CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Akureyri it runs 529 km to Akureyri; allow about 18 h 04 of riding. The stops in between: Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature and back through Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Akureyri calls itself the capital of the north, and with a bit under eighteen thousand people it is the second city of Iceland by some margin. It lies at the head of Eyjafjörður, the longest fjord in the country, with steep snow-streaked mountains rising straight from the water on both sides. The air is sharper than in Reykjavik and the winters are colder and drier, and in summer the town has a gentler, greener feel than most of the island. The church, a tall concrete building designed by the architect Guðjón Samúelsson and completed in 1940, stands above the town at the top of a flight of steps, and its stained glass includes a window rescued from a church in Coventry after the war.
Read the complete Akureyri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Akureyri is where the day begins. Next is Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature.
Vatnajökull is the biggest ice cap in Europe by volume, a white plateau covering about eight percent of Iceland, with outlet glaciers that spill into valleys and lagoons. Beneath the ice lie volcanoes, including Grímsvötn and Bárðarbunga, that erupt from time to time, melting the ice from below and sending floods of water down the rivers. The national park that surrounds it, one of the largest in Europe, is a place where fire and ice are visibly at work on the same ground.
Read the complete Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature comes up 92 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
184 km in you reach Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature. Next is back through Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature, late in the day. Next is Akureyri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Akureyri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Akureyri. That is the ride.
Akureyri → Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature is 184 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Vatnajökull National Park - Dynamic Nature → Akureyri is 184 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.