Riding in the Fjallabak, Iceland, 2007

Friday & Saturday: Jeep safari and the Blue Lagoon

No riding for me on these final two days so the rest of the trip I was more like your usual Iceland tourist and it was a great way to end the trip despite the lack of 'on bike' action. Due to my knee giving me so much aggravation on Thursday, it was clearly pointless to try and ride on the Friday as it would be very painful and would only hold everyone up all day so I was to sit in the 'jeep of shame' with Helga and help her out running errands. Doesn't sound very exciting but as we needed to go ahead to a rest stop and leave food for the riders and also head off to the nearest off licence and buy booze for the final nights party I would get to see a lot of Iceland quite quickly.

The glacial tongue near to our log cabin. The 'v' shape cut into the rock is where the ice was around five years ago, but it has shrunk back to it's current position due to global warming.

We headed out into the middle of nowhere to drop off brews and food at a cabin which involved about a half dozen river crossings there and back including a huge crossing close to where we would be staying for our final night. This was easily the biggest crossing we had done on the entire trip and was about thirty metres wide and maybe four feet deep. The jeep handled it no problems but it felt very strange being surrounded by water in a raging river and feeling the jeep drifting sideways occasionally. The nearest off license ended up being two hours away so once again I got to see plenty of countryside. On the way back we heard on the walky talky that Leslie was feeling pretty burnt out so we picked her up on the way past the riders as they were making their way back to our log cabin. They were a good three hours out still and they looked knackered so I didn't miss the bike at all at this point! We stopped by a glacial tongue on the way back to the log cabin and took some photos and then we all got another trip across the huge river crossing. It seemed even better the second time around!

Our lodgings for the evening. I spent half an hour checking but Ranger Smith and Yogi Bear couldn't be found.

That evening when everyone returned we heard all about the days riding and it sounded like I missed a great days riding, in conditions which were later described as absolutely brutal. It included a decent section of Icelandic singletrack (finally!) as well as a traverse down a small cliff face with ropes and bikes and then when they got to the huge river crossing they had to hang around for half an hour for a local farmer to ferry them all across on his tractor, exciting stuff for Iceland! During the story telling we proceeded to get rather drunk but not as drunk as Mark who started rambling to himself at the table and calling people Rumplestiltskin...he collapsed shortly later. We found some less than clean knickers in the log cabin and in flinging them across the room at Mark who was passed out on his bed, they landed on his face making him look like some sort of deranged bank robber...leg holes acting as perfect eye holes to see out of. Hilarious!

Group photo: Deborah, Niels (guide), Alan, Aaron, Cath, Leslie, Me, James. Crouching down at the front is Helga (driver).

The following day (Saturday) we packed up our kit and took another team photo outside the log cabin. As we were waiting for everyone to pack their stuff into the vans I read a notice on the log cabin door asking if anyone had seen any sign of two ice climbers who had not been seen for two days and who had been staying at the cabin. On returning to the UK I did a little research and unfortunately I discovered on an Icelandic nature reserve website that one of the climbers had gotten into difficulties and despite their best efforts to rescue them their bodies had been found in the bottom of a crevace on the glacier they were climbing.

Once packed, we then headed off to a nearby waterfall where we took more photos and got to walk behind it. Mark even jumped on a rock which, if you had the bottle and the waterproofs, was apparently like a natural shower. I have to say it looked like he got beaten to a pulp as the torrent landing on his head was probably a few feet in diameter and it was dropping at least a hundred feet. I think he ended up sending the photo showing him standing under it to the manufacturers of his waterproofs he was so impressed with them not leaking and giving him a soaking.

Another massive waterfall. Mark would shortly stand directly under part of it!

Mark about to test out just how good Goretext actually is.

I gave the waterfall a Jim'll Fix It double thumbs up.

Mark pushing the boundaries on his Goretex. "If you die horribly can I have your bike" etc.

This is what he stood under, rather you than me mate!

Me, posing by the waterfall.

Back to the vans and on to the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal health spa about 45 kilometres from Reykjavik. On the approach to the Blue Lagoon you got the impression that you were actually arriving at a huge industrial plant but a small side road lead you away from the plant and a secluded area covered in tree in which the spa itself was located. This seems like a strange place to have the spa but the water in the lagoon was pretty much the by-product from the plant, basically 4 million litres of geothermal seawater that is replaced every 40 hours. We went in and got changed and then headed into the room where you enter the lagoon and then headed outdoors via one of the caves. When you are outdoors it is like being in the biggest swimming pool you have ever seen. Dotted around the edge of the lagoon were showers, steam rooms, saunas and huge buckets of grey slime which was apparently good for the skin so we stuck on loads of war paint and went for a swim. The lagoon was an amazing place to relax after a weeks riding in the Fjallabak, they even had a couple who appeared to be having sex in a remote part of the lagoon, although I'm not sure they were mentioned in the brochure but they got some very disapproving looks from the lifeguards, who to be fair, did nothing about it.

So that was the end of another trip. We found out after our trip that our guides, who were excellent, were more walking guides than mountain biking so that might explain the relatively tame trails. The cycling may have been fairly tame, but the conditions were extremely challenging. The country itself is amazing and especially as there are now more established singletrack trails in Iceland according to the leading mountain biking magazines. Iceland should definitely be on your 'to do' list.

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