Cycling Iceland - 18 Days Bikepacking Iceland's Ring Road FULL DOCUMENTARY

[Music] h for I'm really happy to be here it was so much stress trying to get here to be honest between all the planning and like shipping my bike out to Iceland but now that I'm on the road and I'm camping and I'm doing what I came here to do I feel really really good I have done about 75 km so far and I'm at at a beautiful campsite with this beautiful view it's like a little hiking trail I guess or like Shore um behind the campsite and this place is gorgeous the grass over here looks like a Dr Seuss book The Rocks are very pretty I got my Crocs on the Rocks I think this is coming in from the ocean but it looks kind of half dried up I don't really know what this is but it's beautiful tomorrow I'm trying to go for a longer day to try to kind of get ahead if it's not too windy and difficult um I'm want to aim for like maybe 100K the only thing is 100k kind of leaves me in the middle of nowhere like there's no City at the end of 100K but wild camping is legal in Iceland if you're backpacking or biking so I might aim for around 100K see where that leaves me if it's campable I'll stay there if not and find somewhere else to be I don't know where I am but a Shore is beautiful and look at this view I did not sleep sleep much but I'm feeling so [Music] [Music] happy this is insane how am I literally in Iceland right now this is so [Music] crazy [Music] are the first half of this day was so cute it was windy and rainy but then it was also Sun and like I had time I was Dilly dallying seeing the sights sun was sort of out the second half of my day has been um hard the headwinds were there all day but they really picked up after I ate lunch they're like maybe 35 40 km an hour headwinds and they've been going for hours like they're like pushing me off my bike almost [Applause] don't go away don't go away so this morning I woke up at 4:30 and I barely slept but I was okay because I was so excited I had so much energy and vigor to start my day that I was fine with it and I packed in my tent and I got myself ready to go and I think I started biking by like 6:30 today and this morning was honestly really chill it was the weather was decent it wasn't perfect but it was just like a little Sunny a little rainy a little windy and I was Dilly delling you saw me I I went to a volcano I went to a waterfall I stopped at a restaurant and got a burger with Bri on it it was so good by the way and then when I left that restaurant the headwinds were going crazy and they clearly still are I was biking in these strong headwinds for hours literally hours and there was a lot of uphill mind you and there was even points where I was going downhill pedaling at my full capacity and still barely moving because the wind was pushing me back it's insane out here and I mentally prepared myself for this before I left for this trip because I knew that this was part of it I knew it would happen I just didn't think it would be the second day and so I was biking for hours in that condition and I meant to do 30 more kmers than I did let me put this into perspective I did 65 km today and it took me about 14 hours and I wanted to do 100 but the fog on the highway got so bad that it just wasn't safe for me to ride anymore so I had to call it a night and just set up my tent on the side of the highway and there's no shelter there's no trees there's no rocks I'm in the windiest place you could freaking imagine and I'm here in my flimsy Little Shelter and I'm about to eat some pasta so I don't know I'm just happy to be in my sleeping bag I'm cold I'm tired this is the Rea this is the reality of biking Iceland I'm having a great time but it was a little bit stressful [Music] good morning beautiful world I am in such a chipper mood today people are singing I'm in High Spirits today because I feel like a human being again last night I took my first shower in 4 days and I can't even explain to you how badly I needed that shower I did my laundry I charge all my electronics this is because I'm at an actual campsite tonight and not camping in the middle of nowhere I did 100 kmers on day three and I think it took me about 10 hours because again headwind and then yesterday I had this crazy idea that I was going to bike 150 kilometers to arcury and I was desperate to do it because this is where the shower is this is where the campsite with the shower and the bathrooms and water and everything is and then I got to this hill and I don't know how to explain to you this hill but this hill took me probably for I was going up this hill for 45 minutes I ended up in this town called varil and I had 100 km left to go and it was almost 300 p.m. and I was I was I got some hot dogs at the gas station got some calories in went to the bathroom and I was about to go do it and I think I could have done it but what happened was I stepped out of the gas station and there was a bus just waiting there that said arcury on it and I was like I'm going to arcury and I asked the bus driver is this going to arcury and he's like yeah it's going to arcury and I was like can I take my bike on this bus and he's like yeah you can take your bike on this bus and I was like well I think that's God's way of telling me that I should get on this bus and so I saved myself 100 kilm some may call it cheating I call it smart I saved myself 100 km and took the bus here and I'm actually so thankful that I did because I think I would have forced myself to bike the entire way but I think my body would have been in such terrible shape by the time I got here that tomorrow or today would be a terrible day so thankfully I took the bus came to this campsite this most beautiful wonderful campsite with hot showers a laundry machine grass it's beautiful I love it here and I feel so ref freshed I love when I pass by another cyclist and we get to wave at each other like we're bus drivers it's always like that so whatever there is a tunnel that I'm not able to bite through on the way out of archu and like a jump I waited for the bus for 3 hours so that it could take me through this tunnel cuz I thought that's what I was supposed to do do and when the bus came the driver was like actually we don't take bikes a bug just flew into my mouth e protein anyway I waited for the bus for 3 hours when the bus finally came the bus driver told me that I wasn't allowed to get on his bus with my bike he was nice about it but that's what he said which is very confusing there's so many different bus companies out here and some of them want you bike some of them don't but he was able to tell me that there's a detour where I can bike around this tunnel which is what I'm doing now it just takes a little longer but it's such a beautiful day I think it's the first sunny and warm day since I've been in Iceland and it feels like summer may I pass [Music] here we go [Music] [Music] [Music] was so fun I hope everybody gets to experience how that felt one day in their life we're finally coming up on some different scenery which is cool as you know I started in the north the north was very Countryside Vibes like it was grassy and mossy there was a lot of sheep horses cows and grass now I'm seeing shrubs trees Bush that was not a thing earlier which is why I never had anywhere to peek and don't get me wrong the countryside was freaking beautiful but it's nice to feel like I've made some progress like I've ventured on to the next phase of the journey you know you know sometimes I have to wonder why it is a like the things that I like because a lot of this trip has been literally tortured the days are so long and so hard and sometimes they feel like they're never going to end sometimes I'm camping in the middle of absolute nothingness with no one around but sheep I like the Sheep but it's like eerie and a little scary cuz I'm alone and then I wake up and I bike for like 10 12 hours a day just to do it all again the next day and I'm sweating and I'm stinky and I'm tired but for some reason I like it and sometimes I wonder why I don't like normal things but I am who I am obviously the pain isn't the part that I like I like the reward the Bliss that comes from the pain I will say amidst all of the trials and tribulations I have had a lot of moments like Soulful emotional moments I was thinking about this yesterday when I was climbing up yet another set of Hills this happened twice yesterday was biking up another terribly Long Hill for at least like an hour it was draining it took everything in me I get to the top and then I got to ride down the hill you know that feeling of feeling like you're flying down a hill like it feels almost magical and I got emotional thinking about it it was the most beautiful view I was riding down this hill for like at least 10 minutes and it just kept going it was the most surreal feeling and I was like wow I feel so alive but then when I thought about it I felt just as alive when I was pushing my way up that hill as when I was bombing my way down if you will not to get all deep about it but like going up the hill and going down the hill is just such a stupid metaphor for life but it really does make you feel alive your legs are burning you're sweating in the hot Sun or the cold wind and you're using like every part of your body and everything you have in you and that feels alive it's all part of it I guess do you see all these bugs also I've decided that his name is Borg that's his given name um but his street name is Lamie cuz my inner child wants to call him Lamie so bad but I know it's a dumb name so his actual given name is Borg cuz I bought him in borgan and I'm showing him the world so I do have one small issue last night when I was riding to this campsite the the screw inside of my front rack popped off as you can see it's supposed to look like this it just popped off and I couldn't find it which was fine because I have extra screws so I thought I just had to put a new one in now that I'm really looking at it though the threading is completely like it's it's I thought it just came unscrewed but I think it like ripped itself out somehow so I don't really know how I'm going to fix that but I need that and I'm nowhere near a bike shop at all my friendly neighbors gave me this roll of tape so I'm going to try to put it over the rope that I just tied and hope that this doesn't kill me nothing a little rope and tape can't fix I'm in bug country I don't know if you can see them swarming around me literally like they're not swarming everywhere they're just swarming around me and there there's just more like even when I go fast they're like all around me it's like a cloud and it's icky and it's hot it's hot as heck today yeah bug country it's not it's not looking too good this is nasty foreign look at that crater I think it's a crater we are just so tiny everything here is so big and vast and just like empty last night I decided to stay in a hotel for the first time since the beginning of this journey and I pre-booked it online so I had already paid for it and after I biked like 75 km to get here I biked another 3 km down a dirt road to get to the reception and I get to the reception and the guy's like oh yeah your room's ready um it's actually just 7 km down that same dirt road you were just on 7 km away from the reception and I saw that they had a campsite that I didn't know about so I was like maybe I can return the room and um pay for a campsite instead because I cannot bike 7 km down a dirt road that 3 km took me like 20 minutes he said I couldn't return the room but they could give me a ride if I left my bike there so I left my bike at the reception and they drove me out here and they were like we'll pick you up at 9:00 in the morning and then I had all my bags packed and ready to go by 9:00 and then 9:00 rolled around and nobody came and then 9:30 rolled around and nobody came and I thought I was stranded here so I started trying to Commander a ride from all these nice Italian people that are staying here and then they offered me a ride back and as I was packing all my stuff into their car my ride showed up and now I'm in his car um but he's getting the laundry so I have to wait another 30 minutes also this cost me like $250 Canadian dollars to stay here for one night have to pee so bad but there's never anywhere to pee every two hours I feel like my bladder is about to explode and then there's nowhere to pee because all the cars are driving by and there's a bunch of nothing around me that's okay I'm about to go down a cool hill for I have cried so many different different types of Tears since starting this trip even last night I called my boyfriend crying because I was feeling exhausted like just so exhausted and I think last week being that everything was so new and I still had so far to go and I had a lot of overwhelming feelings I was trying not to feel them too much and don't get me wrong I sat with my feelings accepted when I was feeling scared and I accepted aced when I needed to cry but I would kind of cut it off at some point or like go on my phone or do things to distract myself after a certain point because I didn't think I would be able to go on if I let myself feel those intense feelings to the extent that I could have if does that make if that makes sense now that I'm past the halfway point by the way yesterday was day eight today's day N9 yesterday I officially made it halfway I feel more robust than I did about a week ago like I feel mentally and physically a lot stronger than I did when I started and I feel like now I actually want to focus on being more connected with my emotions and my mental state throughout all of this because that's a big part of it obviously and so now I want to focus on doing my best to take it all in not just what's physically going on around me or what's physically going on in my body but what's mentally and emotionally going on and what I'm feeling good talk welcome to my TED Talk thanks for coming to my TED Talk [Music] um today I'm headed to I don't even know what it's called I have it on my Google Maps it's a 75ish km day which is not too bad it's been windy but it's kind of refreshing I like I notice that you either get cold and wind or you get bugs and I find that I prefer the cold and wind over the bugs it was a little foggy before it's suddenly like very foggy and I'm breaking out my tail lights so I'm heading into that Tunnel right there this is the first tunnel so far that I have to bike through the other two I wasn't allowed to bike through I had to take the bus through one and I had to bike around the other one but this one I'm allowed to go through I'm just scared cuz I think it's going to be pretty dark I'm going to turn on all my lights and just hope everyone can see me it's so Eerie in here it's a good long cave [Music] [Music] for [Music] I'm just past hofen and I'm finally starting to see some of these snowy C mountains over here all the other mountains I've seen have looked pretty dry this is the first snow I've seen the whole trip camping tonight and I was sitting here enjoying VI looking out of my tent and I look to the right and I saw this massive cloud of rain coming but it's been so peaceful and I've been journaling and I'm feeling very pleasant which is nice I feel very meditative at the moment I've been I think I've been sitting here for the last 20 minutes in my blanket I don't even have my bed set up just like listening to the rain and it's really really nice I've been more drawn to cats recently I love both [Applause] SC the one day I tried to skip sunscreen it's like sunny and hot as hell and I'm biking right into the sun I have a consistent Tailwind for the first time like since I got here at glacial ice Lagoon from this morning was unreal unreal woo I'm sweating it's a hot one look at these mountains from being in a glacier to being in like a desert so behind my campsite there's a network of hi trails and I'm hiking up to scarif I don't know how to say it spardy f scardy f or sparis SCAR or Spar it's a waterfall obviously I can see it over over there h oh well I've been thinking a lot about especially today and a few days ago about being present and how I usually am not it's very rare that I'm ever just like fully present in the moment like in my day-to-day life but also even out here I find that even if I'm not distracted by my phone or a book or music or a podcast or whatever I I'm internally distracted I'm always like planning out the future whe whether For Better or For Worse whether I'm stressing or I'm anticipating something exciting or I'm thinking about the past regretting things or Reminiscing on things it's like I'm never like right now I'm never in the right now it's such an icky habit because I came I came to ice Linux like I don't know when you go on a trip you kind of expect to be so mesmerized by the country you're in and the culture and everything you feel like you're just going to be in it but that does not come for free if that's not a habit you have at home in your everyday life it's not a habit you're going to have in Iceland or Colombia or Mexico or wherever you are if I don't know how to check in with myself at home and remind myself of what's going on around me and what's going on in my body and just like in this actual moment I'm not going to be able to do that in another country you know since coming here I've been fighting two separate battles I would say and I think one is the obviously the physical Battle of like cycling every day and whatever it's physically the hardest thing I've ever done but the other is is mental and is fighting literally fighting the battle to be present and to be undistracted obviously it this this thing that I'm doing can be painful it can be stressful it can be arduous um and I try to dampen that by listening to a funny podcast or a scary story or like an album I really like and there's nothing wrong with that I think there there are there's a time in place but I I came here to feel my feelings I came here to feel the physical pain in my body and the physical release and the Bliss that comes after the pain and I came here to fully immerse myself in what I'm doing and I've made I feel like I've made a lot of strides I feel like I've come a long way in the last 2 and 1 half weeks or however long it's been 15 days but this was always intended to be an emotional Journey as much as it was a physical journey and I think it's getting there I have a very special guest joining me today do you need help is that my best friend in Iceland is that my cutest best friend ability to sleep it's honestly irritating but I know it's not their fault well it kind of is like well I know like you can't help if you snore like you probably don't even know you snore pains that like move your teeth and make you not snore but it's like if I was like get a se you know look literally I I say this to Jet all the time like literally get a sleep hat machine you have literal sleep apum I this is a hard it was it was right in his heart it was like almost 2,000t of met or feet okay be convinced I was misinformed cuz you're were like girl I'm going to hop off that trail and go to the next Trail it's going to be so easy it's such an easy hike I was like girl are you what would you have done if and I'm being so serious like my foot is taped like this that was also in my Reba era oh yeah I I do I knew you like like Old Country like I think the only time I judged you was when I first met you and you the Juno album and Imagine Dragons and that was the only music that's what I judge because that was chaotic that was actually insane you had two albums and one of them is the Juno album like if it is fish and it smells like fish it doesn't bother me but if it's not fish and it smells like fish that's a problem I like why are these wild geese she was like oh no these are like my pets they like live outside but like they chose me that's so cute no she literally has a flock oh I have to show you all the Rocks I collected bring them out okay I'm going to show you my twoo I only got two they're doing some funky ass Behavior up therey I saw a dead deer oh my God there's way protein in this shut up rest in peace okay let's talk about this so basically folks the lid fell off and my dinner fell and know the problem is that this happened four I just realized something so dumb and sad but I really wanted to go to to see the plane wreckage today it's like an an American war plane or whatever on the black sand beach and I was really looking forward to it honestly this whole trip I was looking forward to it and I was passing by it today so I was going to stop and Hike over to the beach and I was so focused on my cycling and I was just so in the zone that passed it by 7 km not including the hike and so if I were to go back now and then come back here after that would add an extra 14 km to my day plus 7 km of walking on the beach and I don't know if I have time to do that I don't even think I have the energy to do that and it's kind of dumb of me not to go but I don't think I'm going to go I dropped my bike I hate that bikes also don't like nice this bike is the nicest thing I own and I paid all my money for it and it doesn't have a kickstand and I know that's normal when you own a nice bike but it really bothers me every day every single day and look who's on my seat can't [Music] this is a cute place 2 nobody actually love [Music] this it's my second last day and in proper Icelandic fashion it's windy and rainy [Music] com spe today is officially the last day of cycling and I'm so excited I'm very excited for the feeling of accomplishment that I'm going to feel when I get my butt back to the r of a campground and I'll have done it like that's crazy this is one of the hardest things I've ever done and this experience has taught me how to trust myself and how to have my own back because I've never really had to have my own back like I have out here I've never even been away from home for 3 weeks at a time let alone cycling around a country I've never been to and I'm so grateful that I got to do this but I'm also grateful that it's almost done I survived a lot of wind a lot of bugs a lot of rain and also like a lot of fear and a lot of doubt in myself not doubt I always knew I could do it not going to lie but fear like I don't know I've never camped alone in the wilderness before either in the middle of nowhere might I add but I had my back and I held my ground and I'm proud of myself to be honest not to you know hype myself up too much but I'm really proud of myself I'm also so excited to be done I'm exhausted I'm so tired the the lid popped off my beverage but lucky for me I'm wearing waterproof clothes [Music] anyway [Music] to add to the drama of it all I feel like I'm literally 15 km from the city and my bike is starting to break down just now Sandra and I'm hoping she's going to make it because I'm so close but listen to that the gear gears keep clicking when I'm not pressing the gear shift H like every time I pedal the gears shift for some reason and I brought an extra an extra chain but I'm not not I don't know how to fix this problem this is such a crazy feeling because I recognize this path that I'm on cuz it's the same one that I took out of the city 17 or 18 days ago and I'm back I literally made it find nothing short of a miracle my bike stopped clicking and we made it to the campsite I thought I was going to have to do a Cool Runnings and carry her to the finish line but she made it I love you Sandra I'm so excited for you you did it like oh my gosh I'm so happy I don't know what to feel to be honest okay wait smile I'm so happy for you thank you so much

Channel: Jenna Alexis

Views: 405,076

Keywords: iceland, bike tour, cycling tour, cycling europe, mountains, bike packing, backpacking, wild camping, camping, europe

Id: WM41KTc8s6Q

Length: 49min 57sec (2997 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 11 2023