I spent the month of August in Iceland with the intention of unicycling through some of the most beautiful volcanic terrain in the world. However, due to my (mis)adventures in Nepal (see my avatar), I ended up being on crutches and unable to do much in the way of off-road riding. It had to be one the saddest months of my life!!! However, I did manage to cruise around the Capital, Reykjavik on my unicycle. I even managed to ride the Reykjavik marathon despite still being on crutches.
Anyway, if you don’t want to read through my long article here are the photos:
I arrived in Iceland at the end of July, after two and a half months in Nepal and the UK. I had a great time in both places, but whilst I was in Nepal I broke my ankle riding MUni in the Himalayas. After getting evacuated on horseback (scary) and getting my ankle screwed back together in Kathmandu (terrifying) I continued onwards.
Iceland is a small country with slightly less than 300,000 people. I don’t know how many unicyclists live there but I did not meet any. It is also full of volcanoes and really cool lava fields, waterfalls, geysirs, mudpools and other geothermal areas that I had been looking forward to riding on my unicycle.
However, with my ankle still unable to weight bear, I ended up x-country crutch-walking instead. I still managed to visit some fantastic places. Our trip up North with the international students took in Akureyri, a beautiful town in the North of Iceland. We went from there to Husavik, and sailed out to just outside the Arctic circle to harass some whales. We saw lots of Minke whales and also a Humpback which came within metres of our boat. After that we went to see Dettifoss, Europes most powerful waterfall, Godafoss (another waterfall), Asbyrgi (funny shaped cliff), Namafjall (geothermal area), Dimmuborgur (lava field with funky shapes), and Lake Myvatn.
Closer to home, I went to visit Gulfoss (the golden waterfall) and Geysir. That is, THE Geysir, after which all geysirs have been named. Unfortunately, Geysir doesn’t erupt anymore due to all the soap powder that has been dumped into him, but there are other erupting geysirs, like Strokkur. I also soaked in the Blue lagoon (wonderful experience, ahhh…and good for the skin).
Going south, to the Vestmannaeyjar Is., I climbed up two really awesome volcanoes. One of them, Eldfell, was still warm from the eruption in 1973 that destroyed half the town. This is where I missed my unicycle the most, since these would have been REALLY cool to ride down. They look like the volcano that Kris Holm rode down in Unizaba. Except that the ground was still steaming. Keiko from ‘Free Willy’ was kept in these islands before his release in July.
Whilst I was in Reykjavik, I did the 10km inline skating section of the Reykjavik marathon. I was still unable to weight bear and basicly had to hop around on one foot when I jumped off my unicycle. The marathon went across the beautiful harbour and rates as one of the most scenic marathons I have participated in. There were also other alternative racers: Recumbents, Wheelchair racers, road skiers, guy with prosthetic leg, inline skaters etc. It was really fun and I did OK against the inline skaters (47min/10km).
I also visited the Icelandic mountainbike club to show off my MUni. After a (first?) Icelandic screening of UNiverse, with the usual expletives (Holy $#@! did you see that?), I think several of them might take up unicycling. They had a go on my MUni but I could not do much in the way of a demonstration due to my ankle. The club has a good website that is helpful if you are planning a mountainbike (or mountain-unicycle) trip to Iceland.
Iceland is a wonderful place for a Unicycle adventure. I would encourage unicyclists, especially if you are in the UK, to make the relatively short hop over to Iceland. I intend on going back one day when my ankle is healed to do some of the riding that I missed out on.
Ken Looi
