This post is still in progress…apologies if the page takes too long to load, I will compress the photos in the future.
From July 21st to August 7th, Thi and I bikepacked around Iceland, in total we rode 1553.29 km.
Here are the maps. I tried to find some existing online tools that would showcase our GPX files entirely, but Google is the one that works somewhat decent and it only shows half….maybe this should be my next coding project. The tags are our beginning/ending spot (also where we camped)
Origin
I suggested to Thi in April that I want to cycle around Iceland, and to my surprise he jumped onto the boat! Neihter of us knew the difficulties lying ahead.
We have never bikepacked before, yet we signed up for a destination known for its inclement weather and lack of support. We ended up doing great, but the first few days were definitely daunting.
We were so lucky, that the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted again when we were in Iceland, so we visited it! The photo was taken around 1 AM by our great Icelandic friend Bubbi. The volcano itself alone would make the whole trip worth it. It was absolutely magnificent, an absolute must-see, preferably at night as well.
Höfn is our favorite city! We had an amazing meal at Kaffehörnet and the N1 gas station has amazing toilets. The Vatnajökull glacier nearby always takes my breath away everytime I glance towards its direction. Just a gorgeously beautiful, warm, fuzzy small town near the southeast Iceland.
A typical day
We generally woke up between 9 - 11:30AM, and we liked to fluff around a bit, so the morning was quite slow. We would fold the sleeping bag, put on clean clothes, reorganize the bags, take down the tent, and this generally took us 1-2.5h depending on if we were in a hurry or not (for example to get to the next grocery store before it closes). We ate breakfast, filtered the water from a nearby stream or water, packed the bags and finally started to ride. We didn’t take lots of breaks, generally a snack break or a pee break every 30km (2h). If there was an attraction site on the way, we usually went and spent 1-2 hours there. We often took breaks at the gas station or a coffee shop, where we also did “our business” (see below).
Then it was just long hours of riding. In my brain:
“Ah we had done 40km…we definitely had done 40km…have we done 40km yet?”
“it’s 6pm…so three more hours to go…”
“when I am done I want KFC…not sure if Thi will like it”
“my arms are sore….my neck is sore…my butt….ah everything is sore”
We generally stopped riding between 9-11pm, sometimes after 12 AM. Thanks to the long daylight time in Iceland during summer, it was safe to ride at night, with less cars and perfect visibility. We spent 5 - 30 minutes choosing a camp spot, considering water source, wind, privacy, terrain, etc. Then we set up the tent, cooked dinner if the wind wasn’t too strong, and enjoyed a hot meal (or cold if the wind was 35km/h). Then we brushed our teeth, wiped ourselves clean, made the bed, read social media. This is also the time when I do a bit of research about the next day (where are the grocery stores, elevation profiles, attraction sites, etc). We went to sleep around 1-2 AM. I had to say I had some of the best nights of sleep in my life during the trip.
A beautiful day with Thi riding ahead of me…he carried a lot more stuff than I did, so I could be less of a turtle.
Gear
Bikes: Trek hybird, with 2 * 20L Ortlieb panniers and regular pedals
Tent: Forclaz NT190 from Decathlon, with tapis de sol
Clothes (Yiyuan’s) : 3 pair of cycling shorts, 6 underwears, 1 pair of leggings, 5 pairs of socks, 1 fleece jacket, 1 puffer jacket, 1 GORTEX hardshell, 1 REI waterproof rain pants, 1 pair of leg warmers, 2 long sleeve thermal tops, 2 T-shirts, 2 sports bras, 1 pair of thick gloves, 1 pair of thin gloves, 1 cycling gaiters, 2 buffs.
Sleep: mountain hardwear women’s bishop pass 0F/-18C. I use this sleeping bag even if it’s 20 degrees outside. Thi had a 5 degree sleeping bag and it worked for him.
Mattress: Nemo Switchback Foam Sleeping Pad that I strap on to the rack of the bike with some strings.
Food bag: a dry bag that Thi got for free during a conference, around 15L, worked perfect.
Shoes: trail running shoes. we both wished we had waterproof running / hiking shoes. Glad we didn’t use cycling shoes. Didn’t bring any sandals to save the extra weight and it was fine.
Toiletries: toothbrush & paste, floss, baby wipes (must), personal medications, earplugs(must)
Cooking: MSR gas stove + gas (easily found at N1 gas station) + Decathlon cooking set (1L pot + plate)
The detour we took at Route 95…very steep and bumpy…admittedly I didn’t pedal all the way up and had to push the bike.
Riding experience
We largely followed the Route 1 of Iceland, also known as the Ring road, except in Reykjavik and near Egilsstaðir where we mistakenly took Route 95. In July and August which is the high tourist season, there were lots of buses, RVs and camper vans. Most of the time they were respectful and would drive quite far from us, often on the oppostie lane, some even put up a thumb and cheered for us. However near Reykjavik we were forced to get on the highway 41, but luckily the shoulder was at least 1.5 meters wide so it was still quite doable. The worst junctions were from Arkanes to Borganes, and from Laugarbakki to Blönduós, with lots of cars, narrow roads, and rude drivers.
Route 1 is 99.5% paved with asphalt of different degree of smoothness. We had to push the bike for 2 kilometers near Blönduós because of the road work there. Some of the asphalt roads are quite rough, with lots of loose stones, and it felt more like riding on cobblestones rather than asphalt. We were glad we had hybrid bikes instead of road bikes.
Thi getting water from the river. During the trip my fingers were in great pain sometimes, so Thi put his hands into ice cold water. Kudos to him!
One of the places we camped. You can see the largest glacier in Europe from this picture. Amazing to wake up to this.
Another night of wild camping.
Camping
Out of the 18 days of actual riding, we camped 15 days, and spent 1 night at the hostel, 1 night at a small cabin that we booked last minute, and our last night at a proper hotel in Reykjavik. We also stayed 3 nights at official campsites.
Wild camping is our favorite. We strictly followed the “leave no trace” rule, made sure we leave nothing behind, and tried our best to limit the damage to the fragile vegetation of Iceland. We generally stayed outside of towns, sometimes camped on the farm ground (grass farm, not crops), sometimes behind rocks that shield us from the wind, and sometimes just on a small area of flat dirt ground. Nobody ever bothered us or asked us anything, except a group of drunk icelanders who woke us up at 4AM near Laugarbakki to ask us if we were cold and if we had proper gear.
Hotels are very expensive in Iceland, and they are often fully booked weeks ahead. We didn’t book anything because we weren’t sure how far we could ride and preferred not to plan too much ahead. If you really try you can still find vacant places, but you won’t have too many choices.
We didn’t like the official campsites. We stayed in the official campsites three times because we were so exhausted and didn’t want to ride another 15km to find a camping spot. The campsites we stayed at were generally quite dirty, noisy, and expensive (20CHF per person). It was overpriced for us because we didn’t need the facilities they offered. You can take showers and cook, but we never did.
Electricity
I bought a new, Xtorm Rugged Power Bank(20000 mAh, 30 W) for the trip and it worked wonders. We used it to charge our iphones, and it sustained us for at least 5 days at a time. To be fair, we didn’t use our phone a lot. We put our phones on Airplane mode to save battery during the day. This allowed us to wild camp for a week before we had to charge.
We also charged in restaurants or at the N1 gas stations, but not very often. We didn’t bring GoPros or any other electronic devices to reduce weight (also because we thought our phones were enough).
Business (toilet-related)
Neither Thi and I liked to poop in the wild — sore legs after squatting for too long, flies swarming around…. So we generally held back until we got to a restaurant or gas station. We just ordered two coffee, a slice of cake, and went to “do our business”. It worked for us, as everyday we definitely passed one public facility of some sort. Toilets are more abundant in the South than in the North. Once we passed Hofn, gas station toilets often had more than 20 stalls to accomodate the amount of tourists. In the North, it was a bit more difficult, as “our business” sometimes caused a rather long queue of people waiting to use the bathroom, and it can be embarrassing.
fueling on the road.
ramen for dinner!
Food
We dined out twice during our trip, once at an Indian restaurant at Akureyri, once at Hofn, both are expensive and delicious. Otherwise we bought groceries and made food ourselves. We didn’t have a lot of varieties: bread, bread, and bread, peanut butter, chocolate almonds, chocolate bars, ramen, SS sausages, Skyr, potato chips, bananas. This was pretty much all we ate for 3 weeks, and it was a dream. Despite the high calorie diet, we both lost some weight. Sometimes we bought a bag of arugula or spinach to add some greens, but mostly it was all sugar, fat, and protein, and not a lot of fiber.
Shower and Laundry
We showered 4 times during the trip, three times when we stayed under a roof, and once at Myvatn Nature Lagoon. For us it worked out fine. It was enough to wipe our critical parts each night and change our underwears, and we didn’t have any itchy spots or weird smells. A more budget friendly option would be going to the public swimming pool at each town. It costs generally around 1000 - 1500 ISK per person, with hot bath and free shower afterwards, plus you will mingle with real Icelandic people.
Laundry was not too difficult to find. Input “laundry” into Google Maps and generally some shops would come up. Some guesthouses offer laundry too. The laundry in Akureyri was 3000 ISK (around 25 dollars), the laundry near Hofn was 1000 ISK, and the one in Reykjavik was 3000 ISK. Yes it was expensive, but it was necessary.
It wasn’t just riding the bikes. We rode horses too! Icelandic horses are quite special, and it was very fun. Thi is a much better rider than I am.
Iceland has some amazing geological formations. Columnar basalt shown here! (natural)