Day 5 - Cycling from Borganes to Staðarskáli, getting a lift from Staðarskáli to Akureyri

I woke up as planned feeling much better for the good night's sleep. It was a relatively cloudy start to the day and quite cold - this helped speed up the process of taking the tent down and loading up the bike. I made it to the supermarket with time to spare so had a look at my map in the service station restaurant opposite to decide on a target destination for the day. I thought the town of Blonduous would be ideal - it was just over halfway to Akureyri (probably 170km or so away) so set this as my target. When supermarket opened I was straight in. It was very reasonably priced so I ended up buying more food than I needed, and went back over to the service station restaurant to eat this. I sat behind a pillar out of sight and started tucking into yoghurt, jam baguette, bananas and bourbons. I had bought two baguettes and a jar of jam so after eating as much as I wanted for breakfast I prepared the rest of the jam baguettes for later. The plan was to be pedalling by 10, but it was more like 10.30. I wasn't really bothered as with the 24-hour daylight I didn't have to worry about covering the distance before it getting dark. My backpack took a few kilometers to get used to - it was bulky and heavy enough to cause a bit of initial strain. After about 15km or so I had adapted and it felt fine. The sun had come out later in the morning and it didn't take long for me to unzip my jacket. I was focused on keeping the momentum going and didn't stop at all until I had covered 40-50km and a good few hours of solid pedalling. There wasn't anything in the way of restaurants/service stations or even a bench to sit on anywhere so I sat by a stream by the side of the road sheltered from the increasing wind. There were very few cars going passed and it was a nice relaxing break from the saddle. I was there between 20-30 minutes eating more jam baguette and bourbons/re-filling my water bottles from the stream. I had been slowly climbing for a while before stopping, and the hills and wind intensified significantly shortly after I got going again. I was battling very strong headwinds/sidewinds whilst going uphill and it took all of my concentration to keep pedalling as gusts created by the cars and lorries passing were throwing me off balance at one particularly challenging point. The climbing eventually stopped but the winds remained strong. It was a vast exposed plateau and I was at the mercy of the wind for a long time. Thankfully there weren't too many cars or lorries going past. Momentum was key at this point and there was no real option of stopping. After what must have been at least an hour of this I got to a small waterfall by the side of the road. It was by a bridge so there was a barrier to stand the bike against - I was very glad of this opportunity to stop. I took some photos and refueled with more bourbons before pedalling again 10 minutes later. There was now finally some houses in the distance and the road was starting to descend. Going downhill didn't really speed anything up as the wind was still making life hard for me - it was a case of free-wheeling at about 15km per hour with the brakes on trying not to get blown off balance. I started passing some of the houses and thankfully it wasn't long until I saw a service station ahead. As I crawled up to the service station the wind was increasing still. I lent the bike up outside and stumbled in. This was going to be a generous break. As I came in a couple of guys offered me a lift in their truck as they were heading towards Akureyri too. They were having a meal and would be leaving in about 20 minutes - it was decision time. Normally I would have politely refused and insisted on cycling all the way. However it was less than 48 hours after completing a 16-hour triathlon, I had been cycling for nearly 100km today in very testing conditions and was knackered. Also the guys told me that the wind was likely to persist for the majority of the way to Akureyri. I took the sensible option and accepted the lift. After they had finished their meal we laid the bike on the back of their massive american-style pick-up-truck and headed off. They were both from the small town of Dalvik (20km north of Akureyri) and worked in the fishing industry there. Cruising along in the truck was good and a well-needed break from the saddle. Like all Icelanders they spoke very good English and told me about their work, Icelandic Horses, and what to expect in Akureyri amongst other things. We stopped at another service station en-route and they gave me a packet of dried fish - a common healthy snack in Iceland that is high in protein. This was surprisingly tasty. They dropped me off a few kilometers outside of Akureyri at about 9.30pm. I thanked them for the lift before they drove away onto the road towards Dalvik. I was at the top of a hill that lead down into Akureyri. After a while spent taking photos and videos of yet more great views I pedalled down into the town. I was now cold as the temperature had dropped and was keen to find the campsite. Melkorka and Ivar had recommended a campsite that was located approx. 10km from the other side of town. The guys in the truck had told me about another one in the town itself. I was eager to get to bed and out of the cold so went for the convenient town campsite. I found this easily as it was signposted. It wasn't particularly nice as was in quite a busy suburban area but it would have to do. I paid, pitched the tent, had some more food in the tent and went at about 11.30pm to bed with the alarm set for 7.00am