News from Finland

Text message: 1:58 PM Wed June 30
Made it to Rovaniemi , Finland, lots of trees and plenty of places to camp. Will take it easy tmrw. Matthew

Greetings from Iceland via Matthew and Eric

Hi Mom and Dad,
Tuesday June 29th, 2010

Right now we´re in Reykjavik staying at the Reykjavik City Hostel. We rode into
town around 9am local time and prepared for a day full of errands. First we each
got a bike box at the bike shop, then we got some food, and then we mailed all
our climbing gear home to Berea in a big red box. We each had a pair of boots,
harness, rope, and other climbing gear that we used on Hvannadalshnukur but won´t need any more this summer. It was kind of expensive to mail but it´s worth it not to have to carry it for the rest of the summer. The post officer said it would take 1-2 months to get to Kentucky. Whenever it gets there, could you open it up?

Tomorrow morning we´re flying out of Keflavik at 7:55am (local time) and
getting to Rovaniemi, Finland at 5:00pm local time. We might stay at a
campground in Rovaniemi or start biking. The reason we chose to fly into there
was because it´s the cheapest airport that gets you close to the Arctic
Circle. From Rovaniemi it´s about a 4 day ride to Norway.

In Iceland here it rained a little bit every single day the past week and never
seemed warm. I don´t know how people live here when it´s 55 degrees and
raining during the warmest time of year. We always started out biking in a
whole bunch of layers and then de-layered. A couple days ago when it was really
windy and cold we found this awesome cave a few miles off the road on the
southernmost cape in Iceland. It was about as big as Devil´s Kitchen. The next
morning we had a huge tailwind and got to 35 mph on flat ground. There were
sandstorms everywhere blowing the volcanic dust all over the place. We just
closed our eyes when a big gust blew the sand at us. Then of course it started
raining but once again we found a cave to eat lunch in.

It´s been really hard to find a place to camp because there aren't any trees
around here to hide behind, unlike anywhere else we've camped. A few days ago
our luck ran out and we couldn't find anyplace to camp so we decided to stay
at a campground which should cost $9 per night. But the campground host never
showed up and there wasn´t a box to collect money so we didn´t have to pay.
So over the past 7 days the only thing we spent money on was food.

The wind has been pretty hard to deal with around here. Sometimes it will be
blowing from the SW in the morning and then change to NE in the afternoon and
that will cut our speed in half. But it´s fun when we have a big tailwind.

The people are really nice around here and everyone speaks English. Sometimes
when we´re dressed normally we kind of blend in and people will talk to us in
Icelandic first. We´ll say ´tak´ and then they´ll go on thinking we´re
from Iceland. It´s weird being able to blend in unlike in China or India or
Peru.

uhoh, looks like my internet time is about to expire, i´ll send this email and
then sign up for more minutes. Matthew

More news from Eric via Petek
Eric said they have been shopping at grocery stores the whole time. They found dried fish (similar to our concept of beef jerky) - I think it must have been hardfiskur - and had that as a supplement to dinner. Apparently it's pretty good!

It's evening there now, so they were about to go to dinner. As you know they fly out tomorrow, and are probably going to start biking right away when they get to Finland - though it seemed like they were not 100% set on that, they might take a rest day there first. I think they must be looking forward to facing less wind and warmer temperatures.

On the Road In Iceland

On Saturday Matthew was successful in talking with Amanda but only for a minute or so before the phone quit. He had tried home with no luck because I missed the cell phone. I checked the missed calls and spotted one so I called. After awhile there was an answer by a man with an Icelandic accent. We were both confused and then he said, "There is no one here at the campground." I tried some more and then on the phone heard, "Dad, Dad?" It seems I was calling a pay phone and the man near it just happened to answer. He heard my voice and must have figured I was calling for the two American bike riders. We thank him for picking up the payphone. After this I talked with Matthew for a little while from the town of Kirkjubaejarkluastur. ? It was a long name with Kirk and I searched the map. This is the only Kirk on the road close to the sea so this must be the place. The "headwind was a little strong "and the bikers "planned another 40 k of riding today to find a campsite." It is difficult to "stealth camp" when there are no trees to seek shelter behind. By now they have ridden over 300 miles around landscape that Amanda relayed was sometimes volcanic and similar to terrain in the Galapagos Islands. Amanda also wrote that Matthew said there was one guided group climbing the High Point Glacier and they were surprised to see Matthew and Eric climbing by themselves. All the Icelanders speak English and the bikers plan to be in Reykjavik by Tuesday to fly out to Finland.

Roof Of Iceland

12:29 PM EST June 25
Text message from Matthew
On roof of Iceland now hvannadalshnjukur now! Biked 200k yesterday will try call tmrw.

Questions to Icelanders

The first question Matthew and Eric asked when they got on a road in Iceland.

Hver er besta leiðin til Mount Hvannadalshukur, hæsta fjall á Íslandi?
Guess.

http://gearjunkie.com/highpoint-climb-in-iceland

Iceland

Matthew sent a text at 2:08 AM June 22. "We made to Iceland. Not many trees."
It seems like the volcano did not cause any problems.
I think Iceland is 3-4 hours ahead of EDT. I will post maps, weather, photos and any info that I get from the bike riders