Michael Ho - Personal Website

Day 5 of my Iceland cycling trip. A day with a slow start in the Mývatn thermal baths to remind myself to be in the present.

Friday, 28th of July, 2023

That morning I ate the last Decathlon dried camping meal packet and with it I had no more food on me spare for some mixed nuts and a protein bar.

I pre-purchased online a ticket to the Mývatn thermal baths (which was wise because it turned out they normally sell out early in the day) and I quickly cycled there and spent two hours that morning soaking in the hot water and enjoying people watching. The baths were packed with tourists and so I must say the previous experience at Hvammsvik was much more enjoyable than this.

myvatn baths

I took the time to really rest and relax and soak and simply exist. I think it’s important to live in the moment on these tours and not always be worrying and moving on the journey. With the distance measurement constantly on my mind, it’s hard to turn it off but the slack I bought the previous days gave me a lot of confidence that it was now in the safe zone.

I grabbed a small lunch at the cafe attached to the thermal baths and decided I should be okay to not need to detour back to the previous town to re-supply and save my energy to push onwards. This ended up being a mistake.

Back on the road, I ended up fighting a horrendous headwind and heavy traffic with many tourist buses driving alongside me which was very stressful. It seemed this area was full of tourist activity and I was in the heart of it. Shortly after I got started, I saw a beehive of activity in a random parking lot so I made a quick stop. This turned out to be Námafjall, a geothermal area with mudpots and dangerous thermal pools. This had completely not been on my list of things to see so that was a win.

geothermal area

Next I made a detour off the No. 1 road to go see Dettifoss, a powerful waterfall in Vatnajökull National Park. It was a 25km uphill detour on the No. 862 (50km round trip) and it was particularly difficult because there was a direct headwind to contend with the entire time. The views were incredible though and definitely worth it.

dettifoss

I found myself low on energy at Dettifoss and ate the last of my mixed nuts and protein bar in hopes I could make it the rest of the day. It was at that point I realised I had quite the problem. There was no grocery store or service station for the next 150km or so, the next being in Egilsstaðir. I had to pin all my hopes on a campsite about 70km away from Dettifoss which had a restaurant and hotel on the site.

Cycling the 25km back to the No. 1 from Dettifoss were easy with the headwind turned into a tailwind and the uphill now a downhill. Back on the No. 1, I found myself exhausted though, cycling up and down the hills, with no more food to help me stay energised. But I was seeing a trickle of bikepackers coming in the opposite direction, and friendly waves every time, that kept me motivated.

At some point I had to detour off the No. 1 to go towards the campsite which was in an area on the edge of the highlands. The road was gravel at best, non-existent at average, and cycling was slow and painful. I reached the campsite, Campground Fjalladyrd / Mödrudalur, shortly after 9pm. This was very lucky because their restaurant closed at 10pm and I was starved so I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t made it in time (they do sell candy bars at the reception though so…).

I have to say that the food was amazing. The best lamb soup I had in Iceland was at this restaurant. The next morning I joined the breakfast buffet too which was also excellent so this place gets my vote for must-do campsite options in Iceland.

campsite

The views from the campsite were also incredible. Little did I know then that this was where I would get my taste of what the highlands in Iceland were all about.