Alone in the Wild' Cycling Iceland

We are Erik and Mauri and welcome to Iceland. We're in the oldest part named Westfjords and we're slowly making our way up north. We have two passes to cross until we reach the next village and it proves to be one of the most beautiful stretches yet. The wind is picking up a little but no complaints. Pretty heavy pass with some headwind and rain and quite a steep incline and just want to give a shout out to Erik because I'm always the one behind and he never bothers. I never feel hurried. I can take my own pace you know and for me that's really important. Give each other time to do it your own way. That's the only way you're able to enjoy it I guess, even the harder moments. Okay let me show you something guys. Can you see it? It's the 10th of August and I've completely layered up. I even wear my rain pants. It's very cold. I won't be surprised if it's close to freezing temperatures. We're now in between two passes so that explains a lot. We're quite high up and with a little bit of wind it gets really chilly. But I hope to be nice and cozy pretty soon. Pretty cold because my shoes were so wet from yesterday from the rain. I had my water shoes on all day long with no socks and they feel like ice cubes. So I'm putting on an extra layer. Pants hopefully that warms me up a reflect on yourself. You are faced with constantly changing circumstances. I really feel that with any activity where you push your own personal limits, your own boundaries, there's an opportunity there to change maybe old thinking patterns or the way you think about other people or how you can face the world you know. It feels like I'm sort of in a constant flux of emotions on a bike tour but I do feel there's like this light that goes up and I think that's the most important. I don't even know what to say about this landscape. It's just really otherworldly somehow and it's really difficult to not constantly get out your camera and make film shots or make pictures because it's just extremely epic and something we've really never experienced somewhere else. This intense, super wild, remote, it's just really incredible. Pretty special experience. This tunnel was built in 2020 so it's pretty modern and we're kind of the only ones here. I think there's a car approaching and you can already hear it coming from far far away and it's pretty intense when it finally approaches. The sound gets louder and louder and it feels like a plane is flying off here. This one was actually going pretty fast but luckily we have a little footpath here so we can go to the side. But man it really makes you think about tunnels and building tunnels. What a special job you know. I mean in the past there has been so many accidents with building tunnels but now they have all this modern equipment to do it. But yeah we can really appreciate it because we're actually riding through a fjord and it saves us a very big climb and also many more kilometers. So thumbs up for tunnels. Man it's so long, almost six kilometers. What a project and there is hardly anybody in it. That's the really strange part about it. We almost have the whole tunnel for ourselves and it just feels like we're in a sci-fi movie. It's cold and kind of damp at the same time and yeah it's like this really this underground small little tube through this huge huge mountain. Incredible incredible feat of engineering and we can enjoy it just by ourselves. But this is Bukla. We are on our way to Bukula Ravik where we come across a couple of traditional fishing huts. Located directly on the coast we get a fascinating glimpse in how life must have been here in the past. We're here at the coast and behind me you see some traditional fishing houses. It's super interesting to see because other places in the world also have building styles like this and you see a common theme around the world for people that build their houses in this way. It's built with these boulders somewhat deeper in the ground to find a more stable temperature there and then they put a roof over it with grass and soil for the insulation to also keep in the heat which is super important because of course here it's very cold especially in the winter. It's really dark here as well so there's no sunlight or almost no sunlight. So this is a really smart way to get the maximum benefit here. I also see this type of buildings in other places in the world like Scotland and what a tough life. I can't imagine these people living here back in the days fishing on small boats with seal skin suits on. We're cycling here of course and it's cold but we have some modern gear with Gore-Tex and everything and we can stop at certain places to get warm. But these people were out and sea fishing all day long with the swells, the waves and everything. Must be a really dangerous job but for them it was the way to live here and yeah it was just integral part of life. I'm happy to be here on my bike. This is super interesting to see.