Iceland Adventure Trip Two

Smug

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What have we let ourselves in for?:eek:

Tim, Steve, John, Stuart, Mark, Rob and Darren.

Such a great group of riders but don't tell them that I said so! Every one of them helped me in many ways often ending up with wet feet.
Thanks guys. :bow
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Camping :camping

Who on earth would want to get out of their tent to a view like this? They don't even have night time here :blast
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Everywhere else on Earth, the volcanic seams that birth new crust and shove continents apart lie at the bottom of the sea. In Iceland it's sitting right at the surface. Here the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasion tectonic plate rub against one another for all to see. How neat is that?
(Amazing what you can find out on Google)
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Steinvarða (an Icelandic obsession?)
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My photo doesn't do justice to the high viz green of the moss on the banks of this stream.
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The flora in some areas is just beautiful. There are huge fines for those that dare to venture off road and get caught.
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Best not to stand too near the edge.
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Our tents and bikes arranged tidily at the campsite alongside Lake Mývatn. Champion snorer Steve kindly parked his tent well away from ours.
It was amusing to see who the poor sods would be that pitched their tents within range of Steve's tent.
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A very windy day and two tents ended up with broken poles. Two of our group even coughed up for a night in the bunkhouse and another bedded down in an Icelandic turf house.
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Regrouping after a river crossing.
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Did you know that Ikea make flat pack churches?
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Way out in the middle of nowhere and along comes a bus. They were fun to follow especially when the track was dry and dusty. Usually they indicated right when when approached and we were able to squeeze past.
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The group stops to admire Mark's bike. :thumb
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Yours truely.
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Stuart was saving his sidestand for a special occasion. :aidan
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Did I tell you how much I loved the water crossings? Tim has a photo showing me diving to check out the algae. :blast
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Tim was very proud of his 10mm combination spanner and fitted it to the bike so that we could all admire it.
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Okay, by now I'm looking a bit of a wreck.
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I don't think that "Health and Safety" has got to Iceland yet. :green gri
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Steve gets his first puncture. Later in the holiday, sheltering from the wind in a concrete bunker, he showed us how to change a tube when he had another puncture.
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John balancing bike on side stand while we have a brew and eat our sandwiches.
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Turf houses.
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Posh turf houses.
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A strange land. Even the horizon slopes here.
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Gullfoss a waterfall in the district of Bláskógabyggð. Good job most Icelanders speak English.
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Rare for me to get a picture of someone riding through water. I'm usually busy emptying my panniers of water.
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Phew, a bridge!
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Rock jumps in front of bike.
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Tricky stuff sand!
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Has anyone else got some piccies?
 
Great post Tom, I'll add some photos soon and of course I'll include 'that one' :)
 
Is it possible to detect and movement or grinding of the tectonic plates?

:beerjug:
 
Excellent piccies Tom. I will do my best to add a few of my own.

You and your amphibious 1150 were awesome. Well done for always smiling no matter how wet you and your kit got.
 
Here a few of my photos from the 2nd Iceland trip. If you've thought about doing this trip but haven't got round to it, do it.......!

It was an amazing experience and really hard at times, especially in the deep sand. But looking back, those sections were quite isolated over the course of the 9 days riding. There were easy days too so it balanced itself out.

My TC GSA was awesome. What those bikes are capable of shouldn't make sense. It keeps up with 99% of bikes in the twisties, tours with the best of them and manages stuff off-road that it shouldn't do. I think the GSA was the right bike for 85% of what we did. There were a few times I wondered how much better off I might've been on my CRF450X (some of the river crossings and the more technical terrain) but not many. I never felt my pace on the trip was an issue, it helped having 2 other GS's on the trip however. Mark and Tim never put any pressure on anyone to go faster. The days took as long as they took.

My thanks to everyone on the trip. You all helped make it a truly spectacular adventure.
 

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More pics..
 

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The last few...
 

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What a beautiful country, thanks for taking the time post. Really well done all and especially the guys on the 1150 and 1200 Gs. :thumby:
 
Many thanks to Ange for this pic of trip 2 - anyone else notice how two ex-police motorcyclists stand out from the others?
 

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Two? It's clear why they never made detective :D
 
I wouldn't have noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out Rob (definitely not detective material). And anyway, detectives don't have any fun.....
 
Rock on Smug!!

Good to see there's life in the old dog yet! :thumb
 


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