Digital Wanderer

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Iceland — 14, day 7 — Road Ends

2012-09-25

So, after a short break from pedaling to do some hiking covering a total distance of about 22 kilometers through the mountains, we continued our journey. The weather was kind to us, the road was packed down and quite acceptable. However, that day we had a little nuance waiting for us — we had to get to a campsite called Hólaskjól, but our paper map only covered the southwest of the country, and our only hope was the GPS. So far, my trusty waterproof little brick Motorola Defy+ hadn't let me down. In Landmannalaugar I charged it for 2.5 lats, and, by whining a bit about the hard fate of poor Latvians, I got not only it charged for the same money, but also my camera, and my external Holux m1000-C tracker.

A dark rocky mountain with steep green and brown slopes rises in the center of the landscape. In the foreground, a vast dark-green plain stretches out, with an overcast sky expanding above it.

Iceland Cycling - day 7


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Ten and a half hours, 47 km of distance, and a kilometer of elevation gain.

A dirt road leads through a green valley toward dark rocky mountains under an overcast sky.

A narrow stream flows along a hillside covered with a thick carpet of bright green moss and dark volcanic soil.

In some places, the colors are impossibly acidic

A full-flowing river with a rocky shore in the foreground, beyond which a green valley spreads out. In the background — moss-covered mountains with white patches of snow under an overcast sky.

A lone cyclist wades across a shallow river with a dark rocky shore. In the background, a large green hill rises with a vertical patch of snow, all under a gray overcast sky.

A ford looks like this

As I already mentioned, we encountered so many fords that I lost count. There were easily 10 of them that day. Crossing a ford is interesting, but the bicycle's hubs and the humans' legs are subjected to excessive moistening.

A person in the foreground takes a picture of a cyclist wading through a wide, shallow river against a backdrop of rolling slopes made of dark soil.

Touristus botanicus got interested in the subspecies Touristus hardcoricus

A barefoot bicycle tourist guides his loaded bike through a shallow river with a dark rocky bottom, against a background of green hills under an overcast sky.

As you can see, here I'm still stepping barefoot, reluctant to walk around in wet shoes

A dusty dirt road with wheel ruts skirts the sandy slope of a hill in a barren, hilly terrain under an overcast sky.

The climbs are un-climbable in places, pardon my pun

A steep rocky slope is covered with bright green moss and grass, through which a thin stream trickles. At the bottom, at the foot of the slope, a small dark pond with a pebbly shore is visible.

A narrow river flows along a rocky bed in a valley between gentle hills and steep slopes covered with bright green moss.

A close-up of a man in glasses and a gray hood on the right, against the background of a winding river flowing through a hilly valley with green grass and a dirt road.

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The cliffs are elegant

A wide landscape with a dark rocky foreground, gentle hills covered with bright green vegetation, and a gray cloudy sky.

Lava and lichens, that's the kind of road it is

A rocky volcanic plain with dark boulders in the foreground, transitioning into gentle green mountains covered with bright moss, under an overcast sky.

But even this is enough to marvel at

A dirt road disappears into the distance along a hilly green valley among dark volcanic mountains under a gloomy, cloud-covered sky.

We're seeing exactly what was promised – waiting for the trolls and elves, the Huldufólk

A winding river flows through a rocky terrain overgrown with bright green moss under an overcast sky. In the background, dark mountains rise with patches of greenery, and power lines are visible in the upper part of the image.

A close-up of thick bright green moss covered with shiny water drops and ice crystals.

A white SUV and a person with a bicycle are crossing a ford. In the background, there are green hills under an overcast sky and several people at a picnic table by the water.

At one of the fords, some guys in a superjeep started talking to us

It turned out they were rescuers, and they wanted to help us by giving us a ride across the river. It wasn't of much use, because there was another ford 500 meters ahead, but the fun of it was off the charts. Standing on the jeep's running board, holding onto the door with one hand and the bike with the other, and slicing through the water's surface from above is an indescribable feeling, almost like flying on a paraglider. Actually, these photos are from the previous part, but somehow I missed them back then.

A white rescue SUV on large wheels stands by a body of water on dark sandy soil against the backdrop of a green hill. Next to the car is a person with a backpack and a bicycle.

Three cars — a green camper van, a red and a silver SUV — stand on a muddy dirt road with a puddle in the foreground. Green and black mountains under an overcast sky are visible in the background, a person is walking on the right.

While we're crossing, a whole line has piled up, everyone is waiting patiently

A white rescue SUV with a person and a bicycle is crossing the river, kicking up splashes. Gentle green hills under an overcast sky are visible in the background.

A white BJÖRGUNARSVEIT ÁRSÆLL rescue SUV with an attached bicycle is crossing a river. A person in a hood is standing on the running board, and the driver is looking out of the window.

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A cyclist with luggage is riding along a gravel road toward a wooden bridge over a river, against a background of green hills and distant mountains under an overcast sky.

There are bridges here and there, but very, very rarely

Mountain slopes with sparse patches of melting snow, disappearing under thick gray fog and low clouds.

Having gazed enough at the beauties, I got lost in thought and realized that we had missed a turn, and not just right now, but three kilometers and one ford ago. Andrey, of course, dug his heels in and started asking how long we'd have to ride on the road we were currently standing on. "Longer," I replied vaguely, and still managed to talk him into heading back.

And again, it's unclear whether it was for the best. You can decide for yourselves once you learn what happened next. As it turned out, I hadn't missed the turn for no reason, but because the human mind filters information on autopilot.

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The sign says: "Road Ends"

Naturally, upon seeing a sign like that, this time it was me who started objecting and trying to convince Andrey to go back again, through the exact same ford we had already crossed twice. Andrey absolutely hates that kind of thing, so this time he didn't budge, and I was the one who had to cave in. As you can imagine, after a sign like that, the road turned into a cobblestone repository rather than a path meant for vehicular traffic.

This is how we got acquainted with those famous "à la railroad track" routes that Igor Shchukin, who had been to Iceland a year earlier, had told us about. I wouldn't say this experience was a positive one, but we once again realized something.

And this truth lies in the fact that sometimes harshness and even seemingly unnecessary hardships add flavor and a spark to life. The road was so rocky that we could barely even drag our bikes, and this went on for 12 kilometers. Along the way, we had to cross three fords, which I was really stressing out about, because who knows the actual reasons why the road was closed. The fords turned out to be perfectly passable, and the sign was most likely there because part of the path had been washed away by streams, and even a superjeep would have flipped over on such slopes. But nothing fazes us.

A mountain landscape with dark volcanic hills and snow-capped peaks in the background under an overcast sky. A winding river flows through the lowland, surrounded by patches of bright green moss on dark soil.

Several white sheep grazing on a hilly rocky terrain covered with green moss, against a background of dark volcanic slopes under an overcast sky.

In Iceland, they let the sheep out god knows where at the beginning of summer, and at the end they harvest them

A rocky road surrounded by green moss leads to dark hills under an overcast sky.

This is by no means a road, but a railway embankment. You can't just mock people like that

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But at least we have something to remember

The hardships might have been unnecessary, but the beauties were completely genuine. Everything turned green, and because of the rugged terrain, the feeling of being far away from civilization became noticeably stronger, despite even the power lines. So, thanks to Andrey for his idiotic stubbornness in creating artificial difficulties — otherwise we wouldn't have looked at all this magnificence.

A mountain landscape under an overcast sky, with a river flowing through the valley, and bright green moss in the foreground. A distant peak is hidden by clouds.

A harsh volcanic landscape: a dark mountain with a natural arch at the summit rises over a valley with a winding stream. Below, on the grassy ground by the stream, stands a person with a bicycle, and in front of them is reddish soil.

A hilly landscape with a winding dirt road leading up moss-covered green slopes and black volcanic rocks under an overcast sky. Two simple wooden poles are visible on the distant hills.

The only thing worse than dragging a bike over rocks is dragging a bike over rocks uphill

An overcast mountain landscape with green-gray, moss-covered hills and peaks fading into a purplish-gray haze, and a reddish-brown trail in the foreground.

On the other hand, you find yourself in a state of permanent amazement at the alienness and harshness of the surrounding reality

A rocky mountain slope covered with green moss, with a ravine in the middle where stones and a strip of dark red earth are visible. Gentle hills can be seen in the distance under an overcast sky.

This is what they call a road in Iceland. Albeit a closed one.

A vast mountain landscape under an overcast sky, with gentle hills covered in bright green moss and dark volcanic rocks. A small stream flows in the rocky foreground; a lonely figure and power lines are visible in the distance.

A stream flows right down the road. Pretty normal stuff.

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At this point I had a really good laugh, because Icelanders sure know how to joke

If you still don't find it funny at this point, let me cheer you up right now. As you've just grasped, another hardcore ordeal happened to us, which is described above. That, of course, wasn't enough — when this miracle-track finally ended, a campsite was supposed to materialize. And naturally (within the framework of the worldview and promises I've been pushing here), there wasn't even a hint of a campsite anywhere around. Moreover, all this time we had been climbing some brutal mountains, and after popping out onto a normal road, we rolled down from them, and there was absolutely no desire to go back up. We also didn't want to spend the night in the freezing cold, without a shower, company, and electricity for our gadgets, because both Andrey's and my mental states were fragile enough as it is, due to our heightened emotional sensitivity to the beautiful and the terrifying. By the way, that's exactly why we love art so much and understand any of its forms, even the abstract ones — our subtle minds oscillate in sync with any expression of ideas or even unexpressed external conditions.

How to get out of this tricky situation, and whether we succeeded, you will find out in the next part, as well as why this day ended up being almost as tough as the day with the storm, yet no less beautiful.

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