Sixed day – Wednesday July 13th

Woke up to the hurling wind at 7:00. I decided that we would stay put for the next hours in the hope that the wind would come down. At 9:00 I made us breakfast after which we started taking down the tents and packing. The wind was much stronger than before (probably 15-20 m/s) and we decided to bike to a hut that was supposed to be some 8 km away and seek shelter there. We never found that hut and just continued onward against the sandy slopes and the wind. After 21 km we were exhausted and had to make camp in the middle of this vast sandy desert. But not before we had crossed one cold river on foot.  There are three types of rivers in Iceland: glacial with temperature of 0°C, pluvial with temperature close to the air temp (6-9°C) and spring rivers with temperature in the highland of Iceland between 2-3°C. All the rivers we crossed were of the first and third kind. Our tents were literally sitting in the middle of nowhere with no shelter and no vegetation to be seen as far as the eyes could see. The dinner that night was pasta with tuna and sand. Very grinding on the teeth. Trips statistics: we biked 21 km in 4h and 14m. We rested for 2h. Our max speed was 19,3 km/h but our moving average is 5,1 km/h. Total ascent was 643 m. We have now 47 km to go to Nýjidalur if this weather continues it will take two more days to get there!