"I had a plan..." Reykjavic > Hvammstangi [155mi in 25hrs]

"I had a plan..." is typically not an indication of a smooth day, and well, it wasn't.

The plan was simple: leave Reykjavik on Sunday for a quick ~40mi ride up HW 1, through the tunnel and into Borganes by mid afternoon. Have a soak in the town geothermal pool, do a little bike maintenance and turn in early. I wanted to make it another 60mi north to Stykkisholmur the next day no later than 3pm so I could catch the afternoon ferry up to the Westfjords region. Easy enough....

leaving Reykjavik behind via HW 1

get the coffins ready... ominous and not too far off base

Aside from a head/crosswind things were going fine, until I got to the 3km tunnel under Hvalfjordur bay and found out bikes (as well as pedestrians... and.. horses?) are prohibited through the tunnel. [I'd read accounts of cyclists passing through without mention of it being a problem; it hadn't dawned on me to look into the rules.] Weighing my options (guerrilla riding through, hitch-hiking with a truck) I opted to take the long way around to the east end of the bay... an extra 30mi tacked onto the day. Not a huge deal, but the driving westerly wind pushed me east quickly and I had to fight it all the way back out to the coast.

Hvalfjordur bay

So now 4hrs behind my anticipated schedule, I fought my way (against the wind again) north to Borganes and rolled in around 9pm. But miraculously the wind had died, the sun was high in the sky and I still felt good... so why not get a head start on tomorrow?

By the time I ran into town and gathered some foodstuffs, the wind was howling again. I know, I know- everything I'd read about cycling in Iceland mentions the wind... it came as no surprise, but damn it's tough mentally and physically to battle it for hours on end. Anyway, the idea of pulling an epic day into the late night daylight was appealing and I fought the wind for another 4hrs, which got me a whopping 25mi up the road.

my first Icelandic sunset, around 11:30PM

Finally I reached what I thought was my intersection to head towards the ferry and checked my map for good measure. You can imagine my combination of disbelief, disappointment and genuine "DOH!!!" moment when I realized, alone on the side of the road at 2:30AM, that I'd failed to take a left turn way back at Borganes. Daaammn.... either backtrack the 25mi (now the wind had stopped again; it seems to be very intuitive about only blowing when I don't want it to) or head northwest and eventually travel 40mi of gravel roads to get to the ferry. Or, more rationally, skip the Westfjords altogether and just continue northeast on HW1. I decided the last option was the most reasonable and, somewhat dejectedly, pushed onward leaving any hope of seeing the Westfjords for another visit.

finally realized I had missed a turn, 25mi ago....

So at that point I decided to just keep going and going, to pull an all-nighter on the bike without ever needing a headlight. When else was I ever going to have that chance?!? I'd just pulled two all-nighters in as many weeks while working on sorting, packing and cleaning my apartment, and cycling through Iceland was far superior to those chores. The wind blew into my face, I made a snail's pace forward and the temp kept dropping. I kept adding layers until I ran out of clothes and donned my rain gear for their windproof warmth.

at around 2:30AM I saw my first Icelandic sunrise

breakfast creekside circa 5:30AM. It was still cold and windy

Eventually HW1 climbed up into the clouds through a crazy barren lunar landscape to the top of a 'mountain' somewhere around 1400ft above sea level. Not much for views from the middle of a cloud, but at least it wasn't raining!

The descent back down was, well, cold... but it was downhill at least. I finally made it to Stadur (a town that as far as I could tell amounted to a gas station and a few houses in the hillside) around 8:15AM and eagerly bought coffee and freshly deepfried pastries. Gas stations here are interesting: they are either pay-at-the-pump with no attendant, or more often, have a fast food type restaurant inside along with the usual convenience store items we expect in the US. (One chain has Quiznos inside) Aiming for the fishing village (w/ campground) of Hvammstangi, I'm almost there, so I thought. The brutal wind was still relentless and between it and my fatigue, it took another 4hrs to cover the final 25mi to town.

I rolled in at 12:30PM... 25hrs after I left Reykjavik expecting a 3-4hr day. 155mi in one gigantic, slow, often times miserable and delirious push. But I'd made it for better or worse!

a new personal record of both distance and duration!!! (and suffer-factor??)

After getting lunch and groceries, it was off to the town's swimming pool and geothermal "hot pot" (what we call a hot tub) to soak my destroyed body. With no sleep and massive physical exertion, I was literally dozing off in the tub.

Hvammstangi town pool, a sweet reward