Michael Ho - Personal Website

Day 11 of my Iceland cycling trip. A day which starts innocently with Puffin watching before becoming filled with failures as the headwinds return with a vengeance (spoiler alert, at the end of the day it was compensated with good company and an amazing campsite).

Thursday, 3rd of August, 2023

That morning was filled with Puffin watching on the black sand beach at Vik. At first I wasn’t sure I’d see any but I realised quickly the water was full of them bobbing along to the waves. At first I didn’t see them but they were also nested on the cliffside above us and flying around in the sky.

puffins

I bumped into Leo on the beach and we spent some time taking photos of the birds before we bid each other farewell. I cycled onwards hoping to go to Dyrhólaey to do more puffin watching and to see the rock arch. The headwind was intense and I mixed up my directions, ending up cycling a 12km detour on a hilly road to Hálsanefshellir Cave which was on the other side of the beach I started the morning at. It had many puffins though on the cliffside so I was satisfied. There I bumped into a cyclist from the Vik campsite and although no words were shared, we did the friendly cyclist wave.

After my brief mixed up detour, I continued on the No. 1 road but was facing intense troubles. The winds became super intense, and while it was mostly a headwind, it was also gusting me off the side of the road. I was exhausted trying to keep my bike steady. The traffic was very heavy and unforgiving that day, with lots of drivers opting to try overtake me at high speed without enough space. That combined with the wind left my mentally and physically exhausted. I felt it was the most dangerous part of my Iceland cycling trip.

I was intending to skip the crashed airplane hike at Sólheimasandur but with my cycling going so bad, I made the stop to try to rest and wait out the wind, hoping it would weaken or change direction. While killing time visiting the crashed plane, which I found lackluster, I bumped into Leonardo again as he made the cycle to the plane. He suggested the Skogafoss as an alternative destination considering my bad luck with the cycling that day, and I made a note to make sure to at least visit it. Despite my bad day, I still hoped to push further that day.

plane

I had been thinking to cycle to a ferry to visit the Westman Islands and camp there overnight but I gave up on this with the timing being completely thrown off by the headwind. I was unsure what to do instead when I reached the Skogafoss campsite that Leonardo had been suggesting. I was awestruck there though, it was a campsite at the base of a waterfall, something I had not seen before and felt magical. I made the decision to stop for the day and just start fresh tomorrow. It felt right not pushing onwards while having such a bad day and I needed to get a fresh start.

skogafoss

There I bumped into the cyclist from earlier at Hálsanefshellir cave! We made a proper introduction to each other and I learned that he was a friendly Polish bikepacker named Adam. Later, Leo joined in and we had a nice cyclist campsite round going. I got to know him as Adam. He was a very friendly Polish bikepacker with some great cycling stories to share. I was having a good time here and it felt nice to socialise again after cycling alone for so long.

When I first reached the campsite, Adam had been talking to two other cyclists in Polish who did not look like they were having a good time. I went for dinner at the nearby hotel and when I returned these two cyclists seemed to have moved on. That was when I got the download from Adam who explained that the two had attempted to cycle into the highlands but turned back when they had bike issues. They were apparently not too experienced, with one having never camped in a tent before, which sounds like a recipe for disaster. It was interesting to think about it and we discussed our past experiences and shared our thoughts on how difficult bikepacking can be and how we had developed our skillsets for it and how it took time to build up these skillset.

Before long though, I called it a night and crawled into the tent, ready to try again tomorrow. Sometimes it’s like that, some days are just not going to work out and you can’t force your way through them. You need to be ready to call it and try again on a fresh day.