Our plane landed at Keflavík International Airport just after 6:00 am. Leigh slept very little and I just don't do well on planes but, as exhausted as we were, the excitement of actually being in Iceland was enough to keep our eyelids lifted. It was a beautiful, sunny day and fairly warm considering how close Iceland is to the arctic circle. Heading over to claim our luggage we noticed one big brown cardboard box set off to the side. Yep, just one. My bike didn't make the flight. What a way to start our big adventure. A trip this large would surely involve some hiccups but this one literally stopped us in our tracks. Lesson #2: stop assuming, start double-checking. No one at the airport could tell us when my little pony would arrive so Leigh's bike went into storage and we bussed it into Reykjavik. After a quick nap in our little studio apartment we took a walk along the waterfront, had some pricey tapas and made a plan.
There are bike paths everywhere in and around Reykjavik. Smooth, wide, rolling blacktop for miles and miles so we rented a couple of hybrids and headed south to locate a geocache, specifically an earthcache near the residence of the prime minister. A what-cache? Geocaching is modern-day treasure hunting and a great way to discover areas less travelled. Earthcaches have an educational component to them. I'm on a quest over the next year to find an earthcache in ten different countries. On the way back from my successful hunt we stopped in at a local hot spring for a two-hour soak. It was tough getting back on the bike after that. Iceland is powered almost exclusively by geothermal energy and there are hot springs everywhere including the famous Blue Lagoon. Day two was more epic. We rode north in not-so-pleasant weather to take in more scenery. It was windy, it was rainy, and it was chilly but it was so awesome to be cycling in Iceland. At one point we left that smooth, wide, rolling blacktop to follow a trail of black beach sand (crushed lava rock) across a beach-head and up a small peninsula. The view was fantastic but the weather made for tough travel so we took a quick ‘we were here’ photo and headed home.
My bike finally showed up. We were packing up to leave our little studio apartment when I happened to notice a mail truck across the road. The driver was having some difficulty managing the extra-large box but she was determined to get this thing delivered... to a house across the street. I rushed out to inform her that I was the rightful owner of the package and would be more than willing to carry it the rest of the (right) way. I came that close to never seeing my bike again.
The next couple of days were spent with our first Warmshowers family. Warmshowers is an online community of fellow cyclists offering short-term accommodation to passing cyclotourists. We have had a few people stay with us and have really enjoyed hearing about their experiences. We plan to use this service as much as possible for our trip as this is the best way to get the inside scoop of wherever we happen to be. It was great to chat with Bjarni over Salmon Almandine (the man can cook) about life in Iceland from a native's perspective. Bjarni and his wife Erla do a fair bit of cyclotouring when they can. High school students in Iceland graduate with three languages, four (English) if they spend enough time on the internet. We hit another hot spring that evening (and the next) then watched the football game with the family. We took a stroll through a cemetery which was incredible: many of the graves had trees planted on them which have matured to produce a protected forest. I want to feed a tree when I die.
Our last couple of days were based out of the relatively new Hlemmur Hostel located right beside the bus station. It has the friendliest and most helpful staff. From there we took a countryside tour on Icelandic horses, a rare breed with five gaits (most horses only have three) although no matter what I did my horse was going to go his own pace. I'm pretty sure he gave me the hairy eyeball when I tried to convince him to pick it up a bit. Then the horse in front of me let out this monstrous fart and I cried laughing. We stayed in and around Reykjavik, which is only a fraction of what Iceland has to offer, but it was an awesome way to start our tour. We might have done some camping if the weather had been a little more cooperative but we were out discovering something new everyday regardless. The landscape is unreal. I'm sure there is no other place on earth quite like it. Perhaps we'll go back one day for a trip around the country to explore the smaller villages and Vatnajökull National Park. For now it's back to the airport and on to England for a rendezvous with family.