Day 10
Wednesday 10th July – 51Km
Away by 9:30, it’s a gray, overcast
day with light rain. There is a fresh wind in my face, just for a change…
I’ve packed my watch in one of the
panniers so I’ve no way to keep track of time but when I come to the river
Kolgrima and check how little progress I’ve made on the map my heart sinks.
The wind grows stronger and I’m on the
bottom ring crossing the area called Myrar. Halfway across I meet a German
cyclist called Christina, who has ridden from Hofn. We have a chat and compare
routes, she has been much more ambitious than me and took some very rough inland
tracks to Landmannalaugar and has also been across the Kjolur route. She’s now
heading for Keflavik to return home.
Her front rack snapped in the interior
and she has half of her kit in a huge stuff sack across the rear panniers.
She warns me that there are a lot of bad roadworks on the coastal road
beyond Hofn.
We say goodbye and immediately
afterwards I find out what she means, the road is being resurfaced. They’ve
lain deep, golf ball sized hard pack and not yet tarmacced it. I end up walking
for about 500M.
The wind gets worse, I’m only making
about 4Kmph. The map shows a service station but I can’t find it. No hot
coffee….
I’m now crossing the estuary of the
river Hornafjordurfllot and the wind is hitting me from the side. I have to lean
the bike at a 30-degree angle to compensate and each time a car goes past my
“air-cushion” disappears and I nearly fall off.
One wriggling dot in the distance
becomes two French (?) cyclists coming the other way. We say hello and they
cheer me up by telling me that the road out of Hofn is a 16% gravel track.
A short while after I use a field full
of Icelandic ponies as a reason for another rest. Always carry a camera when
cycling, it gives you an excuse to stop!
As the road swings south I get out of
the wind and eat some of the bread and cheese I bought earlier before heading
into Hofn with the wind behind me. Just before the village itself I stop at
another garage and buy a litre of T-Rod alcohol fuel for my Trangia stove. I
still have enough left from my first bottle for a few more days but it doesn’t
seem that common so I’ll fill my bottle up and leave the rest for anyone who
needs it.
At the campsite I recognize Richard and
Martins bikes and tent and am pleased to meet my friends again. They left
Skaftafell at 8:00 PM the previous night and reached
Hofn at 4:00 AM. Total Lunatics!
The campsite is also the bus station and
has an information desk, common room, covered kitchen area and Internet access.
It costs 600Kr plus 100Kr for a shower.
I put the tent up, shower and then cook
tuna and rice. In the kitchen area I talk to a couple from Yorkshire who had had
trouble with wind blown sand when driving across the main Sandur. I’m very
glad the weather wasn’t that bad when I was on it. They tell me that the
Toyota they’ve hired is costing approximately £700 (1100 euros or $1110) for
2 weeks, cycling is cheaper!
It starts raining and carries on all night.