July 30, 2020
Day 12 - Catching the bus back to the capital
Hörgsland (to Kirkjubæjarklaustur) to Reykjavik
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Day 12 - Hörgsland (to Kirkjubæjarklaustur) to Reykjavik - 8 miles
The noisy families disappeared inside their caravans at 11pm... and then emerged back from them at 2am, laughing and drinking. Self-centered morons.
Prolonged drizzle in the morning unfortunately meant packing away a soggy tent once I'd had my lie in. My Thermarest sleeping pad has started to develop spots of mould/mildew which is very disconcerting considering that it only got slightly damp on one day, and I'm expecting this thing to last a long time.
Kirkjubæjarklaustur (I've looked up the pronunciation multiple times but still can't remember this one) was only 5 miles away but I still had 2 hours to kill, so sat myself down in the petrol station restaurant with a big bottle of coke. The smell of food was too tempting to resist so I got a hot dog and a giant bowl of fries which were suprisingly cheap. Once the stream of guided tour coach parties had cleared, a nice family from the Netherlands came over to ask some questions and we got talking about Iceland and my trip. Flawless English once again, but you come to expect that from the Dutch.
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The bus was right on time and as it pulled into the car park, my fears were confirmed- instead of an interior storage spot or trailer, there was just a rack on the back to attach my bike to, with a single rubber strap to go around the top tube. Grumpy Bus Driver #1 got off the bus but clearly had no interest of showing me what to do with the rack at all and stood around with a sarcastic-looking expression on his face. I thought I must be missing something because the bottom of the bike was free to bounce around, landing on the pedal cranks every time. But no, that was design as intended and I got told to hurry up because I couldn't carry my 5 bike bags in 1 go. Journey underway, every bump and sharp turn made me wince thinking about the bike, and there were plenty of bumps and sharp turns on the ringroad. What a way to end my trip that would be- prized tourer flying off the back of a speeding bus. I wouldn't want to be a bus driver here, the road lane seems barely wide enough for it. Soon we arrived to pick up some soaking wet backpackers at Skógar and the mighty namesake waterfall was poking out from around the cliff face. It looked very impressive and all I wanted to do in that moment was get off to take some pictures; but that's a sacrifice I had to make to spent a day in Reykjavik.
We all had to change buses at Hvolsvöllur for some reason, and when the next bus arrived, there was some commotion outside with a pickup truck. I don't really know what happened, but I assumed the truck grazed into the side of the bus considering that the police arrived to mediate things after a 30 minute delay. Another cyclist got picked up here, an older chap from Norway, but we weren't able to make each other understood very well. At least his bike was now on top of the rack so mine wouldn't be the one falling off! This one was driven by Grumpy Bus Driver #2, and his mood got more and more foul as we got to the outskirts of Reykjavik to the point where he was cutting up other motorists who had 'wronged him' and was making visible angry gesticulations at them!
In the end the bike turned out to be ok, and I cycled the 3 miles of mazy residential streets to the campsite. It's a huge grassy space for tents, but was only at a fraction of capacity because of Covid season. There were numerous other cyclists, and being the only campsite for miles, I guess this is the natural place to congregate at the start or end of a tour. After pitching up, I discovered there was a Dominos within 400m of the campsite so decided to treat myself and order one. Without thinking or double-checking, I assumed it would have the same 50% off deal for collection like at Akureyri. Huge mistake and it was only when I came to swiping my card for payment that I realised I owed the ridiculous full £15 price. Eating the pizza in my tent with my souvenir beer while catching up on Rick & Morty episodes was cozy, but oof, each slice was a painful reminder of how much I'd paid!
Today's ride: 8 miles (13 km)
Total: 708 miles (1,139 km)
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