Hitting the wall

Towards the end of the last day cycling out of the desert I had cycled more or less non stop for 6 hours. I had had a break at Gulfoss to see the huge waterfall, but I couldn't cope with the crowds of tourists and over priced coffee and Maple Pecan lattices. I had another quick stop further down the road at Geyser to see the famous 100 degree centigrade water spout, again too many people after my days alone in the desert and it wasn't great weather so the natural wonders seemed a bit sterile. I pushed on to Langvatn - a lake I planned to stop at for the evening and would have given me a 100km day.

At around the 90km mark, I just collapsed and fell off my bike, I had a few seconds warning of being very dizzy and feeling a bit nauseous, but the bike just stopped and fortunately I fell into the grassy verge. I just lay there for a few moments wondering what happened. I was still clipped into my pedals and the bike and trailer were still attached. After a very inelegant detachment, I composed myself and began a regimented process of eating and drinking. Within half an hour I was feeling better and managed to limp into town to find real sustenance and a campsite for the night.

The evening was stunning and I was feeling much better after a coffee and a hot dog (you can't buy much else here by way of fast food!) and thought rather than camp here, I would push on the extra 24kms to Pingvellir, Icelands most important historical and geological place.

At the top of a very steep pass, an American tourist stopped in his car and wished me luck on my journey and gave me a cold beer to drink when I reached the top, as he warned me it was very, very steep. Once at the summit I realised I had cycled a 20% gradient hill with my trailer, which for me was a great achievement - although my knees were not happy about the situation.

Pingvellir is the cultural home and birthplace of the modern Icelandic nation. On 17 June 1994 around a quarter of the Icelandic population, assembled at Pingvellir to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Icelandic Republic. The area is also famous for the Alpingi (the ancient high court and assembly of Iceland, which is also the name of Iceland's Parliament today) and is a national symbol for Icelanders, utilized to celebrate what the nation deems it has in common, while at the same time demarcating Icelanders' difference from other groups; that is, Pingvellir defines what sets Icelanders apart from "others," us from them.

Geologically this place is also very special as it is here where you can stand in the middle of two continental tectonic plates, one side is Europe and the other America - and they get about 5cm further apart each year. I spent the night here and enjoyed the peace and quiet as tomorrow I would reach the Nations Capital, Reykjavik.