more wind: Hvammstangi > Saudarkrokur [81mi]

Not the way you want to see flags blowing when you're about to roll out, knowing that 40 of your next 45mi are in exactly that direction....

Hvammstangi campground

First few miles today were pleasantly with the wind, but I knew that would change soon enough when the road turned northeast-north up towards the town of Blonduos, 40mi away. It really wasn't anything exciting today, mostly more of the same rolling meadowlands surrounded by snowcapped volcanic mountains. Not to sound trite, but Colorado's Rocky Mountains are far more majestic, the roads better, the weather warmer and the wind (usually) not so extreme and unrelenting. I had a lot of time to stew about the wind, curse it, and think about how eventually it should end up helping me out when I turn southeast tomorrow. If you ever see a lone cyclist in Iceland cursing into thin air, remember that it is the air that he's cursing.

I got Blonduos in the later afternoon, picked up some groceries for the night/morning and had a coffee break at a little cafe, where an older gentleman suggested I go northeast to Saudarkrokur instead of southeast to the tiny village of Varmahlid. It's beautiful with black sand beaches and lots of birds, he said, plus it would be a break from HW1 with less traffic and a change of pace. Fair enough, I thought, so I decided I'd check out his recommendations.

a major perk of touring is eating crap I normally won't touch

Also in town I met a father/son duo who had just ridden the Westfjords region like I'd planned on until my navigation blunder. They reported that it snowed on them, it was terribly windy the whole time, the grades were steep and that crews were working on the many miles of gravel roads- which meant dumping water and churning up the packed gravel. At one point they had to have the road crew drive their gear to the top of a pass because they simply couldn't get traction in the man-made mud. Sooo... maybe I'm not so bummed about missing that turn after all.

As I turned east into Norourardalur canyon, I was greated with a vicious wind right into my face... even though it had been blowing from the opposite direction earlier in the day. The terrain here is so varied and interwoven that the ocean winds find their way through various canyons and fjords, so there's no real telling what might happen. After climbing a decently sized pass to cross into the eastern side of the Skagaheidi peninsula I got a pretty good downhill stretch and eventually a tailwind in my favor.

Rolling into Saudarkrokur around 11PM, I found the campground to offer nothing special- not even a free hot shower. So I made my dinner using their sink area as a windbreak, then headed over to the black sand beach and threw out my sleeping bag in a little nook. It was chilly but the wind had relented; I watched a gorgeous sunrise over the Skagafjordur bay and got about 3 hours of sleep listening to the gentle waves lap the beach.