| Bike Tours UK 
Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726
Iceland was superb. You have to do it one day. Fantastic. See the following series of photos for a full account of this little adventure. By choosing mid-June, this meant I could ride on the longest day of year - in fact in permanent daylight. We rode 'til 1:00am on Thursday night (Fri am), put tent up at 02:00am by the Snaefellsjokull glacier - with the sun still shining of course, rode till 23:45 on Friday night - then got hammered in the small town of Isafjordur - rode back to Reykjavik on Saturday, got back at midnight. Played on Haddi's quads on Sunday morning, before flying back to Stanstead.
That's me, pictured on the left, not yet wearing my red & white helmet.
For expediency, a full, un-edited series of my 2008 Iceland trip photos have been pasted in here. This is great - every single shot taken has been included. However, I can safely cut out quite a number of photos now, particularly where there are repetitions, or even out-of-focus shots! And a few duffers.
I'll try and place a comment, or notes on location above or below each relevant photo, and delete the ones surplus to requirements.
Bill
Check out the pictures:
This first shot is simply one taken at Haddi's house shortly after I flew in from Stanstead Airport. My host ( & bike hire man) picked me up from Keflavic airport and drove me the 30 kilometres or so to his house, where we packed up the bikes and left shortly afterwards.
I'd left Nottingham about 07:00am and ridden my Fazer 1000 to Stanstead in order to catch a late morning flight. I wore the gear that I'd be using to ride in when I got to Iceland. The flight was about 3 or 4 hours I think. I nearly wore a more open type of Enduro helmet, but on Haddi's advice, changed it for a full-face road type helmet, with visor (intsead of peak and goggles) at the very last minute.
I bought a generous quantity of beer and some local Icelandic Firewater on arrival, to keep Haddi & I well fuelled up, after the day's riding of course, on our camping adventure.
During the drive to his house, I found out he doesn't drink!
Most of the beer was packed into those bulky panniers anyway. We left Haddi's house in the suburbs of Reykjavic in the early evening, and rode Northwards.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 22/01/2009 22:34 ] |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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It wasn't long before we saw the first evidence of Iceland's geo-thermic activity. The travelling tourist will often see geysirs, hot springs or boiling mud pools if they go to the right areas.
But all this molten magma, not all that far beneath the surface, is put to a far more practical use in many places across the island.
Power stations are constructed to make use of all this heat & pressure, and can supply "free" hot water or power to Iceland's industry and households. A bizaare site is often a large glasshouse - lit up like a christmas tree with heat & light - growing bananas!!
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 28/01/2009 21:16 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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The trouble is, the weak spots where this abundant source of energy bursts forth may be some distance from Iceland's small number of settlements & cities. No problem. They send the hot water by pipeline.
I think Haddi wondered why I stopped to take this photo. It's "normal" to him, but we don't often see pipes of hot water running for about 20 miles by the roadside in England.
Another observation. Note how I pulled my own bike well off the road, as I always do (because in England, it may be mowed down by a passing truck), but Haddi often parks his machine "in the middle of the road" by my standards.
Outside Reykjavik, there's just so little other traffic on the road. Congestion, or blocking the road just isn't a problem.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 18:54 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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I wanted to use Haddi's pair of Kawasaki KLR 650s, because I wanted more emphasis on off road action, but unfortunately these had been promised to a Norwegian group who arrived a few days earlier.
So instead, we took an identical pair of Suzuki V-Strom 650s. These were virtually brand new, with a smidgeon under 4000kms on the clock.
These are a fairly comfortable machines for mainly road use, although I reckoned they could be pushed to take a little off-road abuse as well.
Mine's the one with the yellow waterproof bag on the back. I hadn't realised we'd be using V-Stroms with hard luggage fitted, so I just loaded up this yellow bag with all my stuff (warm sleeping bag, some clothes, camera & gadgets, iPod & dock, food, bars of Cadburys chocolate, and another warm jacket). This mere 15kg or less, easily went as hold luggage on the plane. The intention was to simply tie it across the back seat of a dirt bike. I couldn't be bothered to re-pack everything, so I ditched the top box, but still made fairly inefficient use of the panniers. my tank bag was thrown into one of the the hard boxes, whilst the other carried the beer.
Before I suck you in too deeply to this lengthy odyssey, I'd better just summarise what it's about. It was simply a long-weekend trip to Iceland (Thursday to Sunday) 19th to 22nd June 2008. The Saturday happened to be the longest day of the year; and in more ways than one, it certainly was.
We did a "mini-tour" on 2 motorcycles - that much you may have gathered by now. What we DID NOT do, was go to the "obvious" places, where most tourists go. I'd been to Iceland before, travelled across and around it, and done many of the essential "must do" things before.
This time we travelled to the the remote, and little-visited North West corner of the island; the North West Fjiords. There is little in the way of geo-thermic activity in this area, but it's a vast, dramatic and staggering beautiful area. Not unlike the best bits of Western Scotland, but more so. With far less people. Probably quite like Norway? I'm only guessing, because I haven't been to Norway yet.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 14/01/2009 21:07 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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Nice road eh?
and it really was just as deserted as you see it here.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 20:31 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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There's a reason why Haddi hasn't got his helmet on, here. I'll explain in a moment. You can see the paved road, in the background, by that hot water pipeline.
sorry about the "edited by..." text at the foot of each posting. It's because I'm going back in and adding these text comments after the photos were originally posted.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:26 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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The first little "incident" explained. Haddi, being a perfect host, had said to me, "use these bikes as you want, go where you want with them, and stop whenever you want to take photos".
We'd been riding on good paved roads for an hour or so, when I spotted a loose gravel trail leading off to the left. It lead up to a summit, where I reckoned there might be a nice view to admire. More truthfully, I also wanted to test the off road capabilities of these dual-sport V-Stroms.
I stopped, and asked Haddi if we could ride up there. Luckily (?) he replied, "Yes, of course - off you go".
There were some deep patches of what turned out to be light volcanic debris (tufa?), aero-type, "bubble rock". I avoided the dodgyiest looking bits, and headed for a fairly well defined track up the hill. I accelerated, with quite some enthusiasm, up the moderate slope. Keep-the-power-on-and-the-bike-will-do-the-rest kind of approach. Well, proper trail bikes (and KLRs) will get you up this way, probably.
Whoaaaaaa...... I suddenly became aware of the extra weight of these wannabee machines. With basically road going tyres fitted, the front end just slid away, and to my horror, I nearly dropped it! An abrupt re-appraisal of technique was needed, as I quickly lost some speed and kind of waddled up to the top, legs down, like a novice would do.
With some relief, I made the summit, looked for something solid for the side stand, then turned round to see....
Haddi had fallen off half way up the slope. The bike was on its side, with the upside facing downhill, and there was Haddi, huffing & puffing, trying to pick the thing up again. Not an easy task as the panniers & top box were full of food, and there were two tents strapped on the back seat as well. I ran back down to offer some assistance. If I knew Haddi better, I would have laughed :)
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:06 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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Of course, it was all MY fault :) He said.
Haddi's excuse was, he saw me making such a pigs ear of it, had to slow down, then lost his momentum.
I did feel really bad about this, as it had been my idea to go up there. Luckily, the only damage seemed to be a small scratch on one of his panniers.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:09 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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The view from the top WAS quite good however. That ridge was formed by some kind of oozing of lava I reckon, through a rift in the earth's crust.
Hey I'm well into my Geography, but Geology wasn't a subject I ever studied :) So excuse me if I waffle on about geothermic features I don't fully understand.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:15 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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Yeah, yeah, yeah..... it doesn't LOOK very steep does it? but trust me, going down a loose gravelly volcano, on a fully laden "road" bike does require a little concentration.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:19 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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View, on the way to an area called Thingellvir.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:32 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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We were now close to the power station that we'd spotted way in the distance.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:33 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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where there was a little parking bay to rest awhile...
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:34 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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We took pictures of each others' bikes, as we bikers are prone to do.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 13/01/2009 21:36 ] | |
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Bike Tours UK Joined: Dec 18, 2008
Posts: 726 | |
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Now we're approaching the lake pronounced Thingellvir (or spelled Pingellvir). Except it's neither, in Icelandic, 'cos they use a character that doesn't exist on a UK keyboard.
This is a local beauty spot, in fairly easy reach from Reykjavick, for weekend breaks.
Helpful hint....... some people (and I was one of them, at first), do not realise that this photo article continues for another 20 pages or so.
See the page numbers a couple of lines down from here, to the right hand side? Click on number 2, then number 3 etc. :)
Sorry to sound patronising but a friend couldn't find the rest of the story. It's quite easily done.
[ This message was edited by: Bike Tours UK on 26/01/2009 23:49 ] | |
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