17 - 20 June : Myvatn & West Fjords

17 June:
Woke early and had breakie with our neighbours (Saarbrücken). Checked the oil level of both bikes, more than half full, enough for another days' ride. Broke camp and headed back to the hot-pots just east of Myvatn, around 1000 hours. Inigo and Ollie had been there for a while and we checked out the bubbling mud pots and the wonderful colours.  Then across to Krafla and past the Thermo-electric plant, up the hill to the Crater that overlooked the whole area.  It's one of Icelands most active volcanic areas.  Great views!
Then back down to Myvatn and onto Dimmuborgir, An area of strangely shaped lava fields, volcanic caves and rock formations, reminiscent of an ancient Citadel and home to the Icelandic Jolasveinar (Christmas lads) and their parents, Gryla and Leppaluthi.  Not that we ran into any of these mythical creatures...Although there were plenty of tourists.
After a coffee break, we headed around the south of Myvatn and Onto Husavik to refuel and try out the "best" fish and chips in Iceland.  In Husavik Harbour is a place called "fish and Chips" and that's all that they do. Fish and chips or fish or chips.  It was pretty good and probably the cheapest in Iceland, another bonus.  After our feed, we went for a bit of a walk around the harbour. As none of us were interested in the whale watching we did some shopping, got some Skyr and headed back to the campsite at Heithebaer.  Scott and I had Skyr for dinner Had a dip in the pool and settled down for beers with Ollie.  Inigo had headed on to his hotel North of Akureyri. We planned to meet tomorrow at about 1100 hours at Gothafoss.

18 June:
Up early-ish and hit the road with Scott and Ollie direction Gothafoss.  We arrived a little earlier that arranged and had plenty of time to check out the falls, take photos and sit down for out regular coffee break.  Then off to Akureyri, it was too early for lunch so we did some shopping, an SD card for Inigo's camera and Beer for us.  Then North out of town in the Direction of Siglufjörthur along the 82, through three new-ish tunnels. Despite Ollie's dislike for tunnels, it was an amazing ride and well worth it.  It had been raining and we were pretty wet and cold.  In Siglufjörthur we looked for somewhere to get out of the rain and have lunch. We ended up in the restaurant "Hannes boy". Fantastic food and the atmosphere was something else. Hannes boy was housed in an old store house/drying house on the harbour, these buildings had recently been refurbished and modernised but maintained their character.  Hannes was a famous fisherman of old and is remembered here.
After Siglufjörthur we headed South along the Eastern coast of the fjord and through Sautharkrokur, then west, direction Blönduos.  At the end of the 744, Ollie turned off to the campsite at Skagaströnd and we continued in the direction of the West Fjords.  Scott and I continued onto Hvammstagi to camp, which was just out of the town.  We set-up camp in the most protected spot we could find as the weather had, yet again, turned nasty.  We then headed to the pool, about 2 km away so we had to ride.  After getting back, feeling refreshed, we settled down outside the communal building to write and drink a few beers...When our plans for a quiet evening fell to pieces. We met Mike and Brandy, from the US (Maryland and Virginia) and a couple of Canadians, Dan and Tina who work for Scotts (toilet paper).
Needless to say, the beer was flowing (from cans), the schnapps was consumed in massive quantities and at some stage Mike produced Reindeer meat he had been given by an Icelandic farmer and grilled it up.  What an awesome night, great company and no sunset.  I think we stayed up till 0300 hours...or so.  Who knows, the sun never sets...

19 June:
Woke late (not surprising) but before everyone else.  Cooked breakie and broke camp, we left around 1130 hours after saying bye to Dan and Tina, Mike and Brandy were still sleeping.
Our destination, the West Fjords. Hoping to have lunch in Drangsness, we arriver around 1500 hours. Unfortunately a little late. So we had Skyr, Muesli bars and a coffee (for me) then onto Isafjördur.  I wasn't sure if we'd make it this far, but that was our goal for the day.
The west Fjords are absolutely amazing and completely different to anything else we'd come across in this fascinating land.  I felt a strange sadness for our friends who had chosen not to see this area, you can't see everything but this was just indescribable.  Endless Fjords, amazing views, great roads, perfect.  I wrote"it was absolutely amazing to ride through and see.  Just unbelievable and indescribable"  The truck drivers always greeted us with a wave and we made good progress. Around a 500km day.
Upon arrival, we set-up camp, went into the swimming baths for about an hour. Then we discovered that all the shops and bottle shop were closed. We re-fuelled and headed back to camp.
I remember, from my last visit, that the golf club was within walking distance and might serve us.  So, we walked over and asked if they served non-members, expecting a big NO we were pleasantly surprised when the only staff member greeted us with a friendly smile and a big YES!  We grabbed a couple of beers and sat out on the deck, overlooking the golf course and out into the fjord.  After a while the barman came out, we thought he was going to ask us to leave as it was just before 2200 hours, but he just enquired if we'd like a couple more before he closed. We gladly ordered and paid for a couple more each and he said we could stay as long as we liked, just leave the glasses on the table when we left.  This friendliness was welcomed and we had a relaxing time before heading back to camp for soup, bread and tea.

20 June:
Up early today and broke camp after breakie. We rode out along the 6, through a new-ish tunnel and on to Dynjandi waterfall, it was big and most impressive, but loads of tourists.
then we continued direction of Patreksfjörthur, about 40 km before our destination we happened upon a hot pot and swimming pool at the side of the road, not far from the intersection where I'd dropped my bike the last time I was here. What a find. A free pool and natural hot pot just off the road.  There were a few other people when we arrived but it was in no-way over-run with tourists. A true gem! Although, we'd not been on the road long, we decided to stop and make the most of it. We enjoyed a soak in the hot pot and a bit of a swim for around an hour, then got changed and had some sandwiches at the side of the pool. after lunch Scott thought he'd explore a few of the smaller buildings not far from the pool, he was soon set-upon by the local birds and came hurrying back. After packing up, we continued on our way to Patreksfjörthur, did some shopping, and along the south coast of the West Fjords.  Past the Ferry to Snaefellsness, and onto the 60 down to Laugar, campsite.  There weren't much in the way of facilities, but there was a hot pot, the pool (and showers) had closed at 1800 hours, much to our disappointment, it was 1930 hours.  We had a soak in the hot pot and met 3 travellers, two guys from France and a Romanian Girl. We talked about many things, including travel and the Romanian told us about the Transalpina in Romania, a road that we should ride. Up to that point Romania wasn't on our itinerary, that quickly changed.
We had a few beers in the hot pot, then with our dinner and bed.

The hot pots near Myvatn

Krafla

no Jolasveinar- just us lads

They really don't like breakdancing

After a long ride - a cold beer - in a fjord - overlooking a golf course 

Enough snow for everyone

15 June : Icelandia - the intro

15 June:
The temperature overnight dropped to about (felt lower) 0 degrees.  It was Bloody cold, but not unexpected. Möthrudalur was in a valley, but the valley was so wide that it seemed more like a plateau. A plateau that the wind ripped through and dropped the temperature by several degrees due to the wind-chill.
We were up early and found a light dusting of snow.  We cooked breakie in the "underground" kitchen.  When I say underground, it was definitely sunken, the upper half and roof were in-fact above ground. But it was somewhat warmer than being outside. Here we met snowflake, the resident cat. Who I'm sure was only there for the warmth and left-overs, not for our companionship. I also came upon a baby goat who befriended me on my way to the kitchen, he was after one thing an done thing only - the rubbish. I quickly had to shoo him (her?) away from the rubbish and out of the kitchen. Nice try goat.
We cooked porridge and packed away our gear.  Our wet clothes that we had hung in the Laundry the evening before were mostly dry and that cheered us up.
Hitting the road around 0900 hours we took the 1 west to the 85. According to all the information we had at hand, we fully expected the 85 to be a gravel road. In recent years many of the roads in Iceland have been upgraded and it was now asphalt, awesome!  We made good time and arrived at Vopnafjörthur by about 1030 hours and began our wait for Inigo and Ollie. They had planned to take the 917, gravel, but were blocked by gale-force winds and about 20cm snow at the pass (less 40 km away).  They had to turn around, make their way back to the 1 and up the 85.  They arrived around 1330 hours.  The cafe in Vopnafjörthur only opened at 1100 hours but we were lucky enough to have a supermarket next door to wait in, with free coffee (good for me, no tea for Scott).  After 1100 hours we made our way over to the Cafe, had tea and coffee, made good use of the Pizza buffet and watched football till the others arrived. After their arrival and a joyous re-union we ate, drank and hit the road after re-fueling.
On to Thorshöfn. Ollie, Scott and I stopped at the campsite and Inigo continued onto his hotel in Langanes and visited the Lighthouse at Fontur. In the evening, Ollie cooked for us, we drank together, talked and listened to music together till late.
16 June:
Next morning, we had agreed to meet up at 0900 hours and hit the road around 0930 hours after breakie with Ollie.  We met a french backpacker (hitchhiker - Serge) the previous night at the campsite and Ollie invited him to join us.  Now we were 5. We hit the road and headed in the direction of Raufarhöfn via the 874. When we arrived we had a coffee at the Cafe, then headed up to the Lighthouse and across to a (modern) monument. Then onto Kopasker. Here we tried to re-fuel but discovered the system was down, so we headed south onto Asbyrgi where we fuelled up and checked out the horse-shoe shaped depression/canyon near the campsite where Ollie and Serge were to spend the night. Given the canyon’s horseshoe shape, legend has it that Odin’s eight-legged steed, Sleipnir, placed one of his feet on the ground here, leaving a deep imprint on the earth, as it sprinted across the sky.
Here we left Ollie and Serge and the three bikes continues South along the F862 to Dettifoss and Selfoss.  The road was mostly gravel but in good condition, single track which made passing cars in the opposite direction challenging, at one stage I hit the bank at the side of the track, no damage, no falls.  Although, I was starting to question our wisdom when the rains came.  It took us about an hour to reach Dettifoss, a distance of around 36 km.
I'd been here previously but was just as impressive as I'd remembered.
From the falls we continued South (on Asphalt) to the 1 and west to Myvatn. We stopped briefly at the hot pots (Namafjall) where we will meet with Ollie & Inigo tomorrow at 1100 hours. Scott and I continued up the 87 (North from Myvatn) to our campsite which is approx. 20 km South of Husavik.  Inigo continued onto his hotel in Laugar.  The camp was in Heitharbaer, in a valley, not overly-exposed, green, sunny with a pool and hot tub.  We set-up camp, headed into the restaurant and had a burger/sub reindeer (of course) and a couple of beers.  While the football was on the beers were cheap(er) so we had a few. Then we hit the pool and hot tub, did our washing. Coincidentally, we met a german (Saarbrücken) couple from the ferry  along with Herman (Dr.).  It is indeed a small island.

valley, what valley?

there was snow, Scott was excited

waiting for the guys

breakdance at your own risk 

night two, or was it morning?

time got away

Unfortunately while on the road,
We often found that we didn't have reliable, if any, internet connections and decided to leave the blog till we got back to Australia.
Apologies to those who were waiting for an update...

I found that experiencing the journey was better time spent than documenting it!

Entering Iceland

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

attendant if she could call them for me and find out why...

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.

Week two

7th June: We went swimming in Freibad, Barenburg. After finalising monies with Michi. 

We loved the outdoor-heated pool. Complete with slide and springboards. Also grabbed a hamburger from the kiosk for lunch.  A couple of hours and we had cooled off enough to jump on the bikes for a run. We took the Bundesstraßen to the rehab clinic near Hildeshelm to visit Heino who had recently had a knee replacement. He seemed to be doing pretty good, walking around without crutches & enjoyed the visit from us three. He even remembered me, don’t know why?

Then we came back on the autobahns and got up to tour speeds 150-170 kmh. 

It’s reasonable to expect that this is the sort of speed we will need once we are attempting the GN-72. 

We rode approximately 350 km and are averaging around 5-6 l/100km. Not too shabby. 

It was a good test. Unfortunately, I lost the spark plug cover from the rhs of my bike. I’d only replaced it the day before. I may have to “find” one on my trip. 

In the evening Michi set up the BBQ and the whole family ate together. Then we sat around drinking & chatting till about 23:00. 

8th June: we headed into sulingen and had breakie at the cafe where Michi usually gets our bread rolls for breakfast. Then food shopping for our trip, the beginning anyway. We also got a couple of bottles of the hard stuff, Laphroaig and some Bismarck. Beer is too heavy to carry with and takes up too much space. 

After we popped into Heike’s work to show her boss Scott’s Apple Watch. He was super interested but the staff at the store couldn’t answer his questions. It seems we are a fountain of worldly knowledge. 

In the afternoon, we once again headed to be pool. The weather has been pretty hot and humid, once we spent a couple of hours there & cooleddown we all felt refreshed. 

Friday evenings are reserved for “Clubabend” where the members of Samhain MC get together and have a few beers and hang out & chat. It’s awesome how they accept and involve us in their day-to-day. There were around 12 of us, after that we headed ack to Michi’s and kept on drinking/chatting till about 0130. 

9th June:  in the morning we headed into Sulingen and had a stroll around the stadtsee. A place Michi used to hang around when he and Heike were younger. It was quite overgrown and not as nice as he’d remembered. But still, it was nice to get outside and stretch the legs for a bit. After that we popped into Lloyds, the biggest employer in the region. They are a well known shoe brand “with the red stripe” under the heel. Attached to the factory is an outlet shop and people come from all over to but the “discounted” shoes. Bloody expensive it you ask me. 

On the way back we visited Heinrich (club member) to borrow a stool for Scott and have a beer & catch up. He & Tina, I remember fondly. 

After that we got our stuff and headed to the freibad to cool off, it was about 35 degrees or so. 

I had a riesencurrywurst. It was big and covered in curry sauce, I was happy. 

At the pool, the lifeguard came up to me and announced that : ich will nicht pingelig sein aber du solltest Badehosen an haben. I don’t want to be picky, but you should really have swimmers on. I told him that I did, he didn’t believe me and asked to feel them. I offered, He did, then everything was ok ;-)

In the evening we joined many bikes to ride in convoy to Hahn Auf Hoya, motorcycle club party. Just under 100 bikes. Some of the way they stopped the traffic so we could ride through. We did about 30-40 km in convoy. And upon arrival we were once again greeted by a biker bearing schnapps. 

This evening we met another Australian, nickname Ozzy. Appropriate!

And his real name Bruce!  Cracked us up!

We left the after a few hours, 6 bikes. 

Back home we stood around talking till around 0130, Dennis, Maulwurf, the Drohn’s and us. 

It was a good send off. 

10th June:  bit of a sleep-in. Breakie together, clothes washing, packed the bikes, unpacked the bikes, re-packed the bikes, relaxed, planned the route for tomorrow. 

Everything is “ready for take-off”

Tomorrow morning we shall leave Germany and head up to northern Denmark and meet up with Øssur. 

Week one

We arrived at Amsterdam airport without any hiccups.
Customs and immigration took over an hour for me, there had been weather delays and all e planes landed at once. Annoying but not the end of the world.
But from Amsterdam to Bremen proved to be not as smooth as we expected.
Scott’s flight was delayed, I’d expected him to arrive In Bremen and be waiting for me at the train station. I, on the other hand took the train, but my connection from Osnabrück was also delayed by 45 mins and changed to the regio-barn. Also arriving later than expected. Upon arrival, I quickly found Michi & tried calling Scott to find out where he was. We quickly discovered that our Australian phones had no connection. Luckily Scott had WiFi connection and was able to email michi and we eventually picked him up, better late than never.

The train ride from Amsterdam into Germany was when I actually felt that I’d arrived in Europe, everything was so green. Fields, farmlands, autobahns. I was happy.

After picking us up we headed for Schwaförden and it just happened to be Denis’ birthday. A quick introduction for Scott to German culture & beer. Then it off to bed.

Day two: we got to meet the bikes, woo-hoo. Both exceeded my expectations. We had a bit of a test then it was off to a couple of biker-parties. First, rolling wheels. Lots of new friends, new people, new places. Scott’s first time riding in a small group, we were around 8 bikes, Or so (plus one car)
Then off to another party where the flavour of the day was burnouts,  Germans being German had a fenced off area where they took their bikes for their burnouts, just across from the beer tent.  Safety first. Then home for a well earned sleep.

Day three, 2nd June: a bit of work on the bikes then in the afternoon met again at the clubhouse and headed off to the Abominogs MC. This time, camping. We were 15 bikes + car.

The ride took about 2 hours, a quick stop for fischbrötchen. Scots first real taste of German fast-food.
Around the club the land was all moors, soft, springy, easy for bikes to sink into and fall over, left or right. We all came armed with planks of wood to place under the stand. No bikes fell over. As we were new, we rode up the front of the group. But upon arrival to the club, fell to the back. We were greeted at the gate by a hairy biker with a smile, handshake and a shot. Scott asked if it were obligatory, I advised not to offend, he partook. Then we set up tents, and went to the party.
As were a group, the prospects were sent to get the Bons and were responsible for keeping us supplied with beer. There was also food and live band, AC/DC cover band from Berlin. It was a great night.
Next day we packed up & rode home to Schwaförden.
Before we left for the Abominogs MC party, Scott managed to drop his bike at the petrol station, I eventually wanted to teach him how to pick up the bike but this was neither the place nor time for lessons. Jonah and I righted the bike, the engine bars had already paid for themselves.

4th June: late start, breakfast together, then off to Bremen. We visited both polo & Louis, Scott needed a tank bag, rain suit, kidney belt and gel pad for his seat. I got a new visor for my helmet which had a couple of scratches. We also ordered our cooking gas. In the evening we had dinner together, spaghetti Bol. In the evening I spoke with Øssur in Denmark about popping in for a visit on the way to the ferry, this way we get to sample danish hospitality and break up the ride to the ferry

5th June: late start again, after fruhstuck we fitted the usb charging points to the bikes, a power switch to my gps, the cable fitted was direct to the battery, fit the seat cushions, and grip puppies. Later that day, we rode with Mucke to inspect an R1100RT, unfortunately the ABS was malfunctioning. So, no bike for Mucke, then a beer at Dümmersee. Was a lovely, all be it shallow, lake.

6th June: after fruhstuck we headed to Samhain MC and practiced picking up the bike if/when dropped. Both sides. Also a bit of slow riding around the field, tested hard breaking with ABS, without ABS and rear. We then finalised all the paperwork for the bikes. In the afternoon Scott & I headed out to pick up a part for my bike and did a bit of sightseeing, checked out the massive wind generators which stand all around this area.

Tomorrow, more of the same