Dit zijn de afstanden die er per dag gefietst zijn. Dag 4 was de rustdag.Dag 5 en 6 waren de dagen dat we rond hebben gereden in de Veluwe zonder bagage.
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Iceland - Day 7: Hi Wilson
I woke up around 7:30. The mosquitos were awake as well. I am pretty sure I ate a few during breakfast. While walking passed the lake I had a hard time enjoying the landscape because there were so many bugs flying into my eyes. Out of frustration I clapped my hands in front of my face and killed three. It was again quite warm. I still didn't have enough room for my jacket in my backpack, but zipped-off my trousers. After a few kilometers I walked up a side road and passed a river where I washed my socks.
I arrived at a large river. This one was at least 3 times as wide as the ones I had crossed and a 100 meter further lay another one. I had little choice but to carefully walked through it. Fortunately it wasn't flowing fast. After taking some photos it was time for the second one, which was nearly as wide as the first.
I had already anticipated what would happen next. As soon as I reached the opposite bank a car arrived which would have been able to drive me across without me getting wet. The man asked where I was going and if I was alone. He also thought it was strange I was crossing the river barefooted. Then he asked if I was sure I had planned everything properly and how I was going to get passed <some Icelandic name>. I didn't understand what he was referring to, but it turned out to be a large river I wasn't planning to cross anyway. He said the landscape here probably was a lot different compared to the Netherlands. Half an hour later I took a break near a nice waterfall. Lunch consisted of 100 grams of peanuts. If I ate the low quality meals first I could save the better ones for later in the trip. It was so warm I laid down sunbathing in only shorts.
The hidden waterfall
After the waterfall the landscape was pretty dry. I took an even smaller side road, which I would follow for the next 100 km. After that I planned to take a slightly larger gravel road that runs all the way north to Iceland's ring road.
I had planned to stop after 20 kilometers but by then found myself on top of a dry hill. Therefore I walked another 3 km to a small lake. Surprisingly there were no mosquitoes there. As usual the wind picked up in the evening. It was quite a struggle to pitch my tent without it blowing away.
Like any other day I first lay down for a while to recover and then updated this story. Then it was time for dinner. Today was a reason to celebrate as I completed the first week of my trip. As a reward I allowed myself to have a dessert and some music. The dessert was a powder that was supposed to be mixed vigorously with milk. Bringing milk powder through customs hadn't seemed a great idea, so instead I tried water. That didn't work well and I ended up with a kind of thick strawberry lemonade. I figured this might be because the lack of fat in water compared to milk, so added some palm fat. Now I had chunky lemonde. As I had been carrying those vital calories for an entire week I of course still ate it all.
After brushing my teeth it was time for the after party. My tent was blown nearly flat to the ground because of the high wind. I had spend several hours picking the right songs to bring. 'Someone to talk to' or 'Wish you were here' would probably not do well. I only carried very uplifting or calm music, including the soundtrack to 'Into the Wild'.
The next part of my route was indicated on my paper map, but not on the one in my GPS. Therefore I decided to take a 10-15 km detour. With the completely flat landscape and many small trails it seemed safer to navigate with a GPS. The following week would be the most remote part of my trip and had the potential to be one of the most lonely weeks of my life. I hoped that near the end I wouldn't be talking to objects, like Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway to his volleyball Wilson.
Distance walked: 23 km