Iceland

[lexicon39]

Hi I was thinking about a trip to Iceland next summer. The idea is to travel fast and light so I'll be taking my KLX250! Transalp would be to heavy for some bits I think. Anyone else been up there? Where did you go? what was good and what to avoid? How good/bad are the roads? I'm a seasoned camper so that bit is sorted but would like advice on everything else. Photos and advice would be great. Cheers

[Austin]

I would be interested to know your travel plans for getting there and back. Last time I looked into this the ferries took ages and flights were too expensive.

[deskjetian]

Have a look at this guys blog, about half way down you'll find his entries for Iceland. Might be something useful in there.
Corky's Adventure

Ian.

[zbzrzuzczez]

any news? pictures from the trip?

i am very interested in going round the island maybe next year.

[dysan]

I've not been, but looked into it. The ferries are pretty expensive and I think it 2 days from Scotland.

24hr light in the summer. In terms of terrain I pretty sure its all gravel tracks, the only hard bits being the river crossings. I'm pretty sure its illegal to get off road(track) in Iceland.

I don't know if these glacier 4x4 get special permission or something.

[leno]

I was on Iceland two weeks in summer 2008 and I and my brother are going for two weeks again within ten days.
You can find a lot of information about both trips via my site www.delkertz.se. Unfortunately all information is in Swedish but have a look at the pictures.

For the trip this year the planed route could be found on Google Map (Iceland 2010, Second Edition - Google Maps), link via my site as well.
During the trip we will post inlays to the page via sms. An integration with Google Map and Twitter make it possible to publish maps over the area we currently visit with just sending the coordinate via sms to Twitter.
I am riding a modified Africa Twin and my brother rides a Suzuki Dr 650 SE. With all tanks filled up we carries 73 litre of gasoline and hopefully this give us a range of 450 km.

It is strictly forbidden to drive off-road but if you choose the smaller roads (f-road) or tracks there will be no need for driving off-road.

/robin

[marc]

Good luck, take lots of money you'll need it. I have to travel there for work. Enjoy!

[zbzrzuzczez]

leno, how did u come up with the route? google map does not show any roads also what are the fuel prices and the situation of petrol stations (working hours etc)? finally, will u be camping, or staying locally? is it allowed to camp in anywhere, or is it forbidden as offroad riding as well?
hope not too much questions

I am thinking of going around the iceland south side on route1 and noth and west part on smaller roads. it should be around 1500 miles, which I think is doable in a week between ferries

[leno]

I bought and read the book Iceland overland by Jakob, can´t find any ISBN right now but you find some posts on forums regarding the book. Quite good but I know the most of the stuff already and for me the most interesting information in the book was the description of the routes.


The map used come from http://www.ourfootprints.de/gps/mapsource-island_e.html. The map could be used on computers (mapSource) and Garmin GPS units (most of them) and are well updated and surprisingly accurate. But as always regarding GPS, don’t trust them blindly.

Take a look at www.openstreetmap.org, in some ways better than Google maps.

The most fuel stations are pointed out on that map as well, some station may have disappeared and others are not pointed out. Prices could be found at this page: http://gsmbensin.is/gsmbensin_web.php
Other useful information about road maintenance or if they are closed could be found on this page: http://www.vegagerdin.is/english/road-conditions-and-weather/the-entire-country/island1e.html; currently no roads seems to be closed. I talk to Eyþór Örlygsson from Biking Viking and he said that if you get caught while driving on a closed road the fines is up to 1300GBP!


I think that you are not allowed to camp enywhere but everyone does and all of them I talked to said that it is okey. If you don’t put up your tent at someone’s backyard no one will get upset and there are plenty of free spaces on Iceland.


We plan to stay some nights on camping grounds, close to some pub and for the reason to leave our luggage and make a day trip. Our experience from camping sites on Iceland is mixed, some good some bad, sometimes no warm water (not even if you pay) and the ground doesn’t differs from the rest, rocks and sand. In these cases I think you pay for nothing, but you get company, someone to talk to and it doesn’t cost so much either. Some camping sites have organised grass plots, free warm water in the showers and washing machines.

Driving on road 1 is doable on all kinds of bikes; at some places you find gravel on this road but mostly good asphalt. Just about two hours from Egilstadir there is a very nice plays to stay, Laugarvellir. Here you find a very nice hot spot (to hot) but after 100 meter from there you find a waterfall. The temperature here is perfect and one step away you find a small ice cold glacier river to cool you beer or yourself. It is not allowed to camp here (according to unreadable sign) but many do.
We stayed here our first and last day on Iceland 2008 and we will stay here out first night this time as well.




Regards

Robin

[zbzrzuzczez]

thanks for the info. i use google maps with a free route making software