10 June: a quiet day. Visited by Dennis, Claudia and Phil. After prepping the bikes, we had dinner together, überbackene pasta. Was yummy!
Excited with anticipation for the ride the next day. Bed by 2230. Plan to get up early the next am and take the ferry over the Elbe, near Hamburg, to avoid the roadworks on the autobahns.
Did a last load of washing, ready for takeoff.
11 June: left Michi’s about 0800 and rode north over the “landstrassen” to go around both Bremen & Hamburg. Took the ferry Glückstadt and then onto the autobahn into Denmark. Scott had a close call when two autobahns were merging, I had a word with the other driver. All good.
We arrived at Øssur’s around 1500, were greeted by Ann and an open garage. The bikes were immediately stowed, we had coffee & Øssur showed us around.
Upon inspecting my tyres, we discovered mine looked less than perfect, with around 2mm tread on the front one. I decided to order some new ones and have them delivered to Øssur’s and have them fitted upon our return journey. I feel confident they will survive Iceland & the Färöer, but not much more. This will put us in an excellent position for the GN-72.
We ate together, more coffee, cake, then bed around 2200.
12 June: up around 0400. We left Øssur’s place around 0515, refuelled around the corner and then hit the road. Taking the E45-E39 north. We arrived in Hirtshals around 0730, plenty of time. (ca. 248 km). We refuelled and joined the queue for the ferry. Waiting in the sun, with no cover, was very hot. A couple of hours passed & we then boarded. Bikes went first, the riders are responsible for securing their own bikes, the ferry supplies the straps. It’s hard & hot work & always a bit of commotion. I assisted Scott & secured his first then Mine. Once that was done, we offered the others help & assisted Iñigo & an older German guy. That completed, we stowed our gear in our couchette and explored the ship a little and started to meet people. We ended up making plans with Iñigo to meet and perhaps ride together in iceland.
Planning, talking, drinking. That eve, we migrated into the bar with live music when an announcement came over the tannoy calling for a Doctor around 0015, or so. 3 times this occurred so I thought I’d better see if I could help.
On arrival, I found a 65+ y.o. Faroese male being attended to by the crew. He was collapsed between 2 bunks, an injury to his forehead and CPR was underway. As no-one seemed to be in charge, I took command of the situation. As I was the most senior trained person. I shan’t go into details today but needless to say, our efforts were futile. After about an hour, I asked the dr present if it were reasonable to discontinue, he wanted to continue for a short while, but eventually agreed & the man was pronounced dead.
After removing the body to a safe place, the crew took me back to the lounge where I grabbed a beer and some water, went outside for a ciggie. I needed to collect my thoughts as I was quite upset, despite giving it my all in difficult circumstances. I got talking to Christian, a young Faroese man.
13 June: Up late ~1100 or so, lunch onboard in the afternoon we docked at the Faroes. Spoke with Herman, the German dr who attended the code with me ant was under the impression we would speak with a Faroese Dr when we arrived. In fact, it was the police. We needed to both make statements, usual practice under the circumstances. Also, a danish dr would be flown out in a few days to perform an autopsy, also normal.
After lunch, we sat outside for a few beers, might enquire re: cause of death on our return. Sat out on the deck with the guys, Iñigo (es), Ollie (de), Costa (cy) and Karsten (de) till the evening. We headed down to the around 1900, saw the guys down there, I had a sore back from CPR. And spent time between the hot tub and the sauna. Spent some time chatting with the pool attendant, a Faroese girl who had heard about the events of the previous night. An announcement came over the tannoy, asking me to contact the reception, I asked the pool
Upgrade motha fukka!
A cabin with a window.
After our swim, we organised the cabin, bought some duty-free beers and moved in. Front deck 2-7. Two bunk (4), private, tv, own ensuite, sheets, pillow & doona.
In the evening we sat out with the others chatting, bed around midnight.
14 June: about 0730, we got a knock on the door. I thought they were asking us to vacate, it was one of the crew from the CPR. But he was there to inform us that the chief mate (?) had invited us to breakie as a thank you. Whoop! Cooked breakie for two.
Then we packed up & vacated by 0730. The car deck opened at 0910 and everybody wanted out.
We disembarked with no real problems, Scott stalled his bike but was easily rectified.
Then off to the cafe at the local petrol station, we were 8 guys, 7 bikers, one cyclist & one car driver. We exchanged phone numbers in case of emergency and went our separate ways.
Ollie (de, car), Iñigo (es 2014 GS) and we two decided to travel together for a bit. We headed out of Seythisfjörthur to Egilsstathir together we checked into the phone shop and were informed our German sim-cards should work. From there we rode north on the 94, partly gravel road, to Dyrfjöll then Borgarfjörthur and walked up an elk(?) home. Then we returned to Egilsstathir, fuelled up, had some sandwiches, made plans to meet the following day. Iñigo and Ollie headed south to their accommodation at the southern end of Largarfljót, we headed along the one and onto a plateau to our camp. Cold, windy and rainy, eventually arriving at Möthrudalur, campsite and restaurant. We had another gravel road for about 5kms. The campsite is in a “valley”, this was no valley, the land was flat, the wind ferocious, we had a coffee/tea and set-up camp, also hanging our wet gear out to dry. There were very few places sheltered from the wind, but we found one & I was happy with the camp.
Today, we discovered that Scott’s waterproof liners aren’t, but his new suit is.
On the first ride we all got a little wet & cold. Hope to dry out a bit tonight & sleep well.
We grabbed a bowl of soup from the cafe Fjalla Kaffi. Good lamb soup, tasty and warmed us up. We will probably get an early and get up early.
Plenty of gravel roads today and we reduced the tyre pressures to 2.0 (f) and 2.2 ®
We will see.
