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The first Monday of August is a public holiday in Iceland and it seems that the whole of Reykjavik is in Egilsstadir this weekend.

I spent the morning in the Supermarket buying all the food for the journey and by the checkout found two suitably sized cardboard boxes in which to pack it all in that fit one in each of the two panniers on the bike. This all delayed me until midday when the sky suddenly clouded over and it started raining really hard. Perhaps, the English cyclist I met yesterday jinx things talking about how exceptionally good the weather has been. I didn't like to think how wet and miserable it would be in the interior a day like today. The other worry was with all the food  I had bought for the trip, my bike now weight a ton. How long would I be riding up the road until a second spoke went pop under all the extra weight and stress. I continued to sit in the supermarket looking out at the rain, hoping it would soon stop. In the car park  outside, families from the city were parking with children  and adults running for shelter of the supermarket.  Screaming  small children with no worries was the last thing I needed right now.

For about two hours I waited, but still it rained, so in the end I set off in it, turning right leaving town onto the Ring Road heading  toward Akureyri. It felt extremely cold in the wind which was howling up the valley and before I had gone 500 metres, I decided it was better to go back  to the warmth and comfort of the supermarket cafe, so that's what did; waiting for another half hour when the rain had eased off.  The second time I set off approaching 3, I got a few kilometres up the road  before the sky darkened and the rain came on again. I pushed on determined not to be defeated  for 4  wet afternoon hours where at times it looked to be clearing up  ahead, only to darken and  rain afresh. 

Eventually, 44 km up Jokuldalur (valley) from Egilsstadir, with cloud low down the mountains ahead and the rain getting heavier, it was time to hunker down and find a place to pitch the tent, which I did in a layby. I was wet through to the skin and it felt good to get into my thick warm Artic sleeping bag to warm up. I had already got the boxes of food into the tent along with the other things I would need overnight, so I wouldn't have to move, just get comfortable.

After a while I unzipped the sleeping bag sat up and cooked supper. The rumble of rain on the tent petered out and I unzipped the tent to have a look outside seeing a bright colourful rainbow arching across the valley with slate grey sky backdrop. I managed to take a photo just as the rain came on again.