eps - iceland on a bicycle for haiti

In June 2011, I set out to explore Iceland on a bicycle. I packed up my tatty Sun-frame bicycle and began a little solo-journey which took me 1876km around the island, following the Ringroad (and occasional dirt track detours). I started and ended the...

[icelandonabicycle]

[icelandonabicycle]

A lecture in Rome, Italy, will be the first fund-raiser of this academic year. For more events, click http://emilypaigeshortpioneerfund.org/fundraising-and-events-calendar.html

[icelandonabicycle]

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/geology/prospective-students/academic-funding-and-awards/emily-paige-short-pioneer-fund

[icelandonabicycle]

Fund set up to commemorate life of Emily Paige Short to assist those students who are taking studies beyond normal remit of their course.

[icelandonabicycle]

Bicimáquinas and every day life, Guatemala

[icelandonabicycle]

Dora Rinehart and her bicycle .... a fine match

[icelandonabicycle]

A beautiful video by World Bicycle Relief on how bicycles have have changed lives in Zambia. World Bicycle Relief provided over bicycles for over 60,000 individuals since their founding in 2005

[icelandonabicycle]

"In 1933 Horace Dall made an exrtraordinary crossing of the interior of Iceland, by (or with!) a bicycle, alone and unaided except for assistance by boat across the mighty Tungnna River. "

Follow his journey Here

[icelandonabicycle]

Journey completed!

My tatty map of Iceland ... I'm done with it now! Cycled in total : 1876km  Money raised for Haiti orphanage : £1,417. Thank you everyone for following the journey, for the donations, and for the moral support.  It has been truly one special adventure in one magical place.  Let us travel on bicycles everywhere (... and detour on the dirt tracks!) Inspire, and be inspired by others.  What a lovely tatty map this is. Full of stories :-)

[icelandonabicycle]

Day 45 

After an adventurous end to the journey biking downhill on a mountain slope, I set up camp for the last time in the Reykjavik area. Weather is on my side. From here, it is a gentle cruise towards the final leg of the tour : Keflavik Airport

[icelandonabicycle]

Watch Iceland's National DH Mountain Bike Champion Helgi Berg race down this mountain track last summer in Iceland during the national DH competition 5 of June 2010. 

I think the video speaks for itself!

[icelandonabicycle]

The kind fellow who rebuilt my back wheel at the beginning of the journey is in fact Iceland's National downhill mountain bike champion, though I had not quite realised this at the time I met him in the bicycle shop! 

Helgi Berg has been racing since 1993 and has been a recurrent national champion in Iceland in the past years. What does this mean? That he rides rough tracks and rides them well. 

He figures I should try the track he rode and won last week with a top time of 03:51, up in Skálafell, not far from Reykjavik. 

We drive to the ski lift, ride up to the top of the mountain, and 'cruise' down the mountain slope. 

Though it took me a few tumbles down the rocks, a number of moments of paralization in fright, one occasion of nearly causing another racer to crash, and almost cycling straight into a 1.5 meter deep ditch ... I made it down the mountain slope thanks to riding a top range mountain bike, designed specifically to ride on rocks the size of boulders and cobbles. The same track which he rode last week in 03 min. 51 sec, took me almost an hour to get through. And I was pretty shaken up by the end of it. 

But I could not have asked for a better end to what has been quite an adventure the past 7 weeks, alone here in Iceland, riding a bicycle packed with 25+ kilos of weight and averaging a not so adventurous speed of 14km per hour. 

I want a mountain bike now. Cycle touring is... infact, a little too quiet for me. 

Any dirt tracks around London? 

[icelandonabicycle]

Day 45 

I arrive to Reykjavik and continue cycling to Hafnarfjörður, where I meet a friend. The kind fellow who rebuilt my back wheel on Day 2 of the journey.

I finally get to try some local speciality!

Whale meat, butter, and bread. The meat was especially tender and not quite like any other meat I'd eaten before. 

[icelandonabicycle]

Day 44

The Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station boreholes. Some digging over 2km deep into the ground. The dome-like structures are big enough to feel like small houses. And through the round windows you can see the control room.

[icelandonabicycle]

Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station, SW Iceland

[icelandonabicycle]

Sticky lava rocks in Nesjavellir

[icelandonabicycle]

Lands of moss covered lavas in Nesjavellir, SW Iceland