Iceland Bike Tour Day 15: Cycling Sudavik to Heydalur (Westfjords)

My bicycle tour around Iceland featured a couple of longer days, such as this one cycling between Sudavik and Heydalur camping in the Westfjords region. This video was filmed on the 3rd of August, 2023 and features a lot of scenery, road conditions, and views from the saddle during the ride.

During this tour, I rode a Rohloff equipped Thorn Nomad bike. Mine is a chain bike (as the bike is over 12 years old), but if I were to buy one again, I would look a little more into the pros and cons of belt equipped Rohloff touring bikes.

Here’s some of my thoughts on touring bicycles fitted with Rohloff hubs: https://www.davestravelpages.com/rohloff-hub.html/

You can see my full route for the day here on Komoot: https://www.komoot.com/tour/1242869406

[Music] hello there it’s the 3rd of August 2023 and my bike tour around Iceland continues I’m currently in the west fields of Iceland and today I’m going to be starting from sudik in a campground I’m going to be following this road in and out of the fs and going to a place called healor which is a Farmstead campsite type place it’s a long day about 114 km so there’s lots of video from this one it’s one of the longest videos in the series I hope you enjoy it so let’s get on with it speaking of it cheers good morning Thursday the 3rd of August and I am leaving the town of s left at about 10:00 and I passed a petrol station which according to Google Maps didn’t have a store and it did have a store so in the last video I was looking for one but just cycled a little bit further up the road or would have found it not that I desperately needed it but anyway I bought a Twix and a a power raid overpriced but sometimes you got to get your calories when and when where you can uh the intention today is 14 km and if Kut is to be believed about 1,000 M of ascent I’m hoping it’s got 250 of those wrong in a similar way that it had a couple of days ago where there’s now a new road instead of a pass but we will see uh there’s a cafe about 50 uh 50 km halfway I would say that this is 90 to 95% of my capability to do 11 14 km in these conditions with all the stuff I’ve got on the bike uh if I don’t feel like going all the way then maybe I’ll wild Camp so hopefully I’ll be there by kind of 5 and if it gets to 5 and I’m kind of nowhere near there then I’ll make the decision to call it a day and carry on the following day have a shorter one and still stay at that place uh it’s a basic campsite but there is a restaurant there which I guess by that point i’ have deserved a meal right so here we go there’s some clips on the road there’s a bit of snow on these mountains in front of us but I’m going to be going to the left again where the Fords go in and out I think I’m going through three fors today I’m sure they’ve all got names I have no idea what they are and here we go so that’s down to the end of the first F and now I’ve got to go back up the other side so probably in about 20 minutes I’ll be opposite where I started by about 100 m separated by the fud of course the water down the bottom here looks quite green must be a nice spot to grow something although I’m not too sure what you grow in Iceland looks just like grass mainly everywhere I’ve been people are cutting grass asked to feed I guess sheep over the the [Music] winter I’m not sure what they grow in the way of vegetables here I don’t think the season’s long enough for it to grow anything maybe in only some specific areas probably what do I know am I a farmer no but do I like eating food yes so I didn’t feel any wind that’s a tail wind or a head wind so if I can get to the other side of this F with that headwind that would be a bit of a bonus making pretty good time of course only about 45 minutes into the trip so that doesn’t really mean anything yet turned off so bit take a look at the map the 7 m behind you a bit of luck it looks like kamut wanted to send me to the right and over the hills but instead there’s some Flat Road to go on so it’s definitely knocked off some of the ascent and probably 2 km still over 100 to go but yeah that’s pretty good don’t know if you can see just opposite there’s that settlement that’s where I started this morning that’s pivic and it’s taken me about an hour to go around the F to get to somewhere that’s about what 200 M opposite it sweet so I completed the first fi which is over to my left and let’s have a look at the stats 21 km traveled in 1 hour 13 which is pretty good going for a Touring bike slightly depressingly 94 kilom to go but I should soon eat that up as I believe this was the hardest part of the of the thing sometimes you can see whales in these FS apparently bit still at the minute coming around to the bottom of another F I think I see somewhere to pull over and stop I think which I’m going to do no no I don’t oh well that’s a shame but I am going to pull over and stop for a quick snack According to some photos there was once an old fishing plant here but that is no longer here it was a wooden building little oneway Bridge and on the other side of the F so pulled over for a quick Wei break as you do what have we done 38.6 km traveled and that’s Taken 2 hours and 2 minutes not bad and 76.9 km remaining so if the terrain stays the same I’m making pretty good time there should be a stop for a coffee in about 12 km time so I’ll take an hour out my day there probably just having a cake and a coffee so cycling up this part of the F just the slightest of headwinds which is uh kind of a bit energy sapping and while I will head back down in the opp Direction soon I’ve got a long stretch in this direction a little bit later on so we’ll see how that goes might just add like an hour or two onto the day I guess so I’ve been cycling for 2 hours 48 and covered 51 km with 64 left to go and I’m hoping that there is a cafe or even two cafes within the next kilom and as the time’s now 146 I’m going to stop and have some coffee and a cake if it’s there so just leaving the little cafe now and a quick thought about prices I guess you know you’ve been in Iceland too long when 1,500 for apple pie and a thermos of coffee you think it’s a bargain at 1,500 which is about €1 uh actually to be fair it was kind of a bargain because there was about a liter of coffee which I had so I should be now fired up to get going but yeah I think if you’re going to plan a bike trip to Iceland you just need to you know you just need to accept the fact everything’s expensive allow enough money for the trip and then just get over yourself how much money I don’t know I think you can 50 a day while you’re actually in the country just translate that into whatever £50 or whatever $60 whatever and then I mean if you don’t spend that much then you’ll take it home again won’t you so so but you should probably allow that much just reached the bottom of what is it f number three lost count now and I’ll be turning around to go back up the other side again in about 5 minutes follow this way for 14 km as Kut says hope that there’s not a headwind going the other way cuz that would be a bit devastating this is now going to be a long stretch of cycle and if anyone in Iceland is watching this this would be a great place to put a campsite for tents so don’t know if you can see that there’s a little bridge going to be going over that and then heading back up the other side in the opposite direction again yeah it’s a little farm ahead of me whoever owns this should definitely just open a campsite just for cyclists and they should have like an unlimited buffet breakfast as well which should be awesome a short steep section just when I didn’t need it probably at the start of the day I wouldn’t have thought anything about it but I am thinking about it now 3 hours 45 cycling and 70 km done that still gives me 48 km to go and I’m only likely to get slower from here as the pace takes its tall a little bit times 318 so outside chance I can finish this by 6 maybe which coincidentally is when the um restaurant opens at the place I’m heading for according to the GPS 27 km to go which I’m sure it said about half an hour ago so hopefully I’ll be finished in about an hour and a half which I think will bring me to about you know like 6:30 yeah probably 6:30 finish approaching a bridge over the FJ now and I’ve got two options there’s one campsite to my right and one campsite to my left they’re both the same distance one gets a very very mixed reviews bordering on bad and the other one gets good reviews so I’m going to the one with the good reviews of course but it does make you wonder how reviews kind of affect your judgment and if they have any value or it means anything but in this case I can’t really risk it because I’m quite on the limit of what I can cycle and I’m I have to go to one of them so I’m going to go to the one with the good reviews AC CLA well let’s hope it’s good anyway be a bit of a bastard if it’s fall when I get there and this is where I turned right to heor now turn right onto J 600 12 km to go on well sealed so far but probably going to be a dirt road at some point and then the following morning for 1.5 km thank you Kim and then the following morning I probably have to go slightly higher as I cut across Inland to hovic if push comes to to shove there are places I’ve seen around this area where I could wild camp but it doesn’t look like it’s going to come to that that place was pretty well signposted with a lot of options so I think I’m going to be sorted and it’s not the weekend yet it’s Thursday I think so should be less busy than it’s going to be Friday Saturday Sunday it’s kind of semi- washboard Road isn’t not really what I need right now you see the dust cloud ahead one car went in the direction I’m going and there is another one coming towards me I [Music] think yeah the washboard road is not good I think it’s going to cost me a half hour cuz I’m going a lot slower trying to cover this and if I I had got plans to go through the center of Iceland on the f26 to be honest if the roads like this there’s no joy in spending 5 days cycling at 9 km an hour bumping up and down of course I’m saying that at the end of a long day but I’m going to cycle that road for 5 days there’s going to be loads of long days anyway that’s way in the future yet probably like 2 weeks I need to think about [Music] that so different bikes cope with the terrain differently but I I think the bike I’ve got is a very good hard general purpose touring bike you can go on Road Off-Road but obviously if you wanted to stick to dirt roads all the time this wouldn’t be the bike to do that not in its current [Music] setup likewise if you wanted to you know do a cycle trip around the world for 12 months or whatever you wouldn’t really go with a bike packing setup with suspension because well if you’re thinking of doing that you’ll find out why you you shouldn’t do it eventually cuz you’ll just end up accumulating more and more stuff and eventually you’re not bik packing anymore [Music] it’s a bit of a pain I’ve got to put the brakes on going downhill really there’s a bit of loose gravel as well CU it’s at the end of a long day don’t really want to slide off the bike I don’t really want to slide off the bike bigger than day either [Music] I’m not sure if this is it in front of me or it’s around the corner slightly what I’m seeing doesn’t really seem to be big enough for what I have in mind or open enough so maybe it’s around the corner it’s difficult to tell following the map at the same time I’m sure it’ll all become apparent soon the time’s now 6:14 and I’d reestimated I’d be there for half six so done pretty well really I mean tomorrow I’m probably going to feel it well there ain’t no probably about it I am going to feel it and I’ve got another long day as well which I need to think about what I’m doing but I’m hoping that this place does a meal and that then a neopan and a good night’s sleep will sort me out for the following day yeah it wasn’t that [Music] place couple of Caravans have gone past [Music] me this way 3.9 km oh there we go it’s about 4 km away [Music] almost there it’s a more sizable place up ahead can see some Caravans 628 didn’t quite make it for 630 by looks of it but it was close now turn right on to that wasn’t it either but I’m almost there got to be