This was the longest day of our trip. It would be just above 430Kms in length but about 50% would be gravel and thus we had to decrease speed significantly.
It was also for me the best day of riding of our Iceland tour. The diversity of terrain was amazing and the ride on gravel took us to places that not many people go so we could partake of the wonderful scenery of Iceland as it was put together just for us ...
As usual we fueled up for breakfast.
Our first part was a quick ride to Þingeyri. We had to go through the tunnel to leave Isafjordur and the ride promised ...
The cold waters of Iceland are ideal for seals but we had only seen one in the Jokulsarlon lagoon. Just before we got to Þingeyri, as we come around a corner I saw something moving in the water with birds flying overhead. It turned out to be a seal that had just got an Artic tern bird and the others were trying to attack the seal. We took many pictures and videos as this creature just decided to pose for us.
The road conditions change dramatically after Þingeyri. It was our first high pass and it would be all done in gravel. It was a fantastic ride that took us nearly two hours with a stop on the way.
As we came around a corner we could see far in the distance one of the highlight of today: the waterfall Dynjandi.
We decided to stop on the side of the road and just enjoy seeing this beautiful sight from a distance.
Dynjandi is actually a collection of 5 waterfalls, and we took our time to explore! It’s possible to climb all the way up, along a small track, to get close to all 5 falls.
One of the most amazing birds we have encountered in our tour is the Artic Tern. They have no fear and if they feel threatened they retaliate and attack. In this case we were taking pictures of the beautiful yellow flowers and as usual they dived to protect.
Time was moving on and we still had a long way to go, so we left this wonderful place (one of our top ones in Iceland) and made our way towards Búðardalur. More riding close to snow and ice.
As we passed Brattabrekka pass, we were happy to see that road changed from gravel to asphalt. We were also very hungry and stopped for lunch.
Here we met other bikers that had come from the passes and were very impressed with riding and we agreed that Iceland is one of the best places to ride a bike ...
Then we rode along the the southern coast of the West Fjord area. It’s a remote area, but there are lovely views of bays and the impressive mountains.
The bike started to show that it needed oil so we stopped to put oil (which I carry all the time on the bike) and took opportunity to put in some calories. Creme Brûlée ice cream. Very nice !
This was also a very popular camping spot ...
The next part of the ride was specially beautiful. The color of the water, the ice-peaked mountains in the distance and the winding road was amazing ...
We then turned west as we entered the Snaefellsnes peninsula and had nearly a 90 minute ride on gravel. The scenery changed yet again ...
There were two ways to get to the Snaefflsnes peninsula from the Westfjords, one is riding like we did and the other is by ferry that stops in a very picturesque town called Stykkishólmur. We decided to go to Stykkishólmur and see if the ferry had arrived yet. Interesting enough the ferry was just arriving as we got to the town.
The scenery is too beautiful too explain. Here are some pics to give a small glimpse ...
We were about 50kms from our accommodation for the night in Olafsvik and thought there was not much else to see on the way but in good Icelandic way, we got a surprise as the time was getting late and the sun starting setting and the whole scenery changed to something amazed. The midnight sun !
Posted with Blogsy