August 22: "Distance
record"
15 km all uphill then a beautiful 7 km of downhill with a short spurt at 67
km/h, overly dangerous speed with the old sick tire but pure pleasure with
the new one which is particularly stable in steering. I
don't complain anymore about speeding down hill. I 'm sometimes so tired of
pedalling that I feel that death isn't that bad an alternative!.
Then pretty flat terrain allowing us to renew with the pleasure of pedalling.
Anne has not only morale but also an abandance of energy with the aim of covering
100 km in the course of the day!
We arrive at Blonduos (51 km) at 1:30 where we eat a hamburger, french fries, and coffee at the service station before carrying on with a light wind. After a cloudy morning we are now blessed with a sunny afternoon and with the help of wind encouraging us from behind, our 14,6 km/h average in Blonduos seriously improves, also thanks to the absence of hills. We were happy to slip by between the mountains (instead of going over them as in the past) with a view of the blue sea behind. The morale at an all time high all day, state of mind we thought was a thing of the past since we had already seen all the exciting things on this trip. It goes to show the influence of a little sun, help of wind, and a good road allowing us to cover long distances.
The Laugarbakki campsite
was at the end of a 1 km paved road instead of a dirt track as the map indicated.
We were greeted by a charming and most obliging young man who had the kindness
to translate the newspaper article concerning us. Impeccable lawn, showers
at will and "heiter potter" (jacuzzi), other Icelandic words which
I succeeded in remembering thanks to their pleasureful connotation and their
similarity in pronunciation with one of my favorite heroes. In addition, a
heated kitchen fully equipped with hotplates and dishes to be shared with
2 Italians who we never saw! It was undoubtedly the most comfortable campsite
which we had come across.
Near Blonduos