Cycling Iceland – 28 Days Bikepacking Iceland’s Ring Road FULL TOUR

Last month I cycled Iceland’s Ring Road out of season, my toughest bikepacking adventure yet. I battled snow, hypothermia, winds up to 75mph and faced days where it was quite literally impossible to cycle. This was completely solo and unsupported, I camped out most nights in freezing temperatures but Iceland’s wilderness and nature beauty made this all worth the struggle.

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Hi, my name is Sam and I really enjoy traveling the world via bicycle and Iceland has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. In this video, you’re going to watch me take on the infamous Ring Road, a 1,200 km route which incorporates a lot of Iceland’s main landmarks. I was starting this trip late in September, which is completely out of season to do something like this here in Iceland. In fact, I got scolded by quite a few locals and even told that doing this this time of year was impossible. So, get cozy, grab your favorite drink and snack, and join me as I set out to prove them wrong. So, this vlog is starting in a pretty bad way. So, I’ve arrived in Iceland. I’ve spent 2 days without my bike box, waiting for EasyJet to get it sent here. Take a look at the state this bike box has arrived in. Look at this. Look at the holes in that. And they’ve not even bothered to tape it back up correctly. Put it back in. Barely even taped it. And now I’m really worried that there’s going to be something missing in here. Although it seemed like my bad luck had run out for the day as nothing was missing from the box. But one thing was definitely clear as I was assembling the bike. The wind was going to be a problem here in Iceland. First impressions of Iceland. Freezing. The winds are so strong. This is going to be one hell of a brutal trip. Plan is on day one is just to find somewhere for the night where you can sleep. And as luck would have it, I managed to find this abandoned building which kept me sheltered from the wind on my first night here in Iceland. Oh [ __ ] Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you. Thank you. Well, that’s one way to get your heart rate up in the morning. There was a van behind me. I didn’t even notice them. But I just left my lovely abandoned building back there behind me for the day. And we’re headed out towards Reavik. I’m going to find somewhere where I could drop this backpack off. And then we’re going to head up towards Geyser, which is going to be a really tough day. It’s going to be a really big climb. I’m very unfit right now as well. So buckle up for a very exhausted, very emotional Sam. So I made my way along this busy highway towards Reuik, the capital of Iceland. And then when I finally made it into Reuik after battling the headwinds on that highway, I was then on these absolutely gorgeous cycle paths. I just had my first climb here in Iceland and it was an absolute killer. So I’m sat at the top having some hand wraps. I knew I was going to be unfit, but I didn’t know I was going to be this unfit. So, I’m going to have to make a couple of changes to the route. I was going to go through a place where it’ pretty much be like a survival trip for 3 days. There’s no absolult roads, no supertores, anything like that. So, I’m going to have to change my route a little bit and come down, I think, onto the ring road. Although, it’s not what I wanted. You know, I have to adapt. This is Iceland. So, if I get caught out somewhere, it’s not going to be pretty. Um, I’m gonna be very cold, likely have no signal, and be very far away from everyone. I pushed myself a few more kilometers today because tomorrow I’m about 60 km from the next shop. And it has rewarded me because look at this campsite. Just on sunset, just as the sun’s going down. Got a lake here. Got a bench here for dinner tonight. Wow, Iceland has delivered. I think we are actually in a national park right now, which explains why it’s so bloody beautiful around here. I think wild camping is illegal in Iceland, but I’ve never really had issues with camping. Um, I think it’s illegal for you to camp on the moss. This seems to be very grassy. Well, then you will sleep there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. This was an awesome spot to pitch up. Not only was the views incredible, but I also got to see the northern lights, but it did come with some negatives. So, of course, I camped up here for the night, not knowing that it was some big touristy landmark that people come to check out the view and also for the northern lights. So, the whole night last night, it was just like vans coming in, mini buses of people coming in, people going at the northern lights. So, I barely got any sleep, but I got to see the northern lights. I headed out into a new day in Iceland, following the Golden Circle, meaning there was a lot of tourist attractions to see on this route. And I even got treated to seeing one of my favorite things in Iceland on this day, which was the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This is one of the only places where the Atlantic crust is actually visible on land. Because I was on this cool off-road path, I managed to have this all to myself, which is one of the many things I love about bike packing. I was then taken off the off-road track and put out into a visitor center. There were a couple of landmarks here, but I moved on and I was put out onto a main road for the first time here in Iceland. I’m currently on the side of a 90 km an hour single carriageway and I’ve been riding on this with little to no hard shoulder. You can see it kind of just like slips and then drops into the void. The good news is though, if I make it 70 km away, I have a hotel to stay in tonight. Well, our yurt camp. And I’ve actually always wanted to stay in a yurt camp. So, I’m really excited. I’m really trying to get a pedal on. Starting to rain. Hopefully near the shop soon because I’m getting really hungry. But this road is just absolutely terrible. a massive win. It’s currently raining. We’re going to have a place to shelter from that tonight. So, thank you to Nura Yurtle Iceland for giving me this for free for the night. Look at this. It’s also been like one of my bucket list items to stay in a yurt. I’ve always thought yurts are so cool. And take a look inside this. This is beautiful. And I saw the yurts from a mile away and I was like, “Oh my god, please get me there. Is there a teleporter around here? Please, please.” But yeah, made it in one piece. Oh my god. I’m just all of a sudden getting really emotional because it’s just like it’s been a long day on the bike to be honest. But it’s just it’s just so nice that people come together to help me do what I want to do. And you guys do it time and time again. Like um you might not be watching. This might be the first video you see here and you’re like, I’ve never done anything for you, you little scruff, which is valid, but just the amount of people that just try and help me. I think the mixture of the tough riding and my lack of fitness made me very vulnerable to my emotions that night, but the sentiment is still there. I struggle with my mental health quite a bit and asking for help and receiving help is something that I really still struggle with. And it’s weird, you know, through posts online, I’ve managed to gain all these friends around the world who really want to help me and just want to see me do what I love, which is just a really beautiful thing when you think about it. I got to see how y were made, which was really cool. And then Thomas even took me to go and see Goss waterfall which is one of the main sites here in Iceland. I ended up staying at the camp until late in the afternoon before I started heading south back towards the ring road. Never been to a country where there’s just so much beauty in such a small space. You can hear loads of noise behind me at my campsite. We got a load of geese. I’m hoping they don’t come and attack me when I cook my food because that has happened to me in the UK before and that would be disastrous. I left the Y camp at 400 p.m. was having such a good time and I just realized like it it just makes you I was by myself for maybe like 5 days because of the whole like easy jet thing and not getting my bike and I think just being around people and socializing with people just re-energized me. You know, I was feeling pretty like a to be honest, can I be bothered? and then you know you have a little reset a morning off and the next day you’re like yeah let’s go. So yeah and I I am aware of this you know I have bike packed before. You can probably hear the wind is absolutely savage out here. I’m unable to cycle right now. I’m currently having to cycle a little bit whilst the wind dies down. Stop when it picks up. It’s really, really annoying. This was the first proper day that I really had trouble with the wind, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last here in Iceland. Iceland is actually the windiest inhabited country in the world, only coming second to Antarctica. I cycled on a little bit more, but I didn’t make it very far. I’m just down the road because I turned onto the ring road, highway number one and the side wind, which really was dangerous, has now turned to a headwind and I can just barely move and it’s still quite dangerous. Um, and it’s also got worse. Like I’ve just looked at the weather app. It was supposed to calm down in about an hour’s time, but it’s actually picked up. It’s got to 39 mph gusts and like 20 mph per hour winds. It is absolutely ridiculous. I’m starting to maybe think that I was a little bit stupid trying to do this Iceland tour. Um, but hopefully that moment passes. I saw this bridge earlier. Some of you might recognize it from a famous film. And I wondered whether it had this little hiding spot under it. But as I was leaving the other place because I was getting too cold, I saw this from that road over there and was like, “Oh my god, it looks like shelter.” So I done about a 2 km detour to come back so that I can sit in here and avoid the wind a little bit still while the wind dies down. It is absolutely brutal. I’m trying not to let it get to my head, but the harsh reality is if if it’s like this every day and there’s going to be no chance of me getting around icing. The wind continued, so I just gave up for the day and pitched up my tent for the night. So, woken up for another morning on the road. Windy and rainy again. Um, it’s pretty zapping motivation wise. There’s a supermarket around 18 km and I have to get to that really because I’m running out of food and water. just made it into a town called Hela. And I got to say, it’s uh it’s hella pretty around here. So, I’m currently cycling right now parallel to a couple of volcanoes. I think some of the most active here. There’s like fields of ash all around me and it almost looks like a desert. The road is so flat and so straight. I’m currently about 15 km from a hostel. It’s house zone right now. And when I get there, I’m going to stay there for a couple of nights. Hopefully wait out some extreme weather because there’s some weather warnings. One of the things I truly misjudged and got wrong here in Iceland was the wind. One, I was going anticlockwise, which is against the prevailing winds here. And two, I really underestimated how the Arctic winds could make a 12° day feel like a minus3° day. But nevertheless, specifically on this day, I had a lot of fun. And that is mainly because of what you’re about to just see. Honestly, I forgot that I have my helmet on. So, everybody in this waterfall is going to think that I’m like a lunatic that’s scared of the rocks falling. But this is the waterfall. Sell jammed land. Um, so I think you could go stand underneath it. Yeah, this is a really popular one. I’ve seen it. In my defense, if they did think I was a lunatic, look, there’s this sign here. So, maybe they don’t think I’m that crazy, but look at this. Feel a little scared because I’m like the least agile person on the planet. I don’t even know whether you guys can hear me right now. Ah, sorry. Look at all the photos. That looks a bit slippery. Looks a bit slippery. All rightoo. Parkour. Parkour. I should probably put this camera away and just focus on balance. But made it down here. Oh my god, I’m getting bloody soaked. What’s the point of this? It’s pretty cool. But yeah, you get pretty wet down here. So, I said goodbye to Sans Foss and I headed to my hostel. Pretty sure those are supposed to drop downwards. Been in this hostel bed for the last couple of days waiting out the bad weather. And uh yeah, finally blue skies are out, which means that tomorrow I’ll be back on the road. When I leave tomorrow, sorting it out, trying to organize it a little bit better. And uh yeah, everything’s dry. It’s an incredible morning to be out in Iceland on a bicycle. We got the ocean over there, got the mountains over here, and it is a pretty hot day. I’m currently in shorts, having a great time. I’ve got a towel in behind me. Feels good. Oh, a bakery. Oh, we just found a bakery. I’m going to check that out. After a couple of days sitting in the hostel going absolutely stir crazy, it was incredible to get back on the bike. And my word, this was one of my favorite days of bike packing I’ve done. This isn’t a weird way of me coming out. I promise. Eddie is pretty fit, though. I mean, it’s a cool place, but look at how many tourists there are. Everyone’s like cutting in front of each other to get a good photo. Jesus. On a detour to come and see the glaciers over here. Um took about 10 km. Quite a bit of time, quite a bit of effort. It’s up a hill. It’s something that I wouldn’t have normally done when I was on a UK to Australia tour. So, it was pretty nice because UK to Australia tour, we always had a bit of pressure on us to be in a certain place at a certain time. Cycling so long to come and see this landmark that if it’s not good on the way back, I’m just going to swerve into some my side quest a little bit too hard today. I’m out here middle of nowhere. Saw a few cars parked up back there and saw loads of people walking this way. I just decided to go without actually knowing where I was going and I’ve ended up near this plane crashed site. Uh it was like a plane from the 1970s that had come down. After leaving the plane crash site, I was then heading to a famous coastal town here in Iceland called Vic. But ahead of me to get there was some pretty tough riding. That was outrageous. That was Oh my god. Oh my god. Shoot me or get me a monster. After rolling down into Vic, I opted for the monster option. Also managed to get myself an Icelandic panel shuffler as well. And you’re probably thinking, Sam, how can this day get any better? Just watch this. So Google says that there’s no mosquitoes in Iceland. Well, what the hell are those? What the hell are those? Hey, hey, Google. On a more serious note, as the sun comes down here over the next 200 km or so, it’s about to get a little bit more hairy, let’s say, as the stretches between places, towns, food to eat, water supplies, it definitely definitely dwindles and gets harder. So, got to keep my fingers crossed for good weather because that’s what it depends on out here. You’re kind of playing this risky gambling game with mother nature. And to finish off an incredible day here in Iceland, I also got to see the northern lights. First day of frost at the campsite. As much as last night was beautiful, it was also very, very, very, very, very, very, very cold. One of the questions that I’ve been asking people who do long tour cycling like me recently has been, have you been surviving it or loving it? Because it definitely feels like on the road for me anyway, and I know for a lot of other people too that, you know, you’re either surviving it or loving it. And today, I definitely survived it. Um, I don’t know. I just struggled today. I I started off well. uh started off energy very up. I think it’s just the thought of like the next like 300 kilometers is such so remote and there’s such little shops and stuff like that cuz I do love a shop. I admit I do love stopping at every petrol station I see grabbing a monster and a pack of sweets and if I can’t do that then you know yeah it it plays on my mind a little bit cuz then I’m just constantly thinking all day. if there’s no shop. I’m constantly thinking all day what I’d be getting if there was a shop. And just partially as well, sometimes I wake up and I just can’t be bothered to cycle 100 km or like 80 km. I think I cycled today. Do you know what I mean? You know, I know it’s I know it’s like um I’m blessed to be here. I’m privileged to be here and make content like this for you guys, but someday someday some days you just can’t be bothered. And I think that’s just like with anything in life, you know? some even if it’s even if you love it. Say if you play football on the weekends and um or training sessions and stuff like that, sometimes you just can’t be bothered. Yeah. So today today was a survival day. I have less survival days on the bike than I do back at home stuck in my room doing nothing. New day and as you can see and probably hear it is windy outside. I’ve just checked in my guideline. I can see it just under there. There’s going to be a rough front today. The uh way that we’re going is directly against the wind and the wind is strong strong. It’s around 20 mph right now. It’s due to die down by about midday. Um but yeah, until then we’ve got just straight 20 m a headwind, mph headwind in our faces, which is ideal not. So instead of being patient and waiting till midday when the wind and rain was due to die down, I decided to get out of the tent and start cycling, which was a mistake that I would learn from because as you’re about to see, I get myself into quite a sticky situation. I’ve ended up bunkered down in this water pipe down here. I got way too cold, way too wet. I’ve um changed into some dry clothes. My boots have puddles in, so that’s going to be a pain in the ass when I start cycling again. I’m having a hard time keeping things dry. Um, I only have one, you know, nice dry, uh, thick layer left cuz this is pretty wet now already. Yeah, it’s just really annoying. Uh, the headwind, it’d be fine if it was just rain and no headwind, but because of the headwind, I’d only done about 11 km in the past hour and 40 minutes. Um, and the petrol station is, I think, 28 km away. So, I’m going to wait here. I’m going to let the wind die down. Hopefully change direction as well. And yeah, then then leave in a little bit. Liquid detection. I’ve only got 1%. Which is just fantastic, guys. Just fantastic. Up falling asleep in there. I got so cold that I was like, I just need to get my sleeping bag out. And even though I didn’t want to get my sleeping bag out cuz I also didn’t get want to get that wet, it was just something that I had to do. I was so cold. And um yeah, I I fell asleep 2 3 hours I think. Um it’s now half 3. God, to be fair, I was [ __ ] it. And I still am [ __ ] it in my feet. There’s puddles in these boots. I need to get myself to to somewhere. I didn’t get much recording done after this because I was in absolute struggles ill. In fact, I was actually showing symptoms of recovering from hypothermia. I’d managed to get myself into quite a state and as I said, this was a lesson that I learned from Iceland. The lesson to be more patient, especially when you’re facing mother nature in this way. Nevertheless, I managed to drag myself to Scaffell National Park where I managed to find a campsite for the night. Let’s catch you guys up. I um was miserable last night, so I didn’t fancy really speaking to a camera and doing anything like that. And I’m absolutely shattered as you probably even see still and tell still. Um but I managed to find a campsite. I’ve woken up at like 10:30 cuz I was that shattered. And during in the night, the reason why I’m so shattered is I’m not sure whether you can hear it, but the valve on the tent um is leaking. So, um I keep waking up in the middle of the night and just it seems like everything right now is going not my way. Um everything just seems like I have to put 110 times more effort in than I should have to. Yep. Good news is I got to dry my clothes. There was a dryer here and it was for free. My hostel is 135 kilometers away though and I’m checking in tomorrow and you know if the weather is like it has been the past well yesterday um and I could only get 40 km done you know that leaves me in quite a bit of trouble. Despite being in a bit of a rush to get to the hostel, I decided to take a hike up into the national park to come and see this cool waterfall and then headed back to the campsite reunited with my bike for another rainy day in Iceland. So, I was just on the main road when out the corner of my eye, I saw a big gigantic iceberg. It was really cool seeing a glacial lagoon for the first time. And I was just about to go to a very popular tourist destination called Diamond Beach. Oh [ __ ] Oh [ __ ] What the So yesterday I rode into the night and pitched up my tent somewhere in the dark. Look at how grim that is. H. Oh my god, my helmet. No. Oh yeah, and I tried to fix the issue with toothpaste didn’t really work. Look at how big that puddle is in there. So right now I’m on a 300 km stretch about 70 km away from a hostel finally. It’s been about four nights since I’ve had shelter. It’s been raining three out of those four nights. So I’m really looking forward to get to a nice dry hostel, wash my clothes, dry my clothes, go to sleep in a bed. The hostel room has cleared. I can only assume that’s because of what was probably my intense snoring last night cuz I slept so good. So good. Towards the end of yesterday, I had a wild headwind and I just stopped recording. I was literally like swearing into the abyss. Like literally just like a sailor just screaming, “Fuck you.” Yeah, the wind is really starting to get to my head. I was in desperate need of a day off really, but when I booked the host, it had no room for two nights and I also asked for cancellations with no luck. So, I had to head back out on the road. See, one of the reasons I chose this route over the next like 180 km is to avoid tunnels. I went through a 14 km tunnel in Turkey accidentally, the third largest tunnel in the world. And it’s traumatized me because when we were in there, the SOS alarm was going off and I thought we were dead. At least I’m getting no headwind. I’m sweating my ass off though in here. An uphill tunnel, taking a piss. Tunnels aside, this was an incredible day to be on the bike in Iceland. Not only was the weather good, the wind had died down, but also the traffic had died down since we’re now on a less touristy part of the ring road. Hey, hey, went to Jay’s Tavern and it happened and always were there. who ask me sometimes, you know, why do you do it if some days you hate it, look at this. Wow. Jesus, it is wonderful. And the sea to my right. Oh, it’s good. It’s heavenly. The hills have started here in Iceland and I’m not prepared. I’m not ready for it. Damn. managed to do about 50 km today. I could have cycled on a little bit more. There was a tow. But the camp spot that I chose, guys, I’m going to show you it tomorrow. Not only was the camp spot incredible, but we also got a beautiful show of the Northern Lights, which was the second best show that we had of the Northern Lights the whole time we were here in Iceland. It was actually so bright in the night sky that I thought it was morning time. And also, please just ignore the deflating tent. This has to be my favorite camping spot so far after last night. That was unbelievable. I was honestly even picking it up with my iPhone camera video. Like no exposure, no editing. It was insane. So, I have actually woken up this morning in this beautiful place, but I’ve gotten a weather warning again. Like we’ve Icelanded so many times this tour already. Um, some heavy heavy winds are incomings. I’m in the eastern fjords right now and that’s exactly where this wind warning is um located. So I need to get out of here. The hills were definitely starting to pick up here in Iceland, but so were the views. It was absolutely gorgeous heading down this road. I managed to make it to a small harbor town called Jupy Vagore which had the only supermarket for over 200 km. And if I also carried on, I would have to take on a mountain pass, meaning I could risk getting stuck up there during this weather warning. But as I was about to find out, I wasn’t safe down in this campsite either. My tent is being absolutely ripped to shreds by the wind right now. Just like what is going on? Just devastated to be honest. Like I’ve now just gone back to the hotel. Like earlier I asked to stay in a cabin lodge and they were like no no no we don’t have those available. No, no, no. And then my mom sent me booking.com saying that there’s not a gone back and now now they say they have one available after my tent has just been ripped to [ __ ] shreds. Oh my god. Lord help me, please. Last night was an absolute disaster. Um, my tent got pretty much blasted by the storm that’s going on here. Um, I’m stuck here for today. The winds are still going to be very strong even up until like midnight tonight and then it comes down. Um, but yeah, I am I’m pretty tired to be honest. Like it’s tough. This this journey is so tough. um sort of learning to have to be patient with the weather and everything on your schedule being based on the weather. Definitely a lesson that I’m having to learn here in Iceland. As you can hear [Music] after spending a couple of days in Juke Vagore waiting out the extreme winds, it actually got to over 75 mph winds. It was time to take on a mountain pass that I had been warned about before called Oxy. A 19 km stretch with a 17% average gradient. This was going to be brutal. You ready? This is so steep that even the vans are struggling to go up. I just watched a small voxle just about get over this little steep bit here right in front of me. It is absolutely brutal here. We’re up in the Icelandic highlands. This is what it’s all about. Look at that view. Wow. Even though this road was brutally tough, as you’ve just seen, vehicles could barely make it up. This road was probably my favorite of Iceland. Honestly, I’m still in shock at how much beauty there is in this country. I hope you can guys see how steep this is. This is absolutely savage. Oh my god. Oh [ __ ] Yeah, sounds about right. Wow. Finally done it. Finally die. Oh my god. That was outrageous. Oh wow. Yeah. You can even see snow on the mountain tops over there behind me. Feels good. It’s going to be a cold cold descent though. managed to find a little spot last night about 4 km out of Egel’s door. And yeah, I am quite lucky that this sleeping bag is waterproof because I keep getting soaked every night when this tent keeps coming down on my head. It just it just wears on morale when you keep having to wake up, pump up your tent, go back to sleep every two hours. You know, it’s sort of like it’s almost like torture. It’s like sleep deprivation. After making it to Egles, I stocked up in town as I was heading up into the Icelandic highlands. And not only that, I was heading north. And in the north of Iceland, they tend to say this time of year is winter. This is probably due to the proximity to the Arctic Circle, meaning there’s little to no sunlight. Of course, having an effect on the temperature here. Snowing right now up at top of the mountain pass. It’s beautiful up here, but I doubt you can see it through the fog. This is a first for me. I’ve never cycled in the snow. The weather was extreme, but the landscapes were truly one of a kind. It honestly looked like I was on a different planet. It felt like the snow was getting thicker and thicker and the mountain climb wasn’t letting up. So, I was pretty desperate for some shelter, and I was pretty lucky to find it. [Music] My face was pretty windburnt from being out there in the snow, but I had a mission. So, I waited a little bit, waited till the snow died down just a tiny bit and headed out there because I wanted to get up and over this mountain pass before the end of the day so I could get down to warmer ground. You can’t park there, sir. You can’t park there. Well, I’ve just made it to the top of a climb anyway. Seems like somebody got too embroiled in the view and have just uh crashed off the road. It looks like pretty recently as well. But I see a huge drop off down there. Hopefully, I can get down there and have an easy rest of the day. Hopefully the road is not too slippery as well cuz otherwise I’ll be like that car and you’ll be saying, “You can’t park there, sir. I’ve managed to find a spot at the end of the day. And what a day that was. What a day. The tent is already getting frost on it. Take a look. Oh my god. But we’re out in the mountains. I’m not sure whether you guys can see that, but it is absolutely stunning. And that was one hell of a day. Um going through the headwind also just getting snowed on. But yeah, it’s a nice finish to the day. I’m going to slam some hand wraps. It was another night of very strong winds in the tent, so I didn’t think much of it until I woke up and saw the state of the sidewalk. There were some very strong winds predicted, but nothing was about to prepare me for what I was about to experience. I woke up in a relatively good mood and then I started getting on the road. Everything was fine and about 10 km in, you know, half an hour and all of a sudden the wind has just picked up and it’s [ __ ] driving me insane. Oh my god. I’m just sick of it. I’m just sick of it every single day just cycling into either snow, rain, wind. I’m sick of it. Sick of it. It’s a side wind as well, so it keeps just knocking me off the road. And if a big lorry comes by, I’m literally just going to fall off the road. But I have no choice because the wind is just set to get even heavier and heavier throughout the day. Oh my god, it’s just so annoying. I honestly I can’t I can’t even describe to you guys how frustrating it is every single day. Because of the wind, I felt like I had no choice but to hike my bike 15 km to the next town. But I was saved. I’m so cold. You guessed the blue lagoon. You’re actually wrong. I’m in a place called Miatin. It’s up in the north here near a city in the north called Auri. I’m not sure. The Icelandic names miss me. But look at this place. Oh, feels so nice to be in here. But you have to sort of you have to shower naked um in a dressing room full of loads of old men. It feels quite weird. And then you come out here and you’re of course bloody freezing cuz you just got in the shower. You just came out of the shower and you have to do the run from over there into here. And my god was it cold. But feels good. Now they’re going to be like, “Sam, it’s it’s 12:00. It’s midnight. Get out.” No. No. I want to talk about yesterday because you I probably left you guys. I was flipping out um losing my mind over the wind. And yeah, I started walking. So, walking 17 kilometers to this town called Re um and a Spanish couple pulled over and this lovely woman comes out and she goes she goes, “Do you need help?” I’m like, “Yeah, but I don’t think my bike will fit in your car.” And she’s like, she was like, “No, no, it will fit. It will fit.” Like, I was ready to give. I was just saying like, you know, “My bike won’t fit.” And I was ready to give up. And she was like, “No, it’s going to fit. It’s going to fit.” So, my partner gets out the other side, um, starts helping me cram my bike in, and then they eventually managed to get the bike in. They were like, “We we weren’t going to leave you out there.” Um, cuz the winds were crazy. You know, you saw me cycle the day before through snow and headwind. Um, no problem. But that day, yesterday was absolutely brutal. being on a bike. It’s just it it just humbles you in the sense of not only did nature yesterday just completely dominate me um and made me feel about yay big. But it also humbles you in the sense of like it makes you realize that the kindness is like a lot of people go oh you know the world nowadays you know is horrible and everyone’s horrible and everyone’s selfish. But it just really goes to show when you’re when I’m on the bike, like the amount of nice interactions that I have, the amount of people that have helped me from all over the world. All over the world, people are just nice as a whole normally are nice and and love to help people. And I’ve certainly been on a journey in accepting that help. I is something that I really struggle with. Um, when people help you and you can’t give anything back is something that I really do struggle with and it’s something that I’m learning to try and cuz I like helping people, you know, when there’s nothing in return. So, why why should I not only not let myself experience help, but not let other people experience that feeling of getting to help me. And um and you you shouldn’t do that too in in your lives, you know. Um you should you should embrace help and help should be help should be taken, help should be given and that’s how it should goes around is that like you pass it on to the next person. Next time I see someone and they need help, it means that I need to help them and then that cycle continues and then the world becomes a better better place. After hanging out in the hotring for probably a little bit too long. I left at like 300 p.m. I made pretty good progress and cycled into the night. I pitched up in the dark last night. Didn’t have a clue where I was pitched up, but look at this lovely little view going on. Look at this. Wow. And just over there, there there um there’s a waterfall. What a beautiful day here in Iceland. Not too windy. Actually, it just did blow over my bike, but might go to Foss. Honestly, one of my favorite waterfalls so far. Maybe it doesn’t beat Sco, but I think this is my second favorite. It’s pretty cool waterfall. My goal today was to make it to Iceland’s second city, Auria. But it wasn’t going to be an easy day of riding. We had yet again another big mountain pass in the way. I am so annoyed. So, you can go through a tunnel here if you’re in a car. It’s a toll road, but I’m like 90% sure from googling that you can’t go through on a bicycle, but it is so tempting right now to go and do it. But I just know that we’re not in we’re in a pretty strict country. I know there’s not that much police around here because it’s Iceland. It’s the safest country in the world. But I have a feeling that they’ll give a very hefty fine if they caught me cycling through and it’s just not worth it. Or is it worth it? There’s a 500 m climb the other way and it’s an extra 16 km. This country, man, it’s trying to end me, man. Woo. I made it. Oh my god, these climbs are brutal. Save me. Give me just another absolutely brutal day on the road here in Iceland. It’s just savage. Going to stay in a hostel for the night because this has been a really hard day. I’ve been grinding now for 5 6 hours cycling into headwind up hills up mountain passes and it’s now raining. I am absolutely shattered. I crawled into Iceland second city shattered from a very hard day on a bike. I decided to stay two nights here and I ended up getting this gem of a moment. See, I’m not a claustrophobic person at all, but the card for the capsule has ran out of like permission because I extended for the night. So, I’m currently in this capsule. I’m locked in. If I press the door lock, I’m locked in. And yeah, I’m stuck. I’m stuck in here. And I hate it. I really hate it. It is making me I don’t like it. Get me out. I’ve currently called the reception and uh apparently they’re going to call me back in 5 minutes. Um I’d rather someone came and opened the bloody capsule. Thank you very much. After escaping the capsule and having a day off in the city, it was time to head out on the last leg to Reuvic where I’ll finish this tour. Tough one again. Currently at the top of sort of this mountain pass and these hard shoulders. Look at this. If I put my tire into here, immediately it just sort of slants and goes in like that. It’s not steady gravel at all. I’m cycling against wind. It’s raining. It’s cold. I’m going uphill and it’s just like, bro, give me something. After getting myself absolutely drenched from going up and down this mountain pass, I managed to find a petrol station to stop at and dry my clothes. I stayed in this warm petrol station a little too long, but little did I know, I was about to be rewarded for my hard day on the bike. What the hell? Whoa. What the hell is going on? Whoa. It’s currently about 10 here in Valio and I think we got a grocery shop around 50 km away from here. Have our first break there and then push on and see how far we could get to the end of the day. After a lovely descent, I made it to the town of Blunda in record time where I had a break for a bit and moved on. And instead of doing the 50k in under two hours that I just did, I was all of a sudden doing only 10k 8k an hour because of the headwind has just all of a sudden came flooding in. And I was sitting there cursing myself cuz I was like, “Oh, it’s okay. You know, the next petrol station it’s in, you know, 40, 50 km. I just fill up my water bottles there at the end of the night cuz I’m going to get there. I’m going to do 100 km easy. But now I’m not. And um I was sitting there cursing myself thinking I should have filled up my water bottles. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, this cabin appears out the corner of my eye. What does it have in here? A water station. The wind was picking up and it was making it impossible to cycle any further. So, I bunked up for the night in hoped that tomorrow was going to be a lot better, but it wasn’t and the day was a total loss. I only made it about 5 km. Mom to the rescue. I know it’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but yeah, I was just sitting in the restaurant downstairs and just explaining to mom about the wind. I didn’t realize, but this was a restaurant/ hotel and she just booked me a room. Day 27. chilling with my homies right now. Apparently, these are just to promote like seals in the local area. Apparently, I don’t know how I I don’t know. I don’t know how this this this baddy over here correlates to a seal. I don’t know whether to do a 12 km detour and go and check out whether there’s seals. Chat GPT reckons there’ll be about 60% chance if I do this. So, I decided to do a 12 km detour to this town here to come do some seal spotting. Chat GPT said I had about a 60% chance with the conditions, but no seals. I’ve cycled up and down the coastline a few times. Um, I can’t be bothered to do it anymore. Good thing is I got myself a monster and uh yeah, so you know, take the small winds in life. I now have to head back and go against the wind. Is that a seal, bro? No, it’s a duck. Yeah, it’s a duck. It’s stuck. Don’t worry. Time to head back onto the ring road, head towards Rekovic, get some kilometers done. After my failed detour to see some seals, I did see this small statue and I think a dead one being eaten. But I headed on up into a mountain pass in the dark because I really wanted to get the kilometers in now. So I just had my first encounter with the Icelandic police. They just came over here and they’re actually really calm. Like it is illegal to be wild camping here. I just said, “Listen, I I I went up this mountain pass, didn’t realize how big it was, so just sort of pitched up here.” and they were like, “Yeah, that’s fine. Um, just stay safe and take care.” So, yeah, big up the Icelandic, please. That was really nice. Second to last day here cycling around Iceland. I will completed my lap in a couple of days time, but I’ve added an extra detour on to go see these. Uh, I’ll keep it a surprise. Stay stay to see what we’re going to see. But also takes off 300 m of climbing, so we’ll bloody take that. as if the cycling wasn’t enough. I’m currently at the top of Grab Rock, which was a volcanic crater which formed from a huge eruption over 3,000 years ago. As you can see, the views are a little bit foggy today, but nevertheless, it’s pretty cool to be up here. My trip was coming to an end, so it was bittersweet being at yet again another beautiful landmark here in Iceland. Once I’d taken it all in and had a quick break at the petrol station, where I probably ate a little bit too much and got my belly really full. I felt sick, which is why it led to me forgetting something, which would lead to a big problem in the afternoon. When I left the petrol station earlier, you’d notice maybe that I’m quite good at not running low on liquids. Um, it’s very rare that I get caught out. Mainly because my addiction is fizzy drinks. So, I always normally have liquids on me, but I actually ate so much at the petrol station earlier that I felt really ill. So by the time I’d left, time I went to leave, I had just completely forgot about water because I felt ill from being so full. So yeah, I’ve just had to fill up my water bottles on this little stream. It’s normally something that I don’t do. It’s normally something that I never have to do. I think I’ve had to do it like maybe once in Turkey. Um, but yeah, like that I I I rarely get myself into a situation where I’m literally looking at dirty puddles and it’s crazy it does that to you. That’s why I love being on the bike so much because you you sort of forget about like the whole what people think about you. Like earlier there was a road closure and I was like, “Oh no, you know, I’m in trouble now.” And uh yeah, I I I started looking at Kimoot and it was like a 30 km 1,000 meter high high up a mountain detour to get around this uh road closure. And I was going to do it. I was literally about to do it, but I went, “No, I’m at least going to ask the guy.” Went over, put on my best smile and my friendliest attitude. And uh yeah, he um he just said, “You’re on a bike. Just go through.” So it pushes you out of your comfort zone. Like you forget about your social angst so much out here. And like when you’re out here looking for water, like I asked a couple earlier, I asked a couple earlier, is there any markets around here? And I wouldn’t do that back at home. But out here, yeah, you just become a different animal, you know? You’re just trying to survive. After surviving the water, after this, after surviving Watergate, we now have foggate as we go down this mountain. Like an hour and a day of this left, we’ have finally completed Iceland. But man, you know, I know I keep saying it, but I hope it comes through on the camera just how much of a challenge the ring road of Iceland truly is. for the last night. I’m in this little cabin at this campsite. I’m going to try and sleep here in this corner without a tent because my tent is absolutely soaked and I I can’t be bothered to pitch it right now. And the grass is so wet. So, I’m going to try and go to sleep. Just like that. Wish me luck. Yeah, this is probably one of the more unhinged sleeping spots that I’ve picked. So, for my last day of cycling here in Iceland, it gave me a tough day. There was lots of hills. It was very cold. We were actually in Fjordland, which mean that we had plenty of great views, though. It says here that apparently this island here was home to a load of outlaws for a little bit and eventually the locals managed to lure them onto mainland um in hopes that they can reconcile but really it was just a trick and they just killed them all. Shows how tough the Icelandics were. Can you imagine though just like being out on that island in like the 12th, 13th century, bro? How cold that must have been? I don’t honestly it blows my mind like every single time that I think about it how people came here. Could you imagine just being in like a bloody wooden straw hut trying to avoid the snow? So this right here as well, I was reading the other day these were like the old roads that they used to use. So this was must have been like an old road that came out of Reovic into just uh the hills out here. It’s just insane. I honestly it blows my mind how the Icelandic people are able to settle here. They’re better people than I, braver people than I. I was now around 30 km from Recuik and it felt super surreal. I never got to finish my last big tour which was from the UK to Australia the way that I imagined it. I imagined I’d finish in Perth, but I ended up having to come home early because my dad got sick. So, I never really got to feel that feeling of that I finished what I started. Coming in now on a cycle path that I left here from 27 28 days ago. Um I’m just getting mad feelings of like joy, gratitude, sadness that is coming to an end. Yeah, it’s just it’s super weird. Like I just feel like a different person when I’m on the bike. And I know it’s something I need help for. Like out here on the bike, it’s like all of these all of these problems that I have in my personal life go away in the sense of it’s almost like my social angst goes away. Like even when I’m speaking to this camera, people go like, “How do you find the confidence to speak to this camera?” And the sad truth is is that I find it easier to talk to this camera than I do to talk to people face to face. You know, I get people coming up to me all the time nowadays saying, you know, I love your videos, Sam. And then I get a bit socially awkward and it makes me anxious and just, yeah, I just get home and I just sit at my desk and I do nothing all day. And it’s something I need to get better better at. But yeah, it’s like all that goes away and I’m just sort of focused and on surviving on the on days on the bike. You know, your your thoughts become consumed with what’s my next meal? Where’s my next meal? 70 km, 50 km, 20 km. And oh boy, those last 20 km today feel long. Iceland’s ring road. Wow. What can I say? How do I even summarize this trip? It was probably the most brutal but fun and beautiful adventure I’ve had on a bike. And it was something that I really needed since coming back home from the UK to Australia. I’ve been struggling with my mental health recently. And it was something that I really needed this trip. I felt like I needed a bit of struggle out in the real world other than my own head. So yes, I did manage to cycle’s ring road out of season in brutal conditions. Done it. Yes. Oh, it feels so surreal being back here now after a month on the road. Wow, that was a challenge. So, before I go, I would like to remind you that I am not a cyclist. I am not an extreme person, you know. I’m not a David Gogggins type. Stay hard. Y and you don’t have to be to accomplish hard things and put yourself out there and try new things. I hope that my videos inspire you to get outside and try something new. Try something different. Maybe not even bike packing, but something that’s always been on your mind. A new hobby, a new city, a new whatever. Just get out, try new things. And yeah, take care. Hope you enjoyed the video. Like and subscribe. Sorry, cringe. And uh, peace. See you next time. Hopefully somewhere bloody warmer.