Cycling: Iceland Ring Road Day 4: Akureyri to Reykjahlíð

on cycling

Day 4 of my Iceland cycling trip. A day of sightseeing with a quick city trip, a waterfall, and a geothermal springs area.

Thursday, 27th of July, 2023

I woke up late having had a deep sleep in. The previous day had been so successful, I felt no rush to get going. I slowly packed up my gear (I found it took me generally 2 hours to make a coffee and get everything re-packed) and cycled back towards the city centre of Akureyri.

I had lunch at the Akureyri backpackers hostel in the city centre to get energised for the day and gathered supplies from the grocery store before cycling across the bridge out of town and back to the steep slopes that characterised my experience of cycling in Iceland so far. I had begun to get very demotivated by the uphill cycling. Doing this while sharing the road with fast traffic was awful to get used to. Especially as it seemed every day started with a climb to get out of the towns which sat at sea-level. Most climbs in the north segment were around ˜500-600m elevation and while it took time to climb them, the downhill ride always seemed too short to make up for the effort.

Leaving Akureyri, I discovered an unexpected forbidden tunnel I was not aware of. I had to detour on the No. 83 / No. 84 roads here which included more fun uphill cycling and added 10km to my cycling plans. But like all detours I had taken so far, I found it to be peaceful and free of traffic which made it an unexpected blessing.

waterfall

I did a short stop to see the Goðafoss waterfall, an amazing sight and well worth the pause time. After that there was nothingness for a long stretch until I reached Mývatn lake. I cycled along the north side of the lake and set up camp in Reykjahlíð at Camp Myvatn. This campsite was a bit concerning because the owner only keeps the reception open until 10pm and according to Google reviews, after that time they can be difficult to deal with for late night arrivals. The check-in at the reception felt slow and I received a sticker I had to attach to my tent to avoid a wake up in the middle of the night. The campsite was very lovely and beautiful with duck families roaming around in the night.

ducks

I made a mistake here that would bite me the next day. I tried to make a rush to the Mývatn thermal baths just 3km west of the campsite but failed to make it in time because of the uphill climb needed. Returning to camp, I realised I also missed to buy more food at the service station or grocery store which were now closed. They only re-opened at 10am which was the same time as the thermal baths. Feeling time pressured but not wanting to miss out, I decided that I would go straight to the thermal baths in the morning to get my hot water time in and immediately set off from there to my next milestone.

That night I ate one of the two Decathlon dried camping meal packets I had packed before drifting to sleep.

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This recap is broken down into multiple posts. Follow the links below to read through the series.