I guess its been quite a while I didn’t update anything on this blog. Internet is hard to get in this area and I was busy exploring the glaciers. This is the place that I ever dreamed to visit long ago since I started thinking about exploring Iceland. The mighty Vatnajokull, it’s the largest glaciers in the world outside the poles. Its almost the size of our Peninsula Malaysia. Riding around this area, cold gets right into my bones and I was really shivering when I was riding under the rain and fighting the strong wind coming from this glaciers.

After watching the magnificent Vatnajokull from a distance at Hofn, I couldn’t wait and the next morning, I quickly ride leaving Hofn into the glaciers. I made a big mistake then. I didn’t have enough food and my money was running out. I didn’t make any research to learn that there is no ATM machine for more than 200km. I planned to stay long here in this area, exploring it not only with bicycle but to hike the mountains here. I only realized my mistake after I camped 70km west of Hofn. When I reached the campsite, I asked around and realized that the next available town is 160km away towards the west. Problem is I don’t want to go to the west so soon. I wanted to stay a while in this area. Eating in a restaurant is not within my list since its very expensive. I need to buy food in the supermarket and cook.

Since I was too hungry that night, I had no other choice but to get to a nearby restaurant for dinner and paid almost RM100 for a plate of lamb! I really felt odd eating in that restaurant, only those rich tourists can afford to eat there. I was the only traveller with bicycle eating there I guess. I was totally in a wrong place! But there were not much choice. It’s the only restaurant available and there were only 2 choices of food which are the lamb and a simple soup that costs more than RM30. Don’t think soup is good enough to give me energy. The next morning, leaving my heavy stuff inside my tent, I took only 1 bag with me and cycled fast back to Hofn. The rain never stops since my last post, this is the worst weather condition I’ve been through so far. Since im so used to cycle with heavy luggage, I felt so light cycling with only 1 bag and I reached Hofn in less than 2 hours. The first thing I did when I reached Hofn was to draw out some cash, eat all I can and buy enough groceries. Cycling back to my campsite for another 70km was painful. Only the first 20km from Hofn was easy, the last 50km I was constantly fighting the strong headwind and it was raining for the whole 140km journey nonstop. Once I reached back my campsite, I took a long hot shower and lied flat inside my sleeping bag like a pancake!

I took a long good rest the next day. The campsite owner let me to come in to his house nearby and used all the facilities available since the rain never stops. Thank god, I had a really good rest that day. The next day when all my energy was restored, I rode further away to Skaftafell. Here I passed by Jokulsarlon, one of the most beautiful place I have ever been. It’s a beautiful blue lagoon with icebergs coming from the glaciers floating towards the sea. It feels like in North Pole here, it is surely a dream place for photographers. I was shocked to learn that this place exists only around 75 years ago when the glaciers of Vatnajokull started to melt here. Maybe this is the effect of the global warming?

In Skaftafell, the rain finally stopped! The thick clouds started to give ways to the blue sky! The sun started shining again! Even though it was only for a few hours, I felt soooo happy seeing the sun! It started to get warm for a few hours, giving me enough time to dry my clothes and towel! After getting a good sleep inside my tent without any rain, I woke up early in the morning and went for almost a full day hiking through the mountains to explore the glaciers. It was one of the best hiking trail I’ve ever been. It is quite easy hike, somewhere between easy and moderate with a distance of somewhere around 12-15km. This is the only place in Iceland that I see trees! It’s a small jungle here with a beautiful waterfall of Svartifoss. After I walked higher, the jungle ends and the view was clear again. Here in Iceland, since the view is too clear because there are not much trees, when I reached the top of the hill, I could see soooo far, I could even see the shape of the earth is not flat anymore but a bit curve in a shape of a sphere!

the blue sky finally show up for a few hours!

Svartifoss, a beautiful waterfall I came across during the hike!

the scenery along the hike

another scenery along the hike

After I hiked at about 4km, the rain started again and the fog was thick and visibility became poor. I just kept hiking to higher grounds ignoring the rain. After 2 hours, the rain stopped and the clouds were giving ways for me to see the beautiful snowcapped mountains and the jawdropping landscape of the magnificent glaciers of Skaftafelljokull, one of the nicest glaciers of Vatnajokull. It really feels like Im in a totally a different world here. I stayed here at the top of the mountain ignoring the cold wind, watching the beautiful view in amazement for hours! I find it amazing when Im always shivering and complaining about the cold, but when I see beautiful views, I stopped complaining and can really ignore the cold! Im sooo into all these, I guess all these while, Ive been traveling the hard way just to find a perfect spot to watch beautiful landscape. I guess Im crazy about landscape and nature. I felt good that, all these years Ive been admiring beautiful travel and landscape photos and videos mostly from National Geographic and since I started my cycling journey, I managed to see all these with my own 2 eyes. Better, I could get nearer and could even touch it, smell it! Now when I watched some of the travel photos around the world, I could say that, “Ah.. I’ve been here! I know how it feels like standing here watching this view!”. The idea of traveling the world with a bicycle that popup into my mind 2 years ago is actually not bad at all!

I saw 2 small avalanche while watching this view for almost an hour! It sounds like a storm…

I could feel like how those climbers felt when they reached the peak of Mt Kinabalu after spending hours and hours of struggling trying to summit the mountain. It feels very different than those who took the easy way to get to the peak by a helicopter because they missed the best part of the journey, which is the struggle!

beautiful view of the tounge of Skaftafelljokull glaciers under the thick clouds! Feels like Im in different world!

Leaving Myvatn was quite hard for me since it’s a very beautiful place. The only thing that keeps me moving forward is because I know that there are more places to discover. After Myvatn, I rode into the barren land in Iceland. There is almost nothing between Myvatn and Egilsstrandir. I rode along the barren land for more than 160km. At some point, I remember my ride in China while crossing the Taklamakan Desert. When I saw a small mountain range from afar, it really reminds me of Kunlun Mountains of China. It looks very similar. Even though I was enjoying the present moment, at one point I kept thinking about my ride crossing the desert 2 years ago. Just for a moment, I decided to live my past. Instead of those European tourists on caravan passing by, I imagined chinese truck drivers passing by me, honking at me while shouting jia yow (means good luck). I imagined the sand of the Taklamakan Desert flying to my face, some got to my mouth and the smell of it. I imagined chinese road builders waving at me offering water and fruits.

The ride to Egilsstrandir was going downhil for the last 100km. I was riding towards the east but the strong northern wind was blowing very hard from my left, at some point I almost fell off a cliff while riding down fast at 60km/hour because of the strong wind. I was lucky, if I didn’t hold the handlebar tight, it could be fatal! The ride became very difficult for the last 40km as the wind was blowing very very strong. I was very tired and hungry when I reached Egilsstrandir. I quickly setup my tent in a campsite in the small town, went to a small pizza shop to get a pizza and a coke. When I got back inside my tent, I realized I was eating the pizza just like a hungry lion feasting his prey and right after I finished the coke, I was burping very loud inside my tent just like Shrek and Princess Fiona. Hehehe…

It started to rain at night and the rain never stops since then. The next morning, I knew that the rain will never stop so I decided up pack all my stuff and continue riding south under the rain. Riding south was quite difficult since there were many steep climbing but thank god, then northern wind was blowing me fast towards the south. I passed by many small towns in between with the population less than 500 and the smaller Eastfjords. These fjords are considered tiny compared to the one in the Westfjords.

It was raining all the way and my tent even got wet! It is very very cold even at the time of writing. I don’t care anymore whats the temperature here, what makes it so cold is because of the rain that made me wet plus the wind was blowing so strong and Im shivering nonstop for more than 60 hours now. The best place to be for now is of course inside my sleeping bag! :)

I realized that the Midnight Sun is leaving slowly now. Street lights already started to brighten the streets here. Its still quite bright here during midnight like our sunset but the sun is not shining anymore like when I was in the Westfjords some 2-3 weeks ago. The night here is still very young and short, only about 2 hours then it started to get bright again. There is no need for torchlights here for camping so far.

the Midnight Sun is slowly leaving…

Now I reached a small town called Hofn. From here I can see Vatnajokull, the huge glaciers from afar. It looks very huge and I can imagine ice giants living there. Its only few kilometers from here and Im heading there very very soon. This is the biggest glaciers in the world outside the Arctic Region. When I was admiring the landscape of Vatnajokull, the sun was about to give its last light of the day. I quickly went back to my tent to pick up my camera and went back there. I was amazed, really amazed by the light and color of the sunset. This is the nicest sunset I ever witness here in Iceland, or perhaps in my entire life. The color changed every 10 minutes or so because of the cloud formation. Surprising I managed to ignore the very cold wind and enjoy the sunset for 3 hours!

the majestic Vatnajokull from a distance!

biggest glaciers outside the Poles and Greenland. I imagine Ice Giants dwell there…

the best sunset ive ever seen!

the color suddenly turns orange!

and suddenly to this only in 2-3 minutes!

…and finally to this! what an amazing world!

The weather became worst after I left Akureyri. The cloud was getting thicker and the northern wind was getting colder. I rarely see the sun anymore. The ride towards the east from Akureyri was quite easy at first, only an hour climb at 20km after Akureyri, and then the road was downhill and flat. Only after 50km ride from Akureyri, I discovered a huge and beautiful waterfall. I took a long rest there enjoying the waterfall. I didn’t know at all about the existence of this beautiful site. I brought the Lonely Planet guidebook with me but I never bother reading it, so I didn’t know about this.

I then discovered that the name of this waterfall is Godafoss, which means the Waterfall of the Gods. Hmmm I then learned that ancient Icelanders were pagans, Germanic pagans to be specific, during the age of the Vikings before they fully converted to Christians. There was an important guy (I failed to pronounce his name) who converted to Christian from pagans a thousand years ago, went to this waterfall and threw away all his statues of the Norse Gods inside it. I guess that’s how this waterfall got its name.

This beautiful waterfall is not really high, I guess its less than 20 meters high but its very broad. I wasn’t so lucky this time because it was very cloudy, I imagine if its were blue sky with the shining sun, I could easily see double rainbow here. I stayed here enjoying the view for more than an hour. And suddenly, I felt sooo lazy to continue the ride. Hehe… I then ended up pitching my tent here and even fell asleep! It was only 50km ride and I already decided to stop. Hehe but sometimes, you just cant help it. Once in a while, you want to feed your laziness. So there u go, I quickly pitch my tent and straight went to sleep for about an hour.

me being productive!

When I woke up, it was somewhere around 6pm. I went out from my tent, I saw a group of young European cyclists were camping near me as well!! The cloud was getting thicker, it was very cold and finally, the rain started. I have no other things to do but get back inside my tent and continue sleeping. I woke up in the middle of the night hoping to see the Midnight Sun, but the cloud was dominating the sky. Ignoring the cold, I went to the waterfall to enjoy the beauty of it. I stayed there for hours alone in the middle of the night. This is one of the nicest waterfall I ever seen in my life but I was suffering from the super cold wind.

Myvatn!

The next morning, the thick clouds don’t seem to move away, so I just decided to cycle further away towards Myvatn. It was only 50km away from Godafoss. But it was difficult for the last 10 kilometers, the headwind was very strong. I was cycling as slow as 9km/hour on flat road! Took me 4 hours to cover the 50km ride. When I reached Myvatn, I was surprise with the price here. Everything is very expensive here, since this is a favourite spot for tourists. Even to pitch a tent I had to pay nearly 50 ringgit our money per night. To recharge things like camera battery or handphone, I have to pay around 30 ringgit for each item! I was planning to stay long here at first but after seeing the price, I changed my mind.

the beautiful Myvatn

Went for a short hike to 1 of the inactive volcano here. It was a long walk, I should have bring my bicycle instead but I felt lazy since Ive been cycling for too long, I think I need to walk this time. It was about 6 kilometers from my campsite to the foot of the volcano, took me 15 minutes to climb to the top. The view was magnificent since the thick clouds already went away letting the blue sky to appear. The sun was shining proudly but the northern wind was blowing really strong. I walked around the volcano making a complete circle to enjoy the view, but didn’t stay too long as I couldn’t take the never ending strong wind.

the road towards Hverfell, the inactive volcano

each steps bring me nearer to Hverfell

…and finally, the climb

the crater of Hverfell

amazing view from the top

The next day, I did nothing but sleep. I really took a good rest here. The weather is good again, the sun is shining very strong! So I took this advantage to relax under the warm weather. It might reach 15c or more. The weather was very pleasant. Woke up very late, eat some pizza in a nearby restaurant and continue to sleep again! Hehe, reason I did that because I plan to hike another volcanic crater at night, capturing the beautiful Midnight Sun. So after I had enough sleep on daytime, I went hiking to Bjarnarflag, an active geothermal area and the surrounding areas. It was a very unique place to me. I’ve been to a few volcanoes before in Indonesia like Bromo and Ijen, but this is something really different. The rocks look very different and the water is really blue. During the sunset, the scenery looks very special with smoke all over coming from the Earth. This kind of landscape made me lose my patience to reach the southern part of Iceland, where all the active volcanoes lie. For now, I will cycle slowly getting to this other part of Iceland. I’ve entered the real land of fire now, after spending too long in the Westfjords area.

the steam with the temperature of 200c at Bjarnarflag

full view of Bjarnarflag

the beautiful view of Myvatn

midnight!

Sometimes, after being stucked in the wild for days and days, its good to be back to the civilization. I felt happy when I saw the road was paved again! Its means I can cycle much faster. I see street lights as well! The first thing I did was to eat all I can! I felt so energetic when I had enough food and I cycled faster towards the nearest guesthouse in Blonduos. I felt soooo good to sleep in a proper bed, with a soft pillow!!! Had a coffee while checking email from my laptop, I felt like a boss! I also had long hot shower and comfortably taking my time brushing my teeth! I feel like a rich man! Hehehe…

mmmmmm civilization!!

However, the ride is not so nice anymore. The landscape is tedious and same for hundreds of kilometers and demotivating. I kept on watching the side mirror to see endless incoming cars, driving fast on the highway. The only tough climb towards Akureyri was a small mountain pass which sits at around 500m altitude between Varmahlio and Akureyri. The wind was gentle to me this time, making my ride smooth and I was flying fast when the road is flat. The weather turned bad right after I left the Westfjords. It was cloudy all the way. I rarely see the sun anymore.

bored looking Icelandic horses

I finally reached Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland. The size is still small anyway, with the population just around 17000 people. Its so small that I can see the whole city just by walking. Another peaceful and calm place here in Iceland (duhh) like any other towns in the country. Its surrounded by beautiful snowcapped mountains in the background, somehow this reminds me of my days in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

There was once, while I was walking exploring around town, a bunch of young Icelanders came to me. They are having some sort of a game, where the guy has to find 100 tourists, lift them up while the girls need to snap picture of it. So the guy was asking me if he can lift me. Hehe. Surely I said yes. Im very light since I lost some weight due to cycling. Then they said welcome to Iceland. When asked, I said Im from Malaysia. They were shocked to learn that Im cycling around the country and I came from a distant land of Asia. Perhaps Im a rare species to them.

Stayed in a nice guesthouse here in Akureyri, I met 3 other cyclists from Spain! Theyre cycling around the country in 2-3 weeks with light luggage. Nice to have conversation with them and they love what Im doing. Theyre amazed to see the amount of weight I carry on my bicycle. They will follow my blog and will keep in touch with me, hope to meet them again 1 day when I cycle in Spain from end to end. It’s a good thing I reached this city which has a bicycle shop. Just nice, 2 spokes from my back tyre were broken. I got them fixed in a bicycle shop here, making sure my bicycle is on tip top condition before heading to the wild again. Im now basically half way on my journey, to ride back to Reykjavik will take only around 1000km from here. And I will complete my journey in Iceland.