MY OVERLAND ADVENTURE IN ICELAND

Iceland is one of those places that has been on my bucket list for years and years. And it felt like the longer I waited for my opportunity to have the overland adventure in Iceland I dreamed of, the more and more people went. Over the last few years especially, it became the place to go – everyone was going to see the waterfalls, glaciers, and volcanoes.

With good reason. It’s such a wonderfully beautiful country. The scenery can be factually described as nothing short of epic, one of the most striking places I’ve ever been. It’s also easy to get to from the UK, the food scene is decent, some of the most popular sights are within easy reach of the country’s capital city, and it is still possible to find peace and quiet away from hordes of people.

As a result of this burst in popularity, there are literally hundreds (and hundreds) of Iceland themed blogs out there. Give it a quick Google and you’ll find a plethora of “things to do in Iceland”, “must-see views in Iceland” and “roads to drive in Iceland” themed essays to read. Add to that the number of Instagram posts and YouTube videos featuring everything Iceland has to offer, and you really don’t need me to add to those with a lengthy Iceland adventure journal series here on Splodz Blogz.

I do want to share something about our overland adventure in Iceland, but without the advice and guidance you might find in other people’s posts. I’ve got an idea for a listicle blog at some point, but we’ll see if I find a new enough angle on that to make it worth it.

Overland Adventure in Iceland

My adventure in Iceland came in August 2021 (I know…), in the form of an overland motorcycle tour with GlobeBusters. We rode 1,900 miles – a good third of which were on unpaved roads – in 12 days, taking in the big sites as well as some off-the-beaten track areas.

When I mentioned above it felt like a long time coming, it was genuinely so. We booked back in 2018 intending to travel in 2019 but that trip was postponed twice… the first time by the tour company following some logistical issues, and then for COVID.

In the end we travelled in August 2021, as things started to open up again after the pandemic. If you’re interested in our experience of travelling during COVID, you can read a few words about that back in episode 83 of my Weekly Blog series (a series which is currently paused while I catch up on more adventure-based posts such as this one).

I know I’m a bit late to be writing a roundup post of an overland adventure that happened 18 months ago (time flies!), but I’m still very much playing catch up. I have now completed my Coast to Coast Adventure Journal series – but there’s more from 2021 and 2022 to come. I’ll get there eventually.

GlobeBusters

Founded by Guinness World Record Holders for global motorcycle travel, Kevin and Julia Sanders, GlobeBusters run adventure motorcycle tours and expeditions all over the world.

While going with them meant we took the easy route in some ways (you know, freight paperwork sorted, routes provided, support van with tools, hotels booked by someone else), it opened up a completely different dimension to this road trip in terms of new friends, miles of unpaved road (some of it pushing my comfort zone in terms of motorcycling experience), and little spots we’d never have found on our own. And we loved it. The Iceland tour (we did the Arctic Desert tour) is one of their smaller trips – take a look at the website if you fancy something a bit more expedition-like. 

As this was GlobeBusters’ first trip post-COVID, we were treated to the dream team in terms of tour leadership. We had Dom as our tour manager, who is an absolute pro in terms of motorcycling, guiding, and everything else. We then had Kevin as our van driver, who’s reputation as an overlanding motorcyclist precedes him. Julia was also on the tour, as was newbie tour leader John (of Cool Covers fame). The four of them were a fabulous team, and we felt very blessed to have such a great bunch of people – all now friends – looking after us.

Good for Me

I should say that having Julia there was very good for me. She’s a great rider, with a lot of experience, but still incredibly down to earth and honest. I’m used to being a lonely female when motorcycling (we were the only ladies on the trip), and I have no problem with that in general. But sometimes a friendly female face and knowing smile is exactly what I need. 

It was Julia who encouraged me when I was thinking about not riding one of the high pass routes because of all the talk of ruts and loose rocks on steep and narrow hairpin bends. She noticed my moment of doubt and told it to me straight – I needed that. She then celebrated with me when I overcame my wobble and successfully navigated my way over the mountain, leading to a view and a feeling that easily makes my top highlights of the whole trip. Thanks Julia!

A Bucket List Destination

Iceland really was everything I hoped it would be. And exploring Iceland overland is the only way to do it. The landscape is quite simply stunning. I can legitimately use the word “epic”, which I know gets overused when talking about scenery, but honestly, it completely and utterly fits.

I don’t know what it is about big, empty, gnarly landscapes that make me fall in love. There is something powerful about standing somewhere, be it in a valley looking up at mountains or atop a hill looking back down, so big that it makes you feel small. Iceland had lots of those moments for me.

That feeling of awe was heightened by the fact that in those moments, I’d ridden to that spot on my own motorcycle, often along rough and slippery roads. This might have been a “tour” by definition, but there is no doubt in my mind that it was a real adventure. Me. My motorcycle. Iceland’s massive expanse. Wonderful.

The trip description puts it well: “Iceland is an otherworldly place of fire and ice, marooned near the top of the globe. Here the mighty forces of nature have created a volatile playground. It is as if this place has been created especially for a unique adventure motorcycle tour.”. I completely agree.

Loneliness in the Landscape

The fact that we saw glaciers, lava fields, volcanoes, tundra, geysers, waterfalls and fjords at what seemed like every turn makes sharing my overlanding Iceland highlights quite difficult. I’m going to try much harder on that with a post dedicated to some of my best (and worst) moments of the trip at some point in the hopefully near future, but for this post, I just want to give you a flavour.

Iceland really does provide an amazing backdrop for motorcycling. I’ve said it before – the benefit of motorcycling over driving in a car means you are not looking out at the scenery through a window, but you are part of the scenery. You are within the view. And nowhere else has this been truer.

While this was a tour, there was no expectation that we would ride in convoy (far from it). At some points, my husband, my friend Paul and I were the only people as far as we could see in all directions. I love that feeling of loneliness in a landscape, and I got bucketloads of it on this trip.

Yes, the big sights were well worth us visiting, and we did loads of them. The original Geysir, Dettifoss – the most powerful waterfall in Europe, the icebergs in the lagoon and on the beach at Jokulsarlon, the meeting of the tectonic plates at Pingvellir, the mighty Sekjalandfoss and Skogafoss, and the black beach and puffins at Dyrholey Reserve. And no, I can’t pronounce any of them.

I have to say that for me, even though the big hitters were more than a little impressive, the best memories came from the wide expanses where we were alone. And they generally came on the unpaved roads – over mountains, around fjords, and across bizarre and barren lava fields.

Unpaved Views

Around a third of this tour was on unpaved roads. Now in Iceland that’s not unusual, quite a lot of the roads – even the used-by-everyone maintained roads to large towns, are unpaved in part. It’s the nature of the set-up in this quiet and rural country.

Wanting to explore down these unpaved roads, especially the slightly more challenging ones with their loose surfaces and water crossings, were the primary reason we chose to go to Iceland with GlobeBusters rather than doing it alone. I mean, having someone else ship my bike, book my hotels, and tell me where to buy waffles was a pretty great benefit. But the reassurance of having expert guides and a support van when heading off into the wilderness on a motorcycle can’t be underestimated.

We’d taken our preparation for this overland adventure in Iceland seriously. Not only had I put some slightly more gravel-friendly tyres on my F650GS – the Metzeler Karoo 3 – we’d also spent a couple of days with Adventure Bike Training in Norfolk to boost our confidence on obstacles and water crossings. We’d also done the BMW Off Road Skills Level 1 course back in 2017. All of which meant that when the paved road ended, I didn’t have (quite as big of) a meltdown of confidence and could relax and enjoy the ride.

My personal gravel highlights must include the ride over the mountain from Pingeyri to Hrafnseyri (this was the road that Julia encouraged me not to bottle), the barren road to Modrudalur which felt like riding across the moon, the big views from up high on the 917 to Vopnafjordur, and of course the incredibly famous 100-mile F35 through Iceland’s interior.

Weird Weather

The big story in terms of what made this overland trip an adventure has to be the weather. And what weather we had! It was interesting, to say the least.

Believe it or not, we had a couple of days of a heatwave while we were there – 27 degrees and sunny. It didn’t get far off Iceland’s temperature record on one of the days, which when you think about where we were is very worrying. We stood watching icebergs melt away in front of us on the black sand beach at Eystri-Fellsfjara (the Diamond Beach). Scary.

On the opposite end of the scale, we also felt the force of angry Icelandic weather in the form of gale force winds, persistent heavy rain, and fog. I was very glad indeed for my waterproof clothing and warm layers, especially my boots! Unfortunately, the rain and fog meant our planned trip on the F570 to and around Snaefellskokull – the glacier-peaked volcano in the far west – was off the cards.

Route changes aside, I also now know that motorbikes get blown over in 80mph-ish gusts wafting across exposed landscapes… That one is probably a story for another day, and might be how I open my next Iceland adventure post. 

I guess the ridiculous and changeable weather is what makes Iceland what it is. The gnarly and rugged landscapes warrant matching gnarly and rugged weather. And while I obviously would have liked to have stayed dry (and upright…), it only added to the adventure.

Again, Again!

I honestly had the best time on this overland adventure in Iceland. I can’t tell you how much my insides skip about when I think about what it was like to ride my motorbike (my own motorbike, the same one I’ve ridden in North America and Southern Europe) along those rugged rural roads in Iceland. Oh, how much I want to go back for more.

I want more motorcycling, certainly, but it seems I’ve also become a little bit obsessed with the idea of hiking the Laugavegur and Fimmvorduhals trails. I have consumed so (so) much information on this since we came home! But even if that isn’t possible, I’d love to have the opportunity to explore some of Iceland’s views on foot, something which just wasn’t possible in armoured textile motorcycling clothing and adventure riding boots.

I want to see the country in winter, too. I imagine it’s a totally different place covered in snow and ice.

There is no doubt that Iceland has taken a bit of my heart, and a bit like Glencoe (which I guess remains my favourite place in the world), it’s a place I feel I will need to visit every now and again in order to top up that sense of wildness in my soul. I’ve no plans to return in the immediate future, but I definitely see a return to Iceland on the cards, and hopefully I won’t have to wait too many years.

Overlanding Iceland Complete

By going on an overland adventure in Iceland, I wanted to see unique and big views, ride into the wilderness, and have a motorcycling adventure to remember. I’m grateful that it was everything I hoped it would be, worth the wait, and it will take some really special scenery to replace those views in my memory.

I came home from Iceland a better and more confident rider, there’s no doubt about that. I’d done the training (and an awful lot of anxious worrying), and got to put it into practice with the most spectacular backdrop. I mean, I’m not about to become a Dakar rider or anything, but I’m happy to call myself an adventure motorcyclist – for a few days each year, anyway.

Motorcycling, for me, is always about getting out into the big wide world, and that is exactly what this overland adventure in Iceland meant.

As for GlobeBusters, we must have thought they were okay, because we’re heading to Morocco with them later this year. We aren’t going to start booking a tour company – even an adventure focused one – for all our motorcycle trips (we really love doing our own thing), but sometimes it’s nice to let someone else do the work so we have the time and headspace to enjoy the adventure in a different way. 

I hope to have another Iceland post on the way, featuring some of my best (and worst…) memories from this two-week overland adventure. So, if you have any questions about motorcycling in Iceland you’d like me to answer, please let me know, happy to help by sharing something specific from my experience if I can.