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A truly amazing place
A Midsummer Bike Dream
NOTE - immediatelty below are the 2008 / 2009 details. We're building on these for the June & July 2010 trips. 2010 details are starting to emerge on the right hand side of this page.
The June 2010 trip already has 7 riders so is more-or-less full. I'm just starting to pick up bookings for the July trip, which I'm hoping wil be one day longer (and more importantly, later in the short Summer season), which should make the Sprengisandur a realistic target.
ICELAND – 19th to 23rd June 2008 (again in 2009 and again in 2010)
2008 - This is the first glimmer of a great new adventure for my regular Bike Tours UK best customers. This has the potential be one of my best ever adventure trips, offered exclusively to respected riders who I feel would enjoy the challenge of this first reconnaissance tour. Read on for some ideas, some inspiration, and a proposed itinerary.
I went to Iceland in late July / early August 2006. I was very impressed.
I’ve seen the high snowy mountains of the Alps and I’ve trekked and kayaked in the Himalayas. I’ve ridden in the tropical jungles of Thailand & Malaysia, I’ve ridden sand dunes in the Sahara desert and I’ve endured Caribbean holiday resorts twice. I even went to Centre Parcs once.
Of all these biking & family holidays, my family trip to Iceland (and subsequent bike tours) remains one of my favourite trips ever.
One of my many lasting memories?…….. lounging in a sulphurous hot tub, just South of the Artic Circle (near Husavic), looking out beyond the marshes, and out to sea, watching the sun dip below the red horizon at 1:20am. Then watching it rise again at 1:26am, just six minutes later! (in August - a long night of just 6 minutes)
Hotels were very expensive, the price of hiring a proper 4x4 was eye-watering, eating out costs a fortune unless you eat hot-dogs, the weather can be very iffy and there are no pubs as such. There’s nothing there. The interior is cold, barren, bleak and deserted. Yes, it really is a desert – an arctic desert.
So what’s the attraction?
Nothing there? Total emptyness?
Yes. Exactly.
No crowds, very few “tourists”, no litter-strewn city streets, no traffic, no tacky shopping centres and mobile phone shops, no proper roads, no hoodies, no MacDonalds. Truly wonderful!
For me, it’s the bleak isolation of the interior, the harshness, the dramatic beauty, the raw, untamed, living geological features which appeal. The azure lakes, the hot springs, the explosive geysers, boiling mud-pools, active volcanoes, huge ice caps, massive glaciers, thundering waterfalls and the 24 hour Summer daylight which makes this country so utterly unique and compelling.
How about being there, in this vast, humbling interior on the very longest day of the year? When the sun never sets at all?
My dream is to try and offer a long weekend (say 3 or 4 days) around the longest day of the year, with accommodation, 4x4 support and rental bike included.
Ideally, we’d ride there, using our own bikes. However the journey via Scotland and Shetland Isles (?) is very expensive and takes 2 or 3 days each way. Then we’d need 7-10 days to see the whole of Iceland, and the boat lands on the ”wrong” side of the island. So, all in all, such a trip would be quite demanding in terms of time & money. (Don’t rule it out though!)
I think a good compromise would be an affordable long weekend, which still pulls in most of the major sights which Iceland is famous for. We can still see the best of central and south-western Iceland in this short timeframe.
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