Day 12. Akureyri - Hvammstangi

Today I'll continue towards the west. My destination is Drangsnes in the Westfjords. That's about 350 kilometers. I'll see how the weather and my mood are.

As the title of my blog suggests, I wanted to do a combination of motorcycle and hiking vacation. But now it turns out that the country is too big and the time is too short.

So I'll have to come back multiple times and spend more time in each region. From today, I also have to start planning backwards so that I don't miss my return ferry next week.

The weather today is really great, the sun is shining and it's quite warm with 11 degrees. I can pack my tent dry. Breakfast is still a bit modest today, a cup of tea and the remaining three cookies. I don't want to indulge in gluttony.

Everything charged up and off I go. The French campers who jumped in yesterday to help me get Suzi back on her wheels are watching my departure closely. Ready to offer their help once again. But I didn't accept their favor.

A side road branches off from the Ring Road to Hvammstangi. I had already read about it in my camping guide. There is a rest area right next to the road where I stop to take another look at the map. I take out my phone to check the camping app for the place in Hvammstangi. That's where I'll go. The six kilometers pass quickly and I arrive at the campground. It's still pretty empty. You can't check in here. As I learn from other campers, someone comes by in the evening and visits all newcomers. Aha, then I'll find a spot and set up my tent. There is a heated lounge with a small kitchen and fast Wi-Fi. The password is written on a sign on the wall. We used to write everything down complicatedly, now we just take a photo. My phone is in my jacket and the jacket is on the motorcycle.

When I arrive at Suzi, I realize that the bag in which the cordless communication device should be is empty. Now my heart starts racing. I search through all the pockets of the jacket, tank bag, pants pockets, nothing. To the racing heart, now add adrenaline. Where did you have it last? At the rest area! Did I leave it behind? So I mount up and gallop back to the rest area. Of course, no phone there. Someone must have found it. First, stay calm and trot back to the campground. Maybe it slipped out of the jacket and is lying in the grass. No luck. If someone found it, and I call my phone, the finder answers and is honest, we could find each other again.

No problem without another. I have a new number and it is...? No problem, I have my iPad. But there's nothing in the contacts. So I accessed my contract data through my provider's service page. Now I had the number, I just needed a phone. I had success with a camper from near Hamburg. He kindly let me make a call. Instead of an honest finder, I reached my voicemail. Great.

So I thought again, I don't actually think I left it behind. Maybe I put it next to the inner pocket and it fell out when I opened the jacket. I parked in front of the place and then walked to it with the jacket open. But there was nothing there either. Something prompted me to examine the jacket one more time.

I found it in the left sleeve of the jacket. When I took off the jacket on Suzi's back, it must have slipped from the pocket into the sleeve between the inner and outer jacket. It got caught on the protector there.

The tremor that the seismologists registered came from the stone that fell from my heart.

Now Suzi and I drove to the harbor in town, I had read something about seal watching. At the harbor, I found a stretch of beach where there was a table and a bench. Here and now was the moment to smoke the cigar that I received when I bought my new car. I had taken it with me to smoke it at a special moment. That moment had come. Since the side cases were still hanging on Suzi's rear, I had everything with me.

So there I sat, a glass of whisky in front of me, a good cigar in my mouth, and watched the slowly setting sun. Life is beautiful!