Day 1
Monday
1st July
Up
early at Glasgow Youth Hostel, a quick breakfast then I get the bike out of the
bike shed. I noticed the front end wobbling badly yesterday so I check the cones
and headset to make sure they're OK. Everything seems fine to me but the bike
still wobbles, time to find a bike shop. Gear Bikes in Gibson St were very
helpful but can't find anything wrong with it.
I
get the train from Glasgow Central to Paisley Gilmour St and then follow the
cycle path to the airport. Once inside I find a quiet corner and take the pedals
and bottle cages off the bike before turning the handlebars and wrapping the
main tubes in bubblewrap. As I'm cutting things up with my knife a policeman
comes over and starts chatting, he's a cyclist as well and wants to know where
I'm going. At least he isn’t pointing a gun at me.
Check
in is painless, they take my panniers off me and tell me to take the bike
through some doors at the end of the hall, I get a little bit lost but my
policeman friend points me in the right direction.
The flight is uneventful and I get a good view of a glacier before landing at Keflavik. The bike is waiting for me in the luggage collection area and the panniers come through on the conveyor. I collect all my stuff and check the bike out, a little dent in my new rear rack but no other damage.
There is another English cyclist at the airport, Dave Clark who flew in from Heathrow. Neither of us has a route planned so we decide to ride to Keflavik itself and stay at the campsite there for the first night.
I wobble my way to the campsite which is nicely situated next to a supermarket and has big earth banks all around as windshields. Put the tent up and then stock up with food at the supermarket and fuel for my stove at the garage.
The campsite costs 600Kr and has a nice room where you can cook and eat in bad weather. There is also a lot of spare food and fuel left by people going home. Free hot showers with a strong smell of Sulphur. Supper is pasta and ham, I phone home and give the bike a final tweak before crawling into my sleeping bag at 10:00 in broad daylight.