ICELAND IN JULY--TWO UP
by Gail and Eric Haws
Gale force winds, sand storms, unpaved roads, puffin pie,
mist, fog, rain, sleet and hail. These are just some of
the things that make for great motorcycling in Iceland.
The two day boat trip leaves riders on the opposite
side of the island from the capitol. In other words
no where but, basically rural Iceland. With only 250,000
people
in all of Iceland, and half of them living in the capitol,
we didn't
expect to meet many people. But, unlike Siberia, what we
did
find was food, gas, people who spoke English, and some
accommodations, even if only primitive camping sites.
Take all of the Northwest compressed into one country
and you have Iceland; roughly the size of Kentucky.
The ring road, about 800
miles around, has just been completed in the last few
years and is only 50% paved. However, there are
many rideable
routes north of the ring road, on various peninsulas.
For the more adventurous there are roads, well, jeep
tracks connecting the interior to the ring road. These
have no bridges and can be quite dangerous. So can the
wind.
The wind blew our motorcycle down twice while parked, and twice while
traveling.
Due to a back injury caused when the wind blew the
motorcycle off the road. and severe weather which resulted
in river flooding, we did not take these interior routes.
It leaves something new for the next trip.
It is possible to travel the ring road in two or three days
but every mile or so there is something to stop and admire.
There must be 100 large water falls, not counting the
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small ones. There are glaciers which reach to the
road, icebergs calving from these glaciers, geysers and
active volcanoes with lava fields stretching for miles, not
forgetting
the Blue Lagoon which is thermal heated year round.
Iceland has had settlers since 900 a. d. so there are also
some historical sites. If one wants to see all of
Iceland, more than two to three weeks are necessary.
One problem with leaving the main road in the north is that
the area seems to be a series of sparsely inhabited
valleys
separated by mountains. Two hundred feet above sea level
means cold, fog, mist, and other winter pleasures. Even at
low levels some natural phenomenon could not be seen
because they were engulfed in mist. Fortunately, the gravel
roads
are maintained in these isolated highland areas as one sees few
if
any inhabitants except sheep. It is only in
the southern flat lands that there is a danger of being run
off the road by big vehicles or pelted by gravel.
After starting from the eastern port city of Seydisiordur,
we headed south because of the storms in the north.
Checking the weather daily is a necessity since riding a
motorcycle in Iceland is somewhat like navigating a boat: one
must
know about winds and storms. Just the day
before we reached the southern route, it had been closed
due
to a sand storm which turned into a black lava rock storm.
It
was the coldest and wettest summer in many years. and the
summer is when they repair the road, which often means
re-graveling.
The third day we came upon three Germans including a woman
who
only had 6 months of riding experience. She had gone down
in the new,thick gravel and sprained her ankle in part
because she was not wearing proper boots. Later, another
German motorcyclist, most motorcyclists here are German; we were
the
only Americans on the ship going to Iceland out of maybe
100,
hit a sheep and had to be helicoptered out. Did we
mention
that there must be 14 sheep for every Icelander? But,
most
motorcyclists we met had only minor accidents such as being
blown off the road.
after two weeks including two days in the capitol and one
week in the north off the main road, we had circled back to
the port city. Loading the motorcycle onto the ferry we
returned to Bergen. We ended our trip again in
Finland.
This time there was no damage to the motorcycle, only to
our
wallet. One good thing was the exchange rate had
increased
in our favor over last year but a bottle of beer was
still $6.00 in Finland.
Motorcycle traveling is not the only joy the reader whould
assume from reading the above. Smoked sheep heads, puffin,
petrified
sharks are delicacies that must be searched out. There are
few
mammals, just humans, sheep and isolated small herds of
ð
imported reindeer. Don't expect many trees. Do watch out for boulders blown
into the road by the wind which can turn the off-road
adventure into a moving obstacle course. Inclement
weather can be overcome by wearing adequate rain gear,
winter clothes. and an electric vest. In fact, electric
everything might not be a bad idea, including heated
handgrips. But, as an old motorcyclist once said,
"Your
skin is waterproof, only your clothes get wet." We are
just
glad we went in July, not November.
Two days later we were in Norway taking a different route
back to Sweden and on to Finland where we again left the
GS for repairs. This was the first long motorcycle
trip
during which we did not break down, but the
worst was yet to come.
BY GAIL AND ERIC HAWS
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PART TWO OF FOUR PARTS.
You can order a video of this ICELAND trip for $20.00 from GoTo Travel, 362 HY 99 N Eugene OR USA 97402-2404.
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FOR PART THREE GO TO THE BALTICS
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RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE FOR SCANDANIVIA
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