they stayed ventilated and the rest of my stuff didn’t get moisted.

Carrying wet clothes in Iceland

Utensils, drugstore products

  • Camping cutlery set (4 €).
  • Tupperwares. One of 1.8l, two of 1.2l, 5 smaller ones (12 €).
  • Roll of 20l plastic bags (1 €).
  • Toiletry bag (8 €).
  • Mirror (2 €).
  • Soap bar (3 €).
  • Wet wipes, 2 packs (4 €).
  • Personal hygiene items.
  • Washing machine bag (2 €).
  • Insect repelents and kill sprays (26 €).
  • Antihistamine and painkillers.

I only needed the three bigger tupperwares. The roll of plastic bags and the soap bar proved to be very useful, I used the later to wash myself and my clothes. The washing machine bag was an alternative when I didn’t know what to do with my wet clothes, but I only used the other bag. I often got my hands dirty, the wet wipes were very useful but I only needed one pack. I also took too many medicines. Insects are an issue in Finland but not in Iceland; I left the repelents and kill spray in a guesthouse during the trip because they were just a big waste of space.

Trekking gear

I was planning to do some several-hours trekking some days, but at the end I never had that much time and I chose to ride the motorbike to places instead. I only used the binoculars and the flask.

No matter how you plan to travel and what you plan to do, binoculars are a must in Iceland. They will give you a better view of mountains, glaciers, cascades, birds…

I used the flask to carry water when riding. At the beginning I also carried a 1.5 liter bottle, but 1 liter is enough to make it to the next free source of water. Actually, considering the temperatures, I didn’t really need a thermo flask. A plastic bottle would have been enough.

I didn’t use that compass, but I still want to fit a compass in the motorbike in a place where I can always see it. It would have been useful when my phone broke and I didn’t have GPS.

Electronics

For a long time I considered taking my older phone as well, for back-up. At the end, I didn’t because I thought that the odds of the new one breaking were minimal. And, in the middle of the trip, the Google phone started failing until it stopped working. I think it was because of me taking pictures under the rain, together with the humidity of the night. The phone was moisted every morning. I later discovered that my sleeping bag had an inner pocket, I should have kept the phone there. In any case, having no phone means no GPS, no Internet, no way of calling emergency services; it really made travelling difficult and risky. Next time I will definitely have a second phone.

Transferring 64 gigabytes from the camera to the phone over WiFi is slow, and so is uploading the videos to the cloud. I had to delete many of the videos I took, just to make space to record new ones. I still haven’t figured out a good solution for this.

The camera bars and clamps were meant to mount the camera in the motorbike in a way I could record myself driving, but I couldn’t find a way that made me confident that I wasn’t going to loose it. So I just used a small mount that comes with it, stuck on top of the visor of my helmet.

The earbuds were for listening to music under the helmet, but it takes many attempts to put the helmet on without them falling off. I wanted to buy a Sena 10C EVO bluetooth system, but it didn’t reach the market before my trip. The watch was useful, specially when I had no phone.

The e-reader was good for the tedious 48-hours ferry trip between Hirtshals and Seyðisfjörður, but I didn’t have much time to kill the rest of the trip.

Motorcycle spares and accesories

From the toolbox, I only took the tools that fitted the bolts and screws of the motorbike. They fitted nicely in the toolbag.

The fire extinguisher was a safety measure when I thought I was going to carry 10 liters of gasoline in external containers. But that didn’t happen, so it was a rather unnecessary weight. I didn’t see a extinguisher in any other motorbike.

The lock is perfect for locking the helmet to the handlebar. Maybe too much for a country like Iceland, but something I still use at home.

I used the bungee cords to strap a bag to the rear rack, and now and then for other things. I think it’s worthy to carry a set of different sizes, they are handy.

The cable ties and duct tape were for emergency repairs.  As you know, the former served their purpose. Fortunately I didn’t need the tyre repair. I was often in lonely roads far from any town, it could have saved me in a bad situation.

Considering my motorbike has double headlight, I think I shouldn’t have taken any spare lamp. I could have managed with any broken lamp until the next shop. The vibrations and bumps could have easily broken any of the spares. I didn’t need a new set of fuses either, I later learnt that the bike had spares and where they are located.

So, enough about the preparations. From the next post, I will finally start telling you the actual trip.

Iceland trip planning: Route

After marking the spots with pins, I linked them with a elastic rope and I got the first version of my route. The main issue of that route was that it included doing Möðrudalur–Sprengisandur–Varmahlíð, and that was 400 kilometers off-road between gas stations. Too risky even with extra fuel, so I abandoned that idea and had to redo the whole route.

Using Google Maps, I calculated all distances and times on the actual roads to obtain the average per day. It looked like an easy plan that would allow me to rest some days.

To spare me the high prices of accomodation in Iceland, I will camp with my own tent most of the nights. I realized that if I always move forward, I would have to plant and remove my tent everyday. Also, I wouldn’t have many chances of washing and drying my clothes. Once again, I modified the route to travel in loops and stay in every place as many nights as possible. Another advantage of the loops is that if I get too tired or there is any issue, I can cancel them and still be on schedule for the next stage. So now it looks like this.

The downside of the loops is that they make riding distances and times quite longer. I recalculated this, and also reviewed the Lonely Planet guide once more to add the time that I would stop in every place. It turned out to be too much, so I shortened some routes and removed some sights from the plan.

Iceland trip route planning

At the same time, I decided where I’m going to stay every night. It’s not so easy as dividing hours by days, because in Iceland you may want to make it shorter or longer and stay in a place with good services. In the Highlands, there are a few places where one is allowed to camp at all.

I ended with big differences between days, so I’m still doing minor adjustements trying to balance them. But the plan is pretty much defined and I have already done most of the bookings. These include the hotels in which I will rest now and then.

You know I don’t want to share the all the details before the trip, but here are some numbers:

  • 5400 kilometers in total.
  • 95 riding hours in total.
  • 260 kilometers average per day.
  • 376 kilometers the longest route in a single day.
  • 335 kilometers the longest route between gas stations.

I hope I haven’t gone too crazy. I’m sure Vacaburra can’t do 300 kilometers off-road loaded on a single tank, so I’ll fit Rotopax containers and other parts that I will show you when I get them.

By the way, the snow is gone and the motorbike is ready to be taken from storage. It’s still quite chilly, but I will start the season very soon.

Iceland trip planning: Things to see

I would like to share some plans for my Icelandic trip, hoping it helps someone in the future. I also appreciate feedback and tips from experienced travelers.

I chose Iceland because it will be my first motorcycle trip and I thought it was better to start in place where I could easily communicate and get help and services. I’m already thinking where I could go next…

Iceland is a very popular and growing destination where you need to book things way in advance. Accomodations are already geting fully booked for this summer, but I plan to camp most nights and book rooms as an occasional treat. This urge to book requires a detailed plan to know where I’m going to spend every night.

The first thing I did was reading and underlinig the most interesting parts of the Lonely Planet Iceland guide. Then I went through the underlined parts to come up with the list of things I want to see, which I share at the bottom of this post. You may notice notable abscenses like Hornstrandir or Vestmannaeyjar. I don’t want to trade time on the motorbike for multi-day hikes or excursions to places not that different from what I’m going to see anyway.

Then I marked the spots with pins in a map of Iceland. I also wrote some notes and marked the first and last petrol stations when crossing the highlands. You can see this in the picture below.

Iceland trip planning

I’m currently linking the pins with that orange elastic string to define the route. Of course, I will be taking as many dirt roads as possible. I think I will need extra fuel cans to make it through the highlands. The part that worries me the most is crossing rivers.

Once I have the route I will use Google Maps to measure distances and times and decide how far I will go and where I will sleep every day. I have a total of three weeks, so I expect plenty of time to enjoy the locations and rest.

For privacy and security reasons, I won’t share much information regarding the route, dates and times before the trip. But I will tell you about the gear, equipment, costs, etc. After the trip, you will get every detail including pictures and videos.

So, here is my list of thins to see in Iceland. The pictures look better than anything I have seen in my life before. Again, feedback is appreciated: