Last high pass today; after this I'll be down on the coast and hopefully it'll be warm. Relatively warm.

The pass is a brief peek at 550m, then back down to sea level. However, it's not Route 1: it's a shortcut, on a gravel road, called Axarvegur: "The Way Of The Axe". (Google Translate also suggests "axe road" but that's clearly an inferior translation.) The ring road is attentively kept snow-free, but the F-roads into the interior are ignored and are all closed and impassable. I don't know whether this one is significant enough to be kept clear. The alternative route is about six times the distance and adds 3h to the ride, so I really hope the pass is passable.

The day starts with light snow, but that's now normal. As is wearing the warm overshoes, winter leggings, warm layer plus raincoat, and stashing the balaclava and warm gloves in the backpack so I can get them quickly if needed.

Egilsstaðir is basically at sea level but there's still a thick layer of long-term snow on everything. The sleet stops and it's quite a nice ride, it's not too cold and my hands are warm, no headwind, there's little traffic, just rolling through a fully snow environment trying to capture the experience because this is probably the last time I'll have this all year.

Hallormsstaðaskógur is 7km off to the right, it's the biggest old-growth forest in Iceland, and it’s well out of view. I'm surrounded by trees, but they're not a forest ... they're all a bit thin and threadbare, a receding hairline in comparison with the lush, untamed foliage of Hallormsstaðaskógur.

All the trees I've seen look sick like this. Hallormsstaðaskógur looked thriving in the photos I’ve seen, I wish I had been able to see it.

My weather app says it'll be -9 to -2 today, and feel like -16 with the wind chill. Which is fierce. But it's for Myvatn which is where I stayed yesterday; that's 300m above sea level… and the place I'm staying is high in the mountains, 560m up. So maybe those numbers are too optimistic?

I don’t have a thermometer. So I don’t know exactly how cold it is - but today was frosty.

I locked up my bike outside last night, and that may have been a mistake. The security chain didn't want to coil up this morning - probably part-frozen. And when I got moving, the front derailleur didn't want to work. Should be OK; the only steep climb is near the end and if it's still not working, I can walk up. The back brake doesn't want to move when I squeeze it, I brake hard and it works, but it doesn't want to release. The front brake is still OK, so I'll rely on that, and only use the back one if I really need to stop.

I'm retracing my route back to Route 1, the ring road. My route app suggested following the gravel road onwards, but there's a big sign saying "impassable". I had a chat to the owners and he thought it'd be perfectly passable for a bike, and he may well be right - but if something goes wrong, I'm not sure it'll be passable for a rescue vehicle. So I'm taking the safe option.

This means a slow haul upwind, into the snow. Flurries of snow are so thick and so regular I actually got a good video of it. It's not a good day to be out.

It's cold. Today's forecast was for 1-2 degrees, before considering wind chill and being high in the mountains. I would like to call it "a cold snap" but it's only a few degrees colder than the last few days, and while I'm putting in effort it doesn't make much difference.

Except for breathing. The air gets painfully cold, but switching the neck warmer to highwayman mode fixed it. The warmer air I’m breathing in is obviously something I breathed out … but it's fine. It also covered my ears, which is another benefit.

But it does make me look freaky and unapproachable. Not really a problem since the only people I see all day are in cars going past, but I will try to take it off if there's a risk of a normal human interaction.

Today's ride is more of the same: bit of bikepath, a lot of Route 1. Plenty of climbing, spectacular views, snow and ice everywhere. And the sun was out most of the day, which I shouldn't take for granted.

Actually, the day started with driving snow, a headwind, fully overcast, and it was so cold I tried that highwayman thing. Not great, but the headwind wasn't too bad - so I could still make good time.

Another three round breakfast buffet this morning, which is my favourite way to start the day. Cooked breakfast, cereal, and pastries. Unfortunately the fridge in my room didn't actually keep my lunch sandwiches cold! They were room temperature this morning and I don't know if they're safe to eat - so I'm motivated to make the most of breakfast.

Repack the panniers, repack the bike, check tyres and brakes and cables, activate the GPS, the camera, and start navigation. Delete the rogue waypoint which I overlooked last night. Over the road, onto a bikepath - it's recent, and good asphalt. There's not much wind, there's a lot of blue sky, the cold isn't a problem while I'm moving, so this is looking like a very good day.

The route runs beside the road on a causeway across the bay. The bikepath ends partway across with a loop so you can turn around, but a lot of bikes before me chose freedom and I follow their tracks. On the far side of the causeway there's another bikepath, separate from the road and so near I wonder if it's actually a walking track? It has sculpted wooden sticks at regularly intervals: they don't look like they're supposed to be people but I can't figure out what they are supposed to be.

There's a roundabout at the top and Komoot announces "Take the first exit". This is not a good idea: there's a big sign on that road announcing that bicycles aren't allowed, because that road leads to a 7.5km tunnel with a toll.

Turns out that it's a misunderstanding about where to start counting roundabout exits; this happens regularly. My actual route is on the old road which takes the long way around, it goes 25km and meets up at the other end of the tunnel. Some great views of Akureyri, and the sea.

I'm taking a day. Akureyki is one of the bigger towns along the ring road, but mostly it's been four heavy days so it's probably wise to take a break.

The best news: the place I'm staying has a breakfast buffet. Including cinnamon rolls and waffles. And eggs and bacon and sausages and three different kinds of cereal (though the ones I’m carrying are better). Not much fruit though, perhaps because it has to be imported. I ate like I was going to cycle all day, but then my only exercise was a bit of a walk, so I didn't have any need for lunch.

Akureyki looks a bit like a high mountain town: it's surrounded by snow-covered mountains, the wind is icy, and going anywhere means going up or down a steep road. But it's also right on the sea and has a working port and the big tourist attraction here is whale watching tours. This Is Iceland, I guess.

I headed out to have a look around just after breakfast, and after five minutes of snowfall and a headwind I figured getting tomorrow's route arranged was more important. Also folding my laundry. And planning out the stops for the rest of the circuit.

When I went out an hour later the weather wasn't much better but I didn't have any more excuses. I wasn't keen to spend hours getting frozen on a boat so I went to the visitor's center, the art museum, the mall (partly to thaw out, partly to get a sandwich) and the giant Viking beer can.

Today's route goes over a 500m pass. Yesterday's pass was 300m and it had a frozen lake, so I'm bringing out the cold weather gear today.

Gloves and balaclava go into the backpack; I can put them on in a minute. Not the overshoes: these need to be put on before my cycling shoes, then they stretch over the toe and heel, and then there's a velcro strap to secure it underneath. It's all neoprene and fits snugly and is a bit of a struggle to get them on even while in a chair in the warm... definitely not to be done while barefoot in the middle of a blizzard. So I put them on before leaving.

Today's forecast was for "light sleet" and 36km/h winds which is not very enticing, even with the warm gear on. While eating breakfast I could see it hitting the window and leaving a horizontal streak, it was blowing so hard. I did not hurry.

Happily when did I get moving it had stopped and the wind had calmed down a bit. 6km straight upwind to start, then on a diagonal following a river, then a big turn and the climb, which should have a bit of tailwind.

There's not much on the roads. I've been looking out for tour buses, because I figure they'll indicate how many tourists there are around, and I don't see any in the open road. There's a handful of vans from "Indie Camper". Most of the traffic is cars, there's a lot of trucks.

When the climb starts Komoot tells me to get off the Ring Road and get on a parallel gravel road. But the traffic was so light I didn't bother.

First question: at the supermarket, should I get dinner things? The place I'm staying tonight has a kitchen so I'd like to make something nutritious. I decide not to, I don't have spare space and a bit of Googling shows a supermarket a few kilometers from the end. I do get two sandwiches; maybe one will be tomorrow's lunch...

It's a windy day today. The forecast showed 13m/s which is 45km/h. It's blowing north, so the first few kilometers south out of Hvammstangi were straight upwind; not too hard and nothing too worry about. Then it turned northeast which is ideal.

So for the first part of the day, it was a great tailwind. I got through nearly half the distance in 2h30 - much less than the 3.5h estimated! I think I was in top gear for most of it.

That was all very nice but then I turned south east onto the 724 and it's a headwind - not straight on, but close enough to really slow things down. Plus it’s a long, steady climb. I change down and change down again and keep changing down until I'm in the lowest gear. Be philosophical about making slow progress.

Nevertheless, this is not as bad as Patagonia. I recall getting off and pushing because it was faster than cycling. Or having to go in swoops because I couldn't hold a straight line. This is not on that level Mostly... occasionally I'd get walloped by an extra-strong gust. Once I got blown to the other side of the road; I'm sure it was an indirect thing where it pushed me left and I turned to compensate and now I'm going left and oh look wrong lane. (This was a very quiet backroad, fortunately; I would stop if there were cars and the wind was getting feisty.) But that was pretty exceptional and only happened once.

Since I'm starting in a fairly remote spot, and travelling through a pretty remote area, lunch is a problem. But: the place I was staying serves bread, cheese slices, salami, tomato slices, and cucumber at the breakfast buffet. It's like they meant me to make a lunch sandwich. So, I did.

The weather this morning was pretty grim. It had been a wind and rainstorm last night, now it quieter, just wind-blasted drizzle. Not a great day to be outside. But it's a tailwind and I have a good raincoat so I set off after only about 15 minutes of procrastination.

I'd done all my training with earbuds but I'm a bit worried about them falling out, so I'm not using them right now. I'm not using the wired earphones either, I was just relying on the phone speaker. And I guess I should have turned it up because I missed my turnoff and was 3km up the road before I realized my mistake.

The ride back was into a mild headwind, so I could understand how much the tailwind was helping. For now: not much.

I was hoping to avoid headwinds today, but absolutely did not get my wish. The weather forecast showed a nice simple set of arrows, mainly pointing north which is basically the direction I'm going. The reality was that I had far too many headwinds, plenty of sidewinds, and a nice tailwind for the two climbs I had to do (which is very nice, and so unusual I need to mention it).

It was forecast to gust up to 65km/h and I'm pretty sure I felt that a few times, coming from the ... east? I was passing Skorhagafoss waterfall and the sidewind was so strong I had to go in swoops, Patagonia style, for the first time. I pulled over to take some photos (in hindsight, was this really worth doing?) and struggled to keep the camera straight. The wind was pushing the bike to twist and fall over, even though I was in the lee of a guardrail.

A few minutes up the road, I passed under some big high-tension wires, and they were making noise in the wind. It was a low and dangerous note. I haven't heard that before, and didn't feel comfortable sticking around to appreciate the moment.

I arrived late last night, so I'm doing the bike setup this morning.

I was a bit nervous. On the last trip, to NZ, the shifter got badly cracked and made the first day a lot more difficult than it already was. A friend of mine who went bikepacking in Iceland had his bike damaged by Icelandair. So I'd packed the bike extra carefully, and even ziptied the handlebars up so they'd be less likely to get pinched or cornered or whatever happened to cause the problem last time.

The bikebox was looking in good shape, but when I opened it up the ziptie had been snapped - which is not a good sign, it takes a fair bit of force to do that, and that amount of force breaks things. So I checked and photographed everything as I went, in case I needed to make a claim... but happily it all seems to be OK. I’d still like to go out for an hour or so to check it, that’s how long it took for the problems to appear on that the first day in NZ.

The Fear finally showed up, about a day before I flew out. It's getting late, but there's still time for it to make a difference. If I shred a tyre, do I have replacement sealant, bacon strips to patch the hole, a valve core removal tool, and if all else fails an inner tube? I do, but for a day I was actually motivated enough to check. Which is a nice change from the fully blasé attitude I've had until now.

A chill disposition is normally a useful asset, but not here.

There's a lot of ways for these trips to go sideways - probably not in life-threatening ways, but if I'm out there I ought to be self-sufficient enough to deal with any reasonable mechanical problem, any unseasonable weather, or any other feasible complication. The Fear meant I prepared scrupulously for the European Divide, prepared religiously for South America, but until now, have been preparing like Aesop's grasshopper.

Which is a big dangerous; missing one piece of equipment can turn what should be a minor delay into a trip-ender. Drop the bike and break off the back derailleur? Need a spare mech hanger for that. Chain break? Replacement link, and a chain break tool. Rack starts losing screws again? Hope you’ve got some replacements. Phone gets wet and dies? Or the charge cord breaks? Or the wallplug fails? Best if there’s a backup phone, backup cord, and backup plug.

You get the picture. Fear good. I've pulled out and checked all the gear and tools for all the problems I should be prepared for.

No ride this weekend.  Woke up sick on Sunday, and spent the whole day napping.  Started feeling a bit more human at 9pm, ate something, then went back to bed.  Was back to normal on Monday though, I'm happy to say.

All of my new warm cycling gear has arrived this week, including a few pairs of warm socks.  I accidentally left most of my black cycling socks back in NZ at Christmas.  I'd like more some more, but I can't find where I got them ... but my regular biking gear website had an end-of-season discount on red winter socks so I got four pairs.  Not sure how the red socks will go with the rest of my outfit but if the fashion police try to pull me over, they'll have to chase me down.

I worked for an Icelandic company a while back, and one of the people I worked with is still based in Iceland, so we’ve made arrangements to meet up.  In the emails he casually mentioned that there’s half a meter of snow on the driveway.

A lot of the cycling advice I’ve seen is “don’t underestimate Icelandic weather”.  I’d been looking at historic weather info and the temperature in May is consistently above zero - which means my usual cycling wardrobe would be enough.  A half meter of snow is a very different story.  Am I underestimating the Icelandic weather?

Three weeks until the flight to Iceland. This is a bit of surprise to everyone, including me. How did this happen? I will explain.

Actually I won't. I wrote up an explanation but it sounds petty. Iceland is awesome! And I've been wanting to go around the ring road ever since we visited back in 2008, and did not manage to go around the whole ring road. Let's pretend that that's the whole story.

It’s time to share the news: just bought the tickets for The Ring Cycle, starting April 26. There’ll be operatic histrionics! Horned helmets! Norse mythology! Mead! Success! Setbacks! And maybe a bit of singing.

Final ride today. I'm going to Bluff which is the end. The route passes through Invercargill, and afterwards I'm cycling back there - to my hostel.

Get a sandwich in Winton before I leave, or pick up something when I pass through Invercargill? Now is safest, but the options at the supermarket are uninspiring. No filled rolls. The sandwiches are meat-and-fat, no salad. It'll have to do.

The day starts like yesterday finished: good flat B-road so I can hang out in the left lane and get into a nice high gear, so relaxed I can admire the scenery.

Then the route turns off the good asphalt onto gravel. There's a big NO EXIT sign to make it clear that things are going to get interesting. And as promised, the road does come to an end: but the bike path continues up and over a steep, meter-high hump. I can see gouges where someone's chain ring dug into the ground. One set of tyretracks goes straight over; I guess someone had enough speed to make it work? I'm not keen to try that with all my cargo. So I walk the bike over: push the bike up a bit and put the brakes on, take a half-step forward, release brakes and push it a bit further forward, and repeat. Actually, the tyre tracks probably went straight over, maybe it looks like I rode straight over...

Back on the bike after a week break, and there's some aches. I'd done a bit of light exercise, but it's Christmas, so I was more focused on overeating and napping.

A very late start. We'd been in an AirBNB and were busy until 10 getting everything packed up and cleaned. After that was the regular bike check, sandwich and Powerade pickup, so I finally got moving at about 1030.

The first section was on State Highway 94. This is a Saturday, it's the day after Boxing day, it's midmorning: and it's surprisingly busy. Maybe it's extra busy most of the time and this is quiet? I have the usual complaints, but I won’t repeat them. It's not a nice time, but there's no real drama.

After about 50km the route turns off and joins the Around the Mountains Cycle Trail. Which was an excellent cycle trail! Where was it when I came to Te Anau? (The answer is, it was about 12km away. When I came into Te Anau I met the state highway much closer to town.)

This trail is not cheap. Every time it crosses an access road to a farm there's a small cattle-stop just wide enough for cycles, and then another on the other side of the road. There's fences on either side, to separate it from the farms. It doesn't go straight though; it winds back and forth in a very complicated way. Perhaps it's the final, bitter compromise between property owners and the council. But it could just be a contour line.

A full week off! It was good.

There's two options for today: the State Highway and I'm obviously taking the other one. It's a ferry over to Walter's Peak, then 9.5 hours of riding. Most is gravel road, with a bit of regular road at the end. There's a 730am ferry, I'd booked it about two months ago because I was worried it’d get booked out in the tourist season.

I was staying about an hour away which meant getting on the road at 6, which is not something I wish to make a habit of. The nice gravel path that ran scenically beside the water seemed like a liability in the half-light in a rush so I went on the road instead. Saw maybe two cars. Steamed across town to arrive slightly before 7, since I'd been asked to be there 20 minutes early. Two other cyclists were there too. But the ticket office was closed with nobody inside, the ferry was roped off and getting cleaned. Feels begin a few hours early...

Which was not wrong. It turns out the 730 ferry I was booked on was actually the staff ferry over to Walter's Peak. So we joined the chefs, dishwashers and servers for whom this was basically a commute; they snoozed or doomscrolled or shared a cup of Mate.

Today was wet, which is not great. It wasn't on a State Highway! But the road it was on was just as narrow and busy. It wasn't good.

The route I'm taking is through the Cardrona area, which has a skifield of the same name. It's the Cardrona Valley Road, which is not a State Highway; it’s used to get to the skifield and it’s summer so I was hoping it would be quiet. It's a steady climb up to 1000m above sea level, then a fast downhill.

There was a surprising amount of traffic at the start, just after the roundabout where the road parts ways with the highway. I stay as far left as I can, and think optimistic thoughts about why the traffic is going to thin out. Probably just people popping into town from their nearby farmlet or something.

I've got a sandwich for lunch, but I'd stashed it unceremoniously into one of the pannier pockets. Unfortunately the lightweight plastic shell had opened, and the sandwiches fell out and wrapped themselves around the stick I used to put my chain back on. (Chains coming off happens from time to time on long cycle trips, of course.) Which was the end of the lunch sandwich; that stick was unhygienic when I found it and being used for leverage to get a nastily greasy chain back onto the chain ring has only made it worse. So the birds are getting the sandwich.