A couple of months ago, my wife and I rented a BMW F650GS and a Triumph Tiger 800 and spent two weeks riding around Iceland. Here are a couple of entries from our photojournal. More pictures and writeups at: Aug 13 2011: Vikings in Reykjavik

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Tue Aug 23 2011: Ice? In Iceland?!?


We only covered about 600 kms the last couple of days, from Seydisfjordur, through Hofn then onto Vik. Most of it in the rain. Note the Vatnajokull glacier that our route passes by. We spent most of today riding up to a few of the tendrils that reach the road and the water.

This is the first time I've ever tried Gore-Tex riding pants - definitely not as good as a dedicated rainsuit. When you sit on wet Gore-Tex, the pressure squeezes all the water through the fabric onto your skin. 10 hours of soaking butt in 5C rain.


In the background you can see one of the tendrils running off Vatnajokull, the largest glacier in Iceland. If Vatnajokull is the size of a hand, the visible part from the ground is only about the size of a fingernail.


We stopped to view quite a spectacular sight at Jökulsárlón aka "Glacier Lagoon". This part of the Vatnajokull glacier gets pushed out into a lagoon where pieces of ice regularly break off and create icebergs. These pieces are huge, only 10% is visible, the rest is underwater. They slowly melt and drift out of the harbour. We saw a piece break off while watching in awe.
You can see some dark banding on some of the icebergs. Normally they are pure white, but the big eruption last year threw ash all over the glacier, giving the icebergs here a marbled effect. Beautiful!


The largest icebergs must have been well over 60 feet high, and that's only the part that's above water!



On our way up to yet another one of the glaciers that runs off Vatnajokull. There are tons of them all along the south shore of Iceland. You can see another one off to the left.

After hiking around we find a secluded mini glacier lagoon all to ourselves. Great view of Vatnajokull up ahead. The leading edge of the glacier (terminus) has a very "Fortress of Solitude" look to it.

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This blog and more are continued at Aug 13 2011: Vikings in Reykjavik

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

My wife and I were there last year and we ARE going back, we only had a rental car but loved it totally, we want to head back and take two months to do the inside as well but this time on adv bikes.

Beautiful photos, we have almost the same shots.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... twomotokiwis.com Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Great pics. Iceland is on my list of places to ride. Your pictures certainly reinforce the desire to move it up the list. Thanks for sharing.

Great ride report

I was over there a few years ago on a similar motorcycle trip. no better place
to explore on the back of a motorcycle.

I look forward to making a return trip some day

ride4adventure

Love the website, very nicely put together! Great to see the places one can go and ride in a short space of time like an annual vacation.

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Mike


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