Stage 1: Keflavík - Reykjavík

It is in the first 35 kms from the airport to Reykjavik that I wonder what I’m doing here. It is 8 degrees, there is a fog, my cycle computer just went dead and I’m biking over a busy straight road through an extremely boring flat and gray lava field. Trust me, I’m used to the Dutch polders so I know what boring is.

View on Vógar (middle) and Innri-Njarðvík (far right)

It was already 5 o’clock when my plane landed but since I have a domestic flight from Reykjavik next day I have no choice but going there right now. After 35 kms there is a change of scene, announced by the not too pretty aluminum mill; the first suburbs of Reykjavik appear. Somehow they managed here to smear out a lousy 200,000 people over more than 100 square kilometers so for the next 15 kilometers I have to go through city traffic. That wouldn’t be too bad if the locals wouldn’t have driving habits that are far worse than in most Mediterranean countries. The last 9 kilometers are actually over a motorway but nobody seems to bother that I’m going there by bike; not that I know any alternative route if someone would indeed bother.
After Hafnarfjörður there are three nasty climbs; not very high, but dead straight and long while city traffic is passing at speeds over 100 kph. At the last traffic lights before the road reaches the North side of the Reykjavík’s peninsula there is a small sign telling me to go to the right for the camping site. And indeed, it is there, in a quiet suburb. It is very quiet at the camping site; only 5 or 6 other tents are there; most of them from people on the return of their holiday while I have still to start. With a small mixed group of some Germans, two Dutchmen and a Swiss cyclist we spend the evening chatting with a couple of bottles of tea and Icelandic vodka.

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