May 7: Day 10, Kalfafellsstadur to Kirkjubæjarklaustur
Today was an unusually long day, 167km. Last night when I tried to book today's accommodation, the prices at the place I had planned were much higher than I was expecting. There's not that much accommodation around, and it's mostly expensive, but after a bit of looking I did find a place in my price range - another few hours down the road. Worth it.
This morning's breakfast buffet was a small one for a few people so I was restrained, and had a careful mini-croissant and apple segment instead of strip-mining the pastry and fruit as I do normally. Their cereal was also a bit uninteresting; this is happening so regularly I wonder if I should sneak in my own supply?
An hour up the road is the Aircraft Mechanics Creed Monument, I think it qualifies as an art installation. This is a portion of a wing of a Boeing 757-200, with the aircraft mechanic’s oath printed on it (in Icelandic). It's not the site of an airline tragedy or even incident so it's not clear why it's here - it's fairly remote, but the surroundings are spectacular as usual. It's also completely undamaged, as far as I could see, which is surprising.
Two cyclists came past; they were heading the other way around the ring and we stopped for a bit of chat. They were going upwind. From my recollection of the wind directions in the last few days of wind forecasts, I think they were going upwind then too. I wished them luck ... and thought again about I haven't had my fair share of headwinds on this ride. Over the last ten days the wind has slowly changed to match my direction, which is unreasonably lucky. I'll take credit for the first few days, because I chose the direction with tailwinds, but after that it's just chance. I don't know how lucky I've been.
Next stop is Jökulsárlón iceberg lake, which is a lake filled with icebergs. The carpark is bigger than the lake. It was busy, lots of cars in the carpark, several boat tours orbiting the icebergs. And the tourist season hasn't started yet, many places are closed until June! Lots of tourists photographing the icebergs and themselves and each other and getting excited about things.
The icebergs are carried down the river to the sea, and ice chunks wash up on Diamond Beach. It was pretty busy there too; rows of people along the waterline photographing the ice shards and themselves and each other. I was on the other side of the river which was less busy, and found a neglected ice chunk which did indeed sparkle like a diamond. Then I’d had enough and got moving.
From left to right: it’s a good day for it. Aircraft Mechanics Creed Monument. Both horns still there. Icebergs. Ice on Diamond Beach. The bridge over the river. Big glacier along the way. Lunch view.
I was also planning to stop at Svinafellsjokull glacier, where scenes from Interstellar were filmed, but it was 1.5km from the road so I wasn't excited. (I haven't seen Interstellar.) There was a gas station cafe on the other side of the road, so I went there instead and had a coffee and mass-produced muffin and warmed up.
In the afternoon I passed Skeiðará Bridge Monument, which is a few tangled girders. It's all that remains of the bridge after Vatnajökull erupted in 1996, melted an awful lot of ice, and created a glacial flood with icebergs. Which sounds like the kind of thing you can’t really design for. It’s clear from the girders that they took some very big hits. They’re covered in graffiti these days.
After that things got tough. The road turns due west and crosses a 27km stretch of barren terrain. It's downhill from Skeiðarárjökull glacier and is a vast plain of rocks and sand - maybe the remains of the eruption. It had a savage cold sidewind blowing in from the glacier: not strong enough to blow me off a straight line, but it tried. I had to wrestle the bike to keep it straight. Also it blew my helmet over sideways. The road runs more or less straight across, and I could see a mountain range in the distance so the road had to turn before it got there. But it was very distant. It was a long slog. I can't remember details; I stopped a few times to stretch, straighten my helmet, I tried to take some photos to remember it, recorded a brief video where the wind was so loud the audio is only wind noises, and the mountain range the road was going to got bigger only slowly. It was quite a long slog and but given that it was 27km, I didn't think it was that traumatic.
From left to right: despite looking foreboding this is actually a waterfall. Interestingly fogged distant island. Last turf church in Iceland. Another one-lane bridge, they mostly look like this. A weather station that looks like a Martian probe. The Skeiðará Bridge Monument. The end of the mountains is the other side of the windy section. More spectacular waterfalls…
After that was some headwinds, tailwinds, sidewinds, a bit of top gear, at least two amazing waterfalls, a gravel road and it's all old news. I finished at about 6, feeling pretty good - I had eaten properly through the day, which is probably the reason.
The remaining three rides are shorter, they're all under 100km. Not many days left! I'm ready to stop. Iceland is hard work in a lot of ways: wind and temperature are obviously top of the list, but finding accommodation and just keeping supplied is also challenging.
I've recommended Spain as a really nice place to go cycling. Maybe I should follow my own advice next time.
