Iceland – West Fjords Vs Highlands – Which is better to ride?

In Sept 2023 I rode the Highlands of Iceland and made a video of my adventure. The video went kinda crazy and took off. So the owner of the tour company invited me back to ride the West Fjords that he said was more beautiful than the Highlands. In this video I put that to the test.

last year in September I went to Iceland and I rode the highlands and I made this video and the video took off and went kind of crazy so the two operator skoly called me up and made me an interesting offer I’m I would like to invite you to Iceland and right with me in now and June the west of Iceland it is a totally different Journey you know not L beautiful actually scenery from my opinion is more beautiful so I decided to head back to Iceland to judge for myself is the West fiords more beautiful than the highlands I got to the ride with local base and I met the new crew that would be accompanying me on this ride my advice is to you is to build and and I spotted a familiar face the last time I saw Steven was on the side of a track where he’d broken his leg on day one he was back again to have a Redemption ride skoly was still talking up the westfields but what you are going to face there is a beautiful fs and a beautiful landscape and a beautiful scenery and and I hope you will get a beautiful tour to but I was going to judge for myself I called day one getting there because it was all about getting to the West fiords with a little bit of sightseeing on the way I started the day on a 701 but before the day was out I was going to end up on a husky [Music] 450 after the sightseeing was out of the way we left the crowds behind and headed up into the High Country and on the dirt now this is the first trip of the season and so it’s a bit of a Shakedown ride and on the first day we actually had three bikes that broke down but luckily it’s a Well supported trip and there were plenty of spare bikes it was great just leaving the crowds behind and getting out into the Solitude of Iceland now it didn’t take long before I miss my mate Nick who was with me on the previous Iceland ride and is a Prof stunt model so I decided to find a new Nick for this ride so Nick’s not with me on this ride I need to find a new Nick who wants to be Nick on this trip oh yeah me me me okay okay audition I want to see your best blue steel Ken Hit Me With Your Best blue steel oh okay Brad Hit Me With Your Best blue steel you got it with my new stunt model cured it was time to evaluate day one so how would I compare it I think I’d have to give day one to the highlands I nicknamed day two hypothermic and you’ll see why in a moment we were continuing our ride to get out into the West FS proper we woke on day two to rain and I don’t think we really knew what we were getting ourselves into because we didn’t dress appropriately it was cold it was blowing again ale and it was raining and that made for some really cold riding conditions we took some shelter in a gas station while the guides repaired a flat tire but after that it was out into the bit of [Music] cold as we rode it got colder and colder and if you didn’t have excellent technical gear then you got wet and colder still now Iceland can be a pretty desolate place and there are long stretches with no shelter at all but the guides found this little smoke housee and they pulled up I think they’re getting quite concerned about how cold some of us were getting [Music] and in particular Ava was suffering her gear was letting her down she was getting wet and bitterly cold and hypothermia was really setting in she was having real challenges just [Music] concentrating the guides got some warmth back into AA but we all just spent a few minutes warming back up before heading back out into the elements [Music] good the guides encouraged us to push our bike for a while just to get some warmth back into our core and warm our bodies up but it didn’t take long before we realized that AA was just too cold she wasn’t going to be able to continue safely so some kind campers kept AA warm while we called for the support truck to pick her up and take her bike to the next town uh we have stop here in uh by the you know Smoke House close by getting some warmth into the people they getting cold we were all thankful to pull in for a warm lunch and the good news was the weather was Finding up for the [Applause] afternoon we had a few stops that afternoon and this one was kind of interesting our guide gy was telling us about the traditional houses that the farmers built to keep warm course was forbidden the scenery continued to get better and better as we made our way out onto the West fields and then we made it to our destination for day two which was this insanely quirky and amazing town called dupic the town was built around a fish factory which has long since been abandoned but it is just a very cool [Music] place now I love abandoned buildings and skoly had arranged for us to get a tour of the fish factory from the owner hon so I grew up here in I’m one of the is a real storyteller and his stories brought this whole Factory back to life his tales were just mesmerizing and this was one of the highlights for me this is not how it’s actually like upright side by side and the main Carpenter that was 26y old so how would I rate day two well even discounting the bad weather I’d still have to give day two to the Highlands [Applause] it was very cool waking up in this cool old town and looking at that waterfall in the distance there was no way I was going to be able to leave this town without flying my drone down the face of that waterful [Music] [Music] today we were riding across the mountains to a town on the other side of the West fiords on a route called Route 66 which was supposed to be one of the highlights hard to see you with all that cam on Craig right after the bitly cold weather of yesterday the weather was much better for us today and we were all very much looking looking forward to the [Music] ride so today at last we could enjoy the beautiful views of the fields [Music] the start of the day had a mix of riding we started on some dirt roads then we hit ashfeld and climbed up into the m and then we turned off on to Route 66 where we got on to proper off-road track and it was [Applause] stunning as the riding got a little bit more technical I was really enjoying it and I felt like I was in my riding happy place now [Music] the scenery was just getting better and better everywhere you looked was just incredible Mountain and Valley Vistas [Applause] now this made me laugh when our leader skoly was distracted at the top of the hill and dropped his [Music] bike and I did offer him what I thought was a sweet deal I got that for the low price of one beer it I would keep that crash out of the final edit but I realized that skoly was one stubborn Icelander and he refused to pay me the beer so I think that deserves a slow motion replay you should have paid the beer Scully we came to a few snow drifts which we had to cross which was interesting and I think people found it quite challenging there’s not many people had ridden through snow before this a big one and then we came to a really large snow Crossing I’m not I chose to paddle my way through rather than gassing it it was definitely an unusual bit of riding and it was a lot of fun for everyone now one of the Riders Brenda is an excellent Road and track Rider good on her for giving it a go but she doesn’t have a whole lot of off-road experience under her belt and so when she come to some of those snow Crossings she’d freak out a little bit and while Brenda did really well and just had a couple of small little drops when she got to this little patch of snow she had a more substantial crash wa and check out this view from Brenda’s 360 camera [Music] oh luckily Brenda was okay was just a bruised hip [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] overall day three was fantastic our best days riding yet so how would I rate day three without a doubt this is going to the [Music] westfields I’m calling day four sightseeing because we were going to explore some of the different sites and attractions of the [Music] westfields the weather was classic Icelandic conditions dramatic Moody cloud and a few sprinkles of rain the guides took us to a range of different destinations from beautiful natural landscapes to sites of Interest like this old grounded steamer and we stopped for some photos at this wreck of an old Naval plane one of the things I really love about riding in Iceland it’s just so dramatic and Moody from the clouds the light the landscape it’s incredible this this shot of the beach will just give you some sense of how dramatic and Moody the landscape [Music] was unlike the highlands where we were remote most of the time on this trip we were stopping for lunch at hotels or restaurants and the food really was wonderful good for [Music] [Music] after lunch we continued riding West to the westernmost tip of Iceland a place called lug and lug is home to a whole bunch of seabirds most notably the puffen so we just checked out these amazing birds for a little while [Music] [Music] [Music] after dinner the guides took us for a treat we went to these Hot Springs set up on this remote side of a hill and the Springs looked over this amazing fiord and we sat there with some beers and some wine and we just let the magic of the warm Hot Springs do their job on our bodies it was magical that is a backdrop nice would be [Music] nice so how would I rate day four I definitely give that to the West fiords mainly because of the Beauty and the diversity of scenery so that’s to all day five and the weather forecast wasn’t looking too flash so the guides made a change of plans today we were going to ride ride up to the capital of the West FS isaa we dawned our W weather gear and we prepared for a cold day [Music] riding the plan to swap our itinery was a good one the weather forecast for tomorrow was looking much better and skoly wanted us to ride one of the trip highlights in fine [Music] weather so we headed off and rode across the mount and it was cold and it was wet at lunchtime we pulled in to a little town called singeri and we stopped for some fuel and lunch and scoly told us about this ride up on the hill in the background said it had amazing views so we hit [Music] it and it was a beautiful ride at the bottom we had lopin on both sides of us and then the track just kept going up and up and up and while it was loose it wasn’t overly Technical and as we got higher and higher the views were just [Music] incredible when we got to the top the views were just out of this world it was 360° of just the most spectacular scenery you’ve ever seen so we got off our bikes and we just took some time to really absorb it [Music] [Music] then we headed off to the capital of the West fiords isaa and when we got there skoly had arranged dinner at what he called one of the best restaurants in Iceland and it was a Beau restaurant really rustic lots of charm and the food was incredible so how would I wrate day five I think I’d have to give day five to the [Music] highlands we woke up on day six and everyone was clearly excited the weather was good and this was one of the jewels of the trip we’re going to ride what I now call the bulldogger track skoly had been talking his track up all through the trip so far ready ready for the ride I’m ready good all we knew was that it was a spectacular ride along the side of the cliff okay day six and it’s a big day we’re starting the day riding this old abandoned Road along the side of a fiord then it’s up over the mountains and we’re heading to the bulldogger track from there we’re heading down to a waterfall called Doane and after that we’re taking the ferry across to the peninsula this old abandoned Road was just a beautiful way to start the day it had Lupin on both sides of it and just exceptional views out over the FI [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it’s because they’re going to keep [Music] going where is it after that wonderful warm up we now made our way across the mountain to what was going to be the highlight of the trip and the trail just became more and more spectacular and we hadn’t even gotten to the start of the bulldogger track here and then we pulled over and skoly explained to us the unusual origin story of how this track came to be doing this with a bu doer you know they start a bulldogger yeah Dozer what is a bu bull bulldozer bulldozer okay I like bulldogger though might SE that yeah bulldozer okay so this is a bulldozer thing and they started here 1973 you know if if we would try to do things like this today you know with all the nature caring uh concerns everything would get crazy and I’m not saying that this uh not okay but you know sometimes we need to find the balance between things so that is how I how I say things you know if we would do this today you know we would be killed I think this 3D map does a pretty good job in just conveying how spectacular the landscape and the scenery was that we were riding in so we set off and almost immediately the scenery just started becoming more and more stunning The Views were breathtaking and it felt like every time we went around the corner they just got even more spectacular then the cliffs became steeper the road became narrower and it just became even more [Music] dramatic when we got to This Little Lighthouse we got up our bike for a few moments and just spend some time absorbing this beautiful landscape [Music] [Music] [Music] then the trail descended and the next thing we knew we were finding ourselves on the rocky Beach and at times we found ourselves riding underneath these towering Cliffs with the ocean just met on our right hand side it really was an unusual and stunning B that we were riding [Music] through and after that amazing bulldogger ride we thought we’d seen everything for the day but the guides had one more surprise for us we came to this incredible waterfall called diandi and it was really spectacular skoly had gotten permission for me to fly my drone down the waterfall so I was quite excited to just see what I could capture [Music] [Music] after that amazing day we now had to cross the mountains and make our Ferry for the crossing to the peninsula the ferry Crossing took about 2 hours and it was fairly uneventful but it now had us down on the snaf joal Peninsula we got to our hotel about 10 p.m. but skoly wanted me to come out for one more shot and just get some footage riding along this beautiful black sanded Beach it was spectacular so day six how would I rate the bulldogger track this is a no-brainer this is definitely a big win for the West fiords [Music] day seven and it’s our last day of riding and it’s always sad riding on the last day because by then you’ve made some great friendships and you know you probably never ride with some of these people again on this last day we were riding from Langer halt back to SOS on a mixture of tar and dirt and there was plenty of beautiful scenery to be had we had classic Icelandic conditions for our last day beautiful lighting Moody Skies gorgeous scenery and it was just a wonderful last day [Music] ride it seemed there was always just one more stunning View and just one more Wheeling to be [Music] had and of course just one more crash [Music] I love my 7-Day ride in the west fields of Iceland I had made some wonderful new friends and skoly was right I had seen some beautiful parts of Iceland that I had not yet [Music] explored we had one final debriefing got some ride with local schwag and it was great to see that Steven this time had made the entire trip number one I have to say I’m very glad I made it uh it wasn’t completely easy I’m not the greatest dirt rider in the world as the last video show um but I made it I’m happy to be here and I couldn’t be happier with the service and the accommodations the routs the bikes themselves it’s all brilliant so how would I rate the last day I think I’d have to give day seven to the highlands so so did that mean that the highlands won well I think there’s another way to have a look at this trip if we just look at it from a riding perspective I think I’d say the highlands is better riding it’s also a more technical ride but when you start factoring in things like accommodation the West fiords has much better accommodation your ability to sleep you have a room to yourself versus shared accommodation in the highlands the divers of scenery is definitely better in the west fiords and the food it’s wonderful in the west fiords so they are both wonderful wonderful trips and finally how would I rate my new stunt model versus Nick well I don’t think you can compare the two Brad is Brad and he’s a good mate and Nick well there is only one neck let’s face it nobody can whe e like Nick and nobody can do river Crossings quite like Nick [Music]