Iceland 6-Day Adventure Motorcycle Tour
[Music] in September 2023 I flew from Sydney to Iceland for a real bucket list motorcycle tour with Local Company ride with locals upon arrival the first thing we had to do was pick our bike they've got 350s 450s and 700 cc bikes and even though I ride a 701 back in in Sydney I opted for the lighter 350 which I loved then we had a briefing by the owner skoly he told us a bit about where we're going to be riding and what to expect and after that we jumped on our bikes and we headed out because you never know what that's going to comment there were eight of us in the group but what we didn't realize at the time was that before the end of day one one of our party was going to be off with a broken leg and then after day two their partner was also going to leave the trip so we spent most of the trip with seabus so here's the plan for day one we started at SOS and we had about 50k of tarmac and then we hit the dirt and we had um a lovely first day's ride and we ended up in a hut called [Music] rupan the terrain on day one sort of started yeah pretty average but it just got better and better as we approached the highlands the volcanic surface that we're riding on is quite amazing it's quite soft so you slide a lot but it never seems to give way I never had my back wheel and my tires slide out on me and it's just so much fun it's just kind of like the bikes bouncing around it's sliding around but yet there's so much traction it's kind of it's a strange surface but it's probably the best most enjoyable surface I've ever ridden on now this is where the accident happened you can see on the right hand side of the track there's a sort of rut and a wash out which is easy enough to avoid but Steven got his front wheel stuck in it and the bike came down on top of him and at the bottom of a hill we were taking selfies in front of the waterfall and enjoying just the beautiful panoramas and we didn't realize that Steven was actually pretty bad badly hurt at the top of the hill with a broken leg Steven had fallen at the top of the hill which was very exposed and it was cold and windy so the first thing we did is we took him down to the bottom of the hill and found some shelter even down here at the bottom of the hill it was still pretty cold and windy it was going to take some time before the support vehicle reached us so we decided to actually put Steven on the back of a bike and double him to a nearby Hut where he could stay stay warm while we're [Music] waiting at least Steven was now warm as we waited for the support vehicle which took him into Hospital look happy and determined that he'd broken his leg in three places the wind continued to build that afternoon so we beelined it to our Hut for the night [Music] it was a beautiful little Hut on the banks of a river just set in this gorgeous Valley so we settled into our first first of five nights in the mountain hut it had been an eventful day one it was day two and it was windy and wet so we didn't have high expectations about this day's riding the guides planned some local things to see so we're going to check out a couple of waterfalls and some volcanic [Music] craters [Music] while the wind stayed on and off during the day the rain actually stopped and it was pretty nice riding riding up to the volcanic craters was pretty [Music] impressive [Music] we came to our first sort of longer water crossing and the guides gave us pretty 0:04:59.560,1193:02:47.295 [Music] clear instructions take it nice and slowly well Nick didn't follow instructions I'm not going to bloody wait for you then Nick had to do the walk of shame and push his bikes through the water turned out Nick had drowned the bike thanks Nick no luckily the guides were well prepared they had spare oil so we did a quick oil change on the side of the road and and we got going [Music] again the views were just incredible it's almost like around every Bend was just an impossibly beautiful Panorama and riding through the lava Fields it just felt like we're on another planet at times [Music] [Music] play out let me get out behind you [Music] [Music] lots of time to just stop and take in the view take a few photos it really was beautiful is and after a wonderful day two of riding we headed back to our Hut for another wonderful meal but tonight we had movie night and we were going to watch Eurovision with Will Ferell and highly recommended to anyone that wants to get some insight into Icelandic culture who was to hear your vision [Applause] song yeah ding here we [Music] go on day three the wind eased and it was looking like better weather so we rode from our Hut up to an incredible waterfall called hios and another amazing Valley that I cannot even attempt to pronounce and then we went to the thermal Springs at L mana laga and then finally drove to our new Hut for the [Music] night [Music] when we got to hios get closer Nick we were greeted by just an incredible sight is scary being right on the edge of this incredible Canyon with just not one but three spectacular waterfalls was quite mind-blowing [Music] then we rode to this incredible Canyon the name I'm not even going to attempt to [Music] pronounce [Music] [Music] after Nick's Escapade of drowning the bike on day two the guides were taking no chances and making sure that Nick wasn't going to drown any more bikes it was too cold and too windy for us we didn't want to take all that gear off and get in the springs and then get geared up again but I ended up staying here with my family a few days later and my boys sunk quite a few beers that evening in the hot springs then we took a route up into the mountains and I don't think anyone was expecting it but it started snowing and the snow just got heavier and and heavier and the next thing you know we were riding in our Winter [Music] [Music] Wonderland and while all of us had ice and snow head to toe we just loved the experience especially coming from Australia it's not something you get very often to ride through snow and a [Music] [Music] [Music] blizzard [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we made our way to a new Hut for night three and it was in just the most beautiful Valley and it was a an incredible Hut we had the Hut to ourselves and it was just a stunning stunning Vista to wake up to day four and this is where things went to a whole new level in terms of beauty we rode from our beautiful hutner Valley through the volcanic region of Heckler and ended up on the other side of the national [Music] park the weather was fantastic the wind had dropped and we knew we were going to have a really great day riding now in my adventure writing in Australia I've seen all kinds of warning signs but never one for volcanic eruption so that was a new one for me we were now riding towards the volcano Heckler and the riding was fast it was flowing and we all sort of just got into a Groove and just had a great time the clouds were quite low and it created quite a sort of dramatic landscape it was just really hard to describe what it was like to ride through well Nick and I both ride 700 cc bikes in Australia we were both just loving the light little 350s and it was just so much fun to slide them around on this incredible [Music] surface 0:15:58.600,1193:02:47.295 [Music] as the day went on the scene reges got more and more spectacular and we all were just loving the riding more and more day four was just [Music] amazing in terms of terrain we had a bit of everything on day four there was sort of slower more Rocky trails and then we had the highspeed flowy Trails we even had um snow riding and some sort of steep hills I found myself using a term in Iceland impossibly beautiful and it really is just describes what I was seeing it's almost like around every turn around every bend the scenery was just impossibly beautiful and I'll finish off day for with some examples of what the riding was like and and what the scy was like it was [Music] [Music] mindblowing [Music] [Music] like after Nick drowned the bike on day two our guide was taking no Chances with Nick he was giving him remedial Crossing advice you know what it's like when you're riding and all of a sudden you just sort of become one with the bike you're you're relaxed you're riding about as well as you can ride the terrain is amazing the track is fantastic the weather is incredible and the scenery is just mind-blowing you kind of get into this euphoric mode and that's how I felt on um day four it was just probably the best riding I have ever [Music] [Music] done oh he [Music] go [Music] [Music] [Music] we finished day four at a new Hut and this Hut was situated right on the edge of this most beautiful beautiful Canyon day five was the highlight of the trip for me because we were going to ride in the Black Desert our route today was a circular route through the Black Desert but the SES that we saw were just mind-blowing baby the weather was perfect and we were all really excited about the ride today actually it's probably worth just introducing our three amazing guides that we had on this trip we had MGI who was fantastic secondly we had Modesta and then finally we had AA um all three guyses were just the best hats off to them we set off under beautiful blue skies and made our way to the Black Desert the colors of Iceland are amazing the bright greens against the black soil just make for an incredible power we stopped at this beautiful little hikers Hut and just checked out the view and just took some time to um take it all in like a lake the pace definitely picked up on day five I think we were all just really comfortable on the bikes and on the terrain and we were having [Music] fun and we came to this really beautiful Lake and we just um spent some time riding up and around it and onto this little Peninsula and the views around this Lake were just mind-blowing I really appreciated the stops that we made because you know often when you're riding along quickly on the dirt bikes the views can just fly past you and just stop and look around and take these views in it is pretty special the next stop was the Black Desert and I was really looking forward to this cuz I don't know I love these vast open desolate areas I just find them really f fting oh yeah that view is just awesome look at that the Black Desert I'd seen a few pictures of it and I knew it was going to be something special and it didn't disappoint you know some people might find it just Barren and not attractive but I don't know it was incredible to me I love just this desolate bleakness it was [Music] stunning and as we started climbing up the mountain there was steam coming off the ground and I wasn't sure if it was steam from rain or whether it was from volcanic activity but it was pretty cool and as we approached the top of the mountain all of a sudden the views just unfolded in front of us and it really sort of took our Breath Away by the vastness of [Music] it [Music] [Music] this was a great place for our lunch stop and here we just enjoyed this pretty special view then as we left the mountain toop we drove back down and we just had this amazing view across the Black Desert that we had ridden across I think this will give you a real sense for how amazing it [Music] is [Music] wiser the r is [Music] down the Black Desert did not [Music] disappoint that afternoon we rode pretty hard and we rode pretty fast and it was a a long day but boy it was a a beautiful day it was just so spectacular and [Music] enjoyable without a doubt day five was my favorite [Music] day [Music] [Applause] [Music] by the end of the day we were hungry we were tired we were thirsty but boy what an amazing day five it was the final day of our tour but Iceland still had a few gems to share with us today we made our way back to SOS from our heart but we rode through some pretty incredible [Music] Landscapes but I thought I'd start the day by screwing around with my drone and capturing some images of these gorgeous Canyons right behind our [Music] Hut they have a saying in Iceland that if you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes and it'll change and that's very true but unfortunately in our case it sort of changed for the worse the clouds came in and it created a pretty moody mysterious atmosphere but on this last day we came across some scenery which is just as good as anything we'd seen on the previous 5 days this waterfall was pretty cool to R [Music] across we then rode back out into another Black Desert again I just love the starkness of this landscape like check this out a perfect green cone just coming out of this Black Desert how cool is that [Music] w [Music] [Music] [Music] the guides had one more little finale up their sleeves they took us down into this beautiful little canyon where we could just ride along the river and it was um a lot of fun [Music] I always find myself just reflecting on the trip on the last day and my reflections of this trip were you know while Australia may have more adventurous murder bite riding I can't imagine anywhere in the world that has more beautiful riding than Iceland the landscape is just stunningly stunningly beautiful in fact I've already signed up for another trip next year I'm going to the West fiords in June and as for the tour operator you know I'm not big for tours but this trip was just brilliantly organized the people that I was riding with were a lot of fun the guides fantastic the equipment totally reliable and um it was faultless I would highly recommend them to [Music] anybody
2023-11-01 13:36
