Day 13
Saturday 13th July – 77Km
It’s raining heavily again when I wake
up so I stay in my bag until it stops at 10:00. With 24-hour daylight the normal
time constraints don’t really apply.
I’m planning on heading into the
desert towards Askja so I visit the supermarket to get some more stuff. I’m
carrying food for 5 days and water for 2.
Richard and Martin are carrying on
around the coast so I say goodbye and leave the campsite at 12:00. As I’m
pulling onto the road I meet another English cyclist. We have a quick chat;
he’s planning to go over the pass I came across yesterday so I tell him what
the road conditions are like.
I follow Route 1 out of Egilsstadir and
it climbs gently for 18Km. It’s cold but dry so I put my windproof top on. At
the junction I turn west into Jokuldalur and take road 924 following the left
bank of the Jokulsa a Dal river upstream.
The valley is fairly wide with the gray,
silt-laden river in a deep channel down the middle. Route 1 continues along the
right bank but I can see the yellow shapes of bulldozers working on the road and
slowing the traffic.
The surface on this side is good and
I’m making good progress in spite of the wind. At Hjaroarhagi the road crosses
the river and rejoins Route 1. It’s still gray and cloudy.
At 5:00 I stop for lunch and it begins
to spot with rain, waterproofs on again. The road then climbs uphill and my
route branches off to the left towards Bru. The valley sides are steeper now and
I’m higher above the river. There
are occasional small farms along the valley.
It’s stopped raining but it’s still
cold and windy so I keep the waterproofs on. The wind is dangerously strong.
It’s gusting from my left and several times blows me off the edge of the road.
I stop to take a picture and have to fight to hold the camera steady, the lens
cap goes flying away into a ditch and I have to climb down to recover it.
At 8:00 I’ve had enough, a few Km
before Eiriksstadir I find a flat patch of ground away from the road and put the
tent up. There is a stream a short distance away so I’ve plenty of drinking
water.
I cook 2 packets of chicken chili
noodles and then listen to the BBC World Service on my short-wave radio.
Afterwards I read my guidebook, which informs me that this stretch of the road
is haunted by evil goblins!
My right leg is hurting again and the shin is red and swollen, I take some more Ibuprofen and also rub some anti-inflammatory gel on it.
The wind picks up and it starts to rain again. I hope tomorrow is better for Askja.