Kiwi's In Greenland

BIKING THE SPRENGISANDUR

- John O'Malley

In spite of the long and tiring haul to travel from New Zealand, Sue and I were back for our second bike trip to Iceland. On the face of logic, you would have thought that our first visit should have put us off biking in the subarctic. Our previous trip in May a year earlier had coincided with the coldest Icelandic spring in 39 years and we gained an intimate acquaintance with some pretty wintry Icelandic weather- wind (plenty of wind!), cold, rain, sleet and snow were the norm and, in spite of careful preparation, we still diced with hypothermia and frostnip. But it wasn’t all struggle, and when the sun did come out or the wind and rain eased off, we were in awe of the wild and open landscapes that we passed through. So we were back, this time at the other end of the summer- in September when the tourist numbers would be thinning and hopefully before the first autumn snow. On our first trip, lingering winter snows denied us the chance to ride any of the inland Highland roads, this time they were all clear and open and we were keen to tackle the Sprengisandur route through the Highlands on our faithful Surly bikes.

There are two main south to north inland routes through the Highlands; the F35 Kjalvegur road through the Kjölur plateau, and the F26 Sprengisandsleið road through the Sprengisandur plateau between the Hofsjökull and Vatnajökull glaciers in the eastern Highlands. The F35 is the easier of the two, having a better road surface and all rivers bridged, while the F26 is more difficult; rougher, longer (around 200km in length) and with numerous river crossings to negotiate. The bulk of the F26 Sprengisandsleið passes through a vast barren volcanic sand plain- the Sprengisandur.