Date: 25th July 2008

A day for some travel. It was a pretty easy day, we took our time. left Reyjavík heading for Skógar. When we went in this direction in 2006, we went via Seltún, emerging on Highway 1 at Hverageði after travelling on gravel road 42. This time we went directly on Highway 1.

We had good weather for the day. It was warm and pleasant. We stopped at Seljalandsfoss which is about 20km along the road from Hvolsvöllur. Seljalandsfoss is a waterfall, visible for miles along the road as a vertical streak on Stórhödði. There is a picnic area there, as well as public conveniences - and that’s it.

Seljalandsfoss is formed from the meltwaters of Eyjafjalljökull, the baby glacier of the Eyjafjalljökull, Mýrdalsjökull, Eyjafjalljökull, Vatnajökull trilogy. Vatnajökull being the big daddy of the glaciers, indeed, it’s so large that the various extremities of it often have their own names.

At Seljalandsfoss Monica and I walked behind the waterfall. The paths isn’t particularly hard, but it can be slipperly, and on a few occasions it can be steep (but it is ’stepped’). If you decide to do this, start by going to the right of the falls, it’s easier that way - and take a waterproof due to the fine spray.

Continuing on, we arrived at Skógar, we were staying at Hotel Skógar. It’s a nice little hotel - quite quiet. The trouble was that being all at ground level, occasionally someone walked past the window - we had a small kid looking in at one point. The same was true later in the week at the Northern Lights hotel, but people seemed less inclined there to walk around the hotel.

When we arrived, at about 4pm, I decided to unpack my bicycle and go for a ride. The bike went together with no problems at all. Open case. Lift out. Unfold. Remove fork spacer, put quick release on wheel. Attach wheel. Put in stem. Put in handlebars. Put in saddle. Pedals. Done. Then it came to pumping the tyres. Now, here I had problems. The pump I had brought with me chose this point to fail. It simply would not get a good seal around the valve. It was a non-starter - I could not ride. This was so frustrating. I had to pack everything up again.

So, what to do now? Well, Mum had gone for a walk up to Skógarfoss, so Monica and I went to find her, then suggested that we take a trip down to Vík. At Vík there are some superb black sand beaches. Around the corner is Dyrhólaey, where one can see puffins and nice rock formations (although we didn’t get there on this trip). As we got near to Vík the weather changed. It became very windy - and so this small excursion became nothing more than arriving at Vík, getting blown about on our way into the touristy wool shop there, and returning to the hotel (where the weather improved again). That’s the thing with Iceland, the weather can change quickly both with time and with geography.

In the evening, we ate at the hotel. It was rather expensive, though very nice. Other options (discovered the next day) included a cheap-end diner nearer Skógarfoss, which served things like the obligatory pizza, and a diner in Vík at the service station.

It has been announced that Sky Sports are the title sponsors of the London Freewheel in 2008. This is a devastating blow. Last year the sponsors were Hovis and we got free sandwiches. I’m not exactly going to get a free satellite dish out of it, am I?

The freewheel is a good event, is free, and takes place in the second half of september. It’s worth making the effort for if you can get into London.

Further reading: Press release about a summer of cycling and an Evening Standard article where Boris exalts Londoners to dust off their bikes. Also, here is a summary of the freewheel. Finally, the BikeforAll site on the freewheel sponsorship.

I did a huge bike ride yesterday, about 80km to Portsmouth. My route took me over the South Downs - and this was very hard going. More than once I had to walk it.

The downhills were great though, some of them just seemed to go on and on - and I got a new top speed of 62.2km/hr.

The ride itself was done at a lowly average of 11.5km/hr, as I say, the hills really affected things.

This represented a huge undertaking for me, and I gratefully staggered onto the train at the end of the day.

Unfortunately, unlike saturday, there was no medal for me. I think I deserved one!

I completed the ride on my New World Tourist. It’s developed an odd squeak when being walked (not ridden) - I think the brakes need a little adjusting - I’ll try and do that soon.

My train got in after dark, and I did find myself befuddled again that Greengear saw fit to make a bicycle rack without a standard attachment for lighting. Let’s hope that they can come up with a bracket which can bolt on to provide a standard light plate (with 50mm and 80mm spaced holes). This’ll then accept a cateye adaptor (or similar). I have asked them directly if they had a particular brand of light in mind when designing the rear fitting - to my surprise they could not recommend anything.

I got home using a light attached to my under-seat tool carrier - but this isn’t ideal.

So, I did the 26 mile (46.2km actually according to my cycle computer) Bikeathon, having cycled some 20km to get to the train in the first place due to engineering works, another 8km at the other end to and from the station, and then 5km from the train station home (I used a different station).

It was a nice route, well signposted, with only one unclear part on the return leg. The route took me from Chelsea, up to Smithfield Market, around the Isle of Dogs, then to the Thames Barrier. Evans cycles were there, and they did a ‘tune up’ of the bike (a new bike should be checked after some distance, and this was a free check!).

The route returned through the City (I stopped in Evans Cycles’ City branch as I’d lost a bolt on my cycle rack, the tuneup people didn’t have a spare. The guy in the City branch gave me a new bolt in goodwill). Kudos to Evans Cycles for being helpful without fuss or bother. This earned them a lot of goodwill. Okay, admittedly that was the point of them sponsoring the event and doing their ’surgeries’ - but the guy in the City branch didn’t have to sort out my rack for me.

As the end of the course approached, I did feel weary - but Monica was there to meet me, which was most welcome.

Returning home, she wasn’t on a bike, so I cycled to Clapham Junction whilst she walked and took the bus. I got there in plenty of time, allowing me to refuel with a pastie. She arrived in the nick of time and we both got the same train home.

There were engineering works for our station, so Monica got off 20km away and used the train replacement bus service. I was tired and so stayed on the train (which went down a different branch) and cycled 5km back. She arrived just before me, I was slow.

On the way back, I was almost taken out by a guy in a black estate car who decided to emerge the wrong way from a one-way street at a high speed as I was about to cross it (having looked that way and then, seeing it was one-way, concentrated on the cars coming from the right). This wouldn’t have been a good end to the day - but fortunately, he missed. There are some real dangers out there. This wasn’t a function of the bike though, he was at a speed to have been a danger to crossing pedestrian or any other road-user.

Anyhow. I’ve got a medal… I wore it all evening as I dozed. That’s not tragic, is it?

My sponsorship site is still open (until October this year), so please visit it to help Leukaemia Research.

I’m about to turn in as I have an early start tomorrow for my Charity Bicycle Ride.

I have to cycle for about 10 miles in order to catch the train into London (there are engineering works). I will then get off at Clapham Junction and Cycle to Chelsea.

At 10am, people will start to head off. We’ll be going east, over the river, back over at Blackfriars, then via a diversion to Farringdon, we’ll head east, around the Isle of Dogs, and then turning around at the Thames Barrier to head back west.

It’ll be 26 miles in total - for the offical event. I’ll then cycle to Clapham Junction, get off the train and cycle another 10 miles home.

All told, I’ll be surprised if my tally for the day is under 50 miles.

This will be the first serious outing for my New World Tourist, though I have been out on it for about 20km before.

I can be sponsored at this site - all proceeds to Leukaemia Research. Go on, click the link, you know you want to…