Michael Ho - Personal Website

Day 6 of my Iceland cycling trip. A day where I discover the weird alien planet landscapes that hide just off the main road in Iceland.

Saturday, 29th of July, 2023

I hadn’t planned to camp in or detour to Mödrudalur, an area just on the edge of the highlands. I originally planned to camp at Grímsstaðir but I had skipped past that campsite to take advantage of my good timing and position myself closer to the next milestone with that opportunity.

Finding myself in a bit of an unplanned section, I searched Google Maps for some routes back to the No. 1 road and it showed some interesting sightseeing viewpoints if I would continue along the detour instead of returning back directly to the No. 1 road. I was feeling adventurous so I made the call to ride the detour. It was here that I discovered the amazing alien planet interior of Iceland without planning to.

The road condition was really bad and I am glad I took my gravel bike with me because anything less would not have succeeded on those roads. It was slow progress and it took five hours to cycle only 30km but it was an amazing experience. The weather conditions were cold, windy, and almost storm like. At the highest point, I felt that I couldn’t stay too long in the inhospitable conditions, feeling unprepared for it, and limited my time there. The landscape was bleak and barren, like an alien planet. There was something beautiful to it though with the emptiness. It was very unique.

desert

Out there, I didn’t see anymore normal cars or campervans. This was the domain of the 4wd people with whom I’d give a friendly wave to whenever I’d pull over to let them pass. I had a memorable moment when a man driving his family with a massive vehicle stopped to say hi and give me a snickers bar. Since I only had on me some bread that I smuggled out of the breakfast buffet, this was a real lifesaver to receive.

While cycling down and returning to lower elevation, I discovered beautiful fields of pink wildflowers. The landscape slowly became less barren as I moved further away from the highlands.

Eventually I returned to the No. 1 road and returned to the normal, whatever that is given it’s Iceland. Traffic had lightened up significantly as I was now far on the opposite side of Iceland from Reykjavik and I casually cycled on to Egilsstaðir.

The campsite at Egilsstaðir was very large for accomodating the camper van folk but the tent area was extremely small and nestled just behind main communal building. I made some chit-chat with two Spanish bikepackers here who gave me a recommendation to detour off the No. 1 and onto the No. 95 when headed South (they had come via the opposite direction). They told me that they were going to take the bus to bypass the fairly empty section in the north that I had just finished and instead use the time to detour around on the coast line to do whale watching. This, I think, was very wise and a good suggestion to anyone considering an Iceland cycling tour that wants to optimise their sightseeing over cycling.