G-UP SEP 2011

FIRE & ICE

3 nights on a ferry and a stop over in Denmark relaxing and we get to Iceland It's colder than expected and we are soon adding more clothes, well actually all our warm clothes and continued to wear them everyday for the first week. The fear of them not drying overcomes the wearing of them everyday.

Iceland offers some excellent roads, long, sweeping, bendy, gravel, and dirt but always with stunning views. Nobody rides or drives with any great speed in Iceland, far too much to be looking at all the time. The main attraction is how little traffic there is on the road; it feels like the road is your own.

We visited many waterfalls, the herring museum, the whale museum and of course the not to be missed penis museum, which was interesting to say the least. Went whale watching, viewed volcanoes, visited the largest glacier in Europe, which while wonderful was a slight disappointment as all black from last years eruption.

We camped every night and only had 1 night when we almost stayed in a hotel because of rain, but decided to brave it and camp close to a waterfall; we are hard bikers... With good camping gear we where never cold at night. As it doesn't go dark at night the eye masks we took did the job and we slept well.

I achieved my dream of riding across the centre of Iceland; the road had only fully opened a week or so before we left. I gained the feeling of peace I had thought about on many occasions while planning this trip and had a journey full of emotion; high up in the mountains with a glacier on either side, views so stunning they can't be described, and just so quiet, not even insect noise.



The road was about 140 miles long, all dirt and I did almost all of it standing up, which was a first on the 650, with just the odd 4X4 and a couple of other bikes in the distance. Of course no trip is complete without me having a tumble and it was on this great road the expected happened while I was coming to a stop. Just the one bruise and apart from snapping off the clutch lever no damage! Being the lucky girl I am I married the biker boy scout who had ensured I had a spare and then the expected little chat about, "not too much brake on the gravel and that's your only spare and we are miles and miles from anywhere!" I shot him my most ashamed look (which I have perfected) and he crumbled.

We eventually reached road and travelled to the agreed campsite. Knowing this had been a hard day for me as well as the day of my dreams, my husband said, "I don't know if I should shake your hand, hug you or kiss you." It was all three!

Eighteen months after passing my test, I was honeymooning in Iceland on my own bike and camping. It might not be every girl's dream but it was mine, and I enjoyed every moment of it. I also now know I would never have achieved this on my own as I originally thought, even with an organised group. I'm not the most confident rider but I'm lucky enough to have found an adventurous rider who watches my every move on the bike and keeps me as safe as he can, encouraging me every step of the way.

Life is short, live your dream... I need another dream now!

THANKS

Everytime we go out on our bikes we meet interesting people with stories to tell and adventures that inspire. Over coming issues we'll try to bring you some of those that have inspired us but if you have a story we'd love to hear from you.