Iceland with a gym-damaged knee
Jill Lundmark cycles 589 km (366 miles) over 71 days
I read everything I could find about cycling in Iceland especially the excellent notes written by Iviehoff and the tours on crazyguyonabike. I noticed at work at a secondary school I was often dressed in two layers of merino plus a jacket while the students went about bare armed so I knew the cold was going to be a challenge for me. Accordingly I packed four layers of merino tops, merino long underware, thin black stocking tights, light fawn trousers that you could even wash in situ and they would dry fast plus waterproof trousers and a pair of knicks. In addition I had a woolly beanie, a balaclava, a skiing face mask, a scarf, two pairs of cycling gloves and another more waterproof pair plus two pairs of merino socks and sturdy shoes as well as my cycling shoes.
I threw in some Japanese hand warmers that had been lying around at home for years as I had never used them. I also had a very good Ground Effect waterproof jacket.
For this trip I was determined to carry only two Ortlieb back panniers plus an Ortlieb barbag and a Kathmandu dry bag in which to put the tent. I had booked my flight on Thai Air as with them I did not need to box or bag the bike and it would travel free providing it was below the maximum weight allowed. I’d chosen to fly to Frankfurt due to the German policy of bikes on trains. From Frankfurt Iceland Express required the bike to be in either a box or pastic bag so I had bought a large heavy quality mattress bag which I intended to wheel the bike into.
My research also alerted me to the extremely high prices in Iceland and that you were allowed to bring three kilos of food in. So I prepared three kilos of my home made muesli that I reckoned would do me for any meal and my favourite blend of coffee that I could make by straining water through a small sieve containing it.
I also planned to use my wonderful Sierra stove which worked on twigs. For insurance I threw in my little stove thinking that if there really were no trees then I could buy primus gas.
