Day 2
Tuesday
2nd July – 36Km
A
quiet, dry night. Breakfast of coffee, ham, cheese, bread and a carton of Skyr,
the local yoghurty stuff. Dave heads off towards Grindavik, I pack the tent away
and ride the bike around Keflavik whilst deciding which way to go, North to
Reykjavik or South along the coast. The front of the bike is still wobbling at
any speed so I spend some time experimenting with different weights in the front
panniers. Nothing seems to work and it would be dangerous to ride like this so I
end up leaving them with the campsite manager. This drastically reduces my
luggage space, out goes the smart trousers for evenings, the fleece sweater, the
books and the herbs, spices and olive oil and the jar of peanut butter
The
first part of the day is on a sealed road going past the NATO air base at
Keflavik, I see some helicopters and a couple of F-18's on patrol. The road is
flat with lots of barren lava to either side, some of it covered with grey-green
lichen. Weather is quite warm with broken cloud and no wind.
A
little further on and I turn off onto the track for the headland and lighthouse
at Reykjanesvita, I stop to take a few photos of the birds nesting on the
seastacks then head back to the main road.
The
good road has finished now, it's a rough, potholed dirt track and there are
Arctic Terns nesting on both sides of the road. They do not like me riding
through their nesting area and are very aggressive, dive bombing me with several
near misses. I’m glad I brought a helmet!
As
I approach Grindavik the lava turns to farmland, Grindavik itself although small
has a supermarket and a good _free_ campsite with a sheltered cooking area but
no showers. The campsite is next to
a sports ground so we have lots of teenagers walking across the campsite, all
very polite & well behaved.
Dave
is already at the campsite having followed the same route so we swap impressions
and talk about plans for the next few weeks.
It's a warm sunny evening so I wash my shorts and socks before cooking
pasta & tuna with a tomato & harissa sauce. Later on as it becomes
colder I lie in the tent and listen to the World Service before going to sleep.