Wandering Sebastabator: 20 - 21 June : Snæfellsness

20/06
Up early and broke camp in Isafjördur, rode out of town SW along the 61, through a tunnel and onto Dynjandi waterfall. It was big, beautiful and we were duly impressed. We then continued in the direction of Patreksfjörthur. Approx. 40 km before reaching Patreksfjörthur, we came across an open-air, free hotpot and swimming pool at the side of the road, with a view out into the Fjord.
Others were stopped there and we decided to take a break and stop too.
We had a soak in the Hot pot and a bit of a swim in the pool, for about an hour. Then we got changed, had some lunch in the shelter of the change rooms. Just sandwiches. At one stage, Scott decided to wander off to investigate some of the other small buildings around the area. Unfortunately for him, he was set upon by some local birds (probably Arctic Terns), they are quite territorial and the whole affair gave me a good chuckle. The birds swooping and diving, Scott's arms flailing and calling out to the birds there was nothing I could do but laugh. I'm pretty sure he wasn't in any real danger.
After our little break, we continued along our way, Patreksfjörthur for some shopping and beer, then along the (62) and the south coast of the West Fjords. Past the ferry that could take us to Snaefellsness and onto Laugar. Not much in the way of facilities here. The campsite was adjacent to a hotel that had a swimming pool, closed at 1800 (we of course arrived around 1930) But there was another open-air hotpot. So, once we made camp, we headed up to the hotpot with some of our beers. Here we met 3 other travellers, 2 guys from France and a girl from Romania. From our discussion this evening our plans for Eastern Europe began to change and evolve.

I love them tunnels

21/06
The next morning, 21/06. We were met with clear, blue skies and good weather. So, we packed up and headed south along the 60 and then West on the 54, into Snæfellsness Peninsular (Vesturland).
The weather had started to deteriorate and turn ugly. It had become cloudy & overcast, rain and with ever increasing wind. Just before the turn-off for the 54, we fuelled-up & donned our rain gear. Scott missed a few calls from mates Inigo and Ollie. Little did we know that if we'd taken the call, it would have saved us some grief later on. As we entered the Peninsular, the wind picked up quite a bit - f5-6 (21m/s). The further we rode, the worse it got. Till we reached Eyrarfjäll, where we had to cross the fjord/valley. At this point the wind was coming head-on as we entered the fjord, but from our left as we changed direction to cross the fjord, the wind had increased considerably - f9. Being Europe, the generally accepted position on the road is the Right hand lane, but with this wind I had to move right over to the far Left shoulder in an attempt to keep the bike on the road. It worked till about 1/2 way across, the wind was coming in gusts and my bike was leaning into the wind 30-45 degrees, every time the wind died down I was at risk of lying it down on the LHS. Conditions were less than ideal.
Eventually I was overcome by the wind and forced from the road, which was about 1.5m above the surrounding area and I was able to control my exit from the paved surface and not drop the bike. Luckily there were no holes or boulders in my path.
Scott, unsure what to do next or how to help, stopped on the edge of the road (the highest point).
As I said, the wind came in gusts from his left and after about a minute of fighting with the wind, one massive gust overcame his efforts. Whilst I was trying to park my bike up safely, I glimpsed in his direction and caught a flying yellow streak out of the corner of my eye. The yellow streak was Scott, who had been blown off his bike and down the shoulder. Scott was uninjured, the bike had a few more scratches and another broken indicator but otherwise unscathed. Righting the bike was not the easiest thing in this situation, down hill and you'd be blown even further, uphill and you were lifting into the wind. Eventually a passing motorist stopped and assisted us to right the bike and push it off the road.
As we were aiming to meet with Inigo and Ollie, I sent them a message about what had happened but reassured them that we were uninjured. We then pushed the bikes into a depression to shelter from the wind while we recovered and made a plan to get back on the road. Here, we had to wait it out for about an hour, including righting Scott's bike, Ella, and surveying the surrounding area for the easiest and safest route back onto the road.
After re-entering the road and returning the way we had come, the weather improved drastically.
From the 54, we took a shortcut across the peninsular, the 55 south and we took the wind head-on. It was slow riding but I figured safer. Oh, and it was unpaved. Once we reached tarmac we headed directly for Borgarnes and met up with Inigo and pizza for lunch.
It was good to get out of the rain!
From here, we headed to Reykjavik, avoiding the tunnel took an extra 1.5 hours. We split up at the campsite, made camp, picked up our armbands (festival entry), then set up the tents proper, and off to the festival. It was the first night, only one stage, various artists, with Bonnie Tyler as headliner. It was a late night.