Distance: 63.33 miles

Time: 5:48

Average Speed: 11.5 mph

Elevation Gain: 2,481 feet

Campsite Etiquette; not something I’ve considered much in all my years of camping – other than don’t pinch other people’s stuff and say hello as you walk past people in the site – but yesterday I found I was wrong, there are plenty of unwritten rules I try and follow and now I know what some of those are!

The key ones are: 1) in a large scarcely populated campsite, don’t pitch your tent within a metre of someone else, so close that you hit their tent with your poles when dismantling; and, 2) if someone has positioned their tent beside a picnic bench which they intend on using, don’t move said picnic bench over beside your own tent and leave all your possessions all over it!

I would add: if you’re a large group in a large empty campsite planning to build a large party tent and stay up half the night, try not to camp next to other tents, but that’s more of a guideline! Of course, I’m probably just being unreasonable…

Unfortunately, this morning I was delayed in starting as I didn’t have a picnic bench beside my tent to cook my breakfast and pack my kit on. So, it was half past 12 before I finally got my act together and pedalled out of the site. The route followed some quiet roads, my loaded touring bike feeling like home as I hit an excellent network of cycle paths to head out of the city.

Starting to feel peckish – as it’d been a long time since breakfast – I came across a Grill 66 burger bar at a petrol station. I had high hopes for the petrol station restaurants as I’d read good things!

Opting for their Countryman burger I was pleasantly shocked! It was probably one of the best flavour combinations I’d ever had on a burger, so I tracked down the ingredient list as a reference!

I soon turned onto highway 36 and started the golden circle proper. A two-lane road with a good surface, it rose gradually beside a mountainous backdrop. Soon the landscape opened out and the endless horizons reminded me of those I’d encountered in the far north of Scotland on LEJOG.

Suddenly I encountered loose stones on the road, lots of loose stones, and I was to encounter long stretches like that for much of the ride. Slightly concerning when I opted for road tyres for this route, if stretches like this continue I’ll be getting punctures in my brand new tyres in under a week!

After miles of gently rolling hills over a vast plateau, I started to drop down towards Lake Thingvellir, then suddenly emerged at Pingvellir. Walking up to an obvious viewpoint and not too sure what to expect, Lake Thingvellir provided a stunning backdrop to the obvious centrepiece, a huge plate rift just below and stretching as far as the eye could see. Just as I was heading back down the ramp, 5 coaches arrived in convoy, a Viking tour group, I made a beeline for the cafe before they arrived.

I was only just half way, but with the long stretch round to the the side of the lake out of the way, the road flattened and I started to put in some miles. Making a brief stop at another petrol station shop later, I had 20 miles to go, then I really got my head down.
I’d been estimating that it might be 9 before I made camp for the evening, but then, at 20:15, I saw a sign reading 5 km to Geysir. 20 minutes to run it I thought, but I’m not that much quicker cycling. I was very pleasantly surprised when the campsite came into view and being only half past 8, it felt like I’d gained some of my evening back!

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