Hi Pwyll,

Great to hear from you. The day I met you was the hardest of all, the last few Ks up to Hvollsvollur were tough and I ate most of the menu at the cafe when I arrived there exhausted(I was alone at the campsite and it was free).....!

After that it was an easy day back to Selfoss where I met and travelled with an adventurous and very fit french girl Morganne to Vestmanneayjar for a couple of days aswell as meeting up with a french doctor Jean Noel who was also cycling and had been 'alone' on the road for a while. It was great to have good company after a few days on the road and good to have a few photos with people in them!

After Vestmannaeyjar and the very rough ferry crossing it was an enjoyable ride around the Golden Circle. Camping at the empty Geysir campsite(again free) and Pingvellir before returning via Hvalfjordur to Reykjavik.

I cycled about 1000km's in Iceland most of which was very enjoyable but those headwinds are truly dreadful and soul destroying. The gravel roads were good on the whole but very dusty with traffic passing. The ringroad near Skogafoss was very dangerous in the 'Ash storms' which were blowing but there was very little traffic when I was there.

My sympathies are with Olafur Eggertson and his son Pall who I was very fortunate to spend some time with on their farm at the foot of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and along with other farmers in the area who are having a very tough time with the ash contamination aswell as the flooding caused by the volcano.

I cycled usually about 80 to 100km per day which was comfortable and allowed plenty of time for stopping to see the sights etc and I was able to speak a little 'bad' Icelandic which was always gratefully recieved with amazement by the icelanders I chatted with and led to numerous questions and even the odd discount or two.........!

My regrets are that I didn't have enough time in Iceland and also that because of pevious motorcycle tours there the concept of distance takes a lot more understanding when cycling a heavily laden touring bike. What would easily be ridden in an hour on my motorbike could easily take more than a day cycling against a headwind. I'm also not quite so young as I was and most of my cycling in the past was either racing, time trialling or ultra marathon on very lightweight cycles which make my thorn look like a heavily laden carthorse by comparison although utterly dependable non the less.

I thoroughly enjoyed my cycling trip in Iceland aswell as meeting many Icelanders and fellow travellers but on my return home boy did I enjoy firing up my Buell Ulysses and riding 100km into a stiff headwind in less than an hour before returning home with a large grin on my face(i'm planning my next cycle/motorbike trip although i'm not sure which it'll be next time)

Chris.