“Windy conditions, steep hills and unsuitable road surfaces combine to make Iceland not the most popular of destinations for cyclists”. In the face of our Lonely Planet Guide, a friend and I took to the roads of Iceland last year for a three week cycling tour of Iceland.

It became easy to forget the frustrating conditions in touring this is impossibly fascinating country. Cycling 60km a day we would cross meadows with grazing horses; hill ranges and round fjords, complete with the odd volcano, lava field or barren red desert. It’s easy to see how Nordic folklore could have been inspired by this landscape: gateways to the land of the gods, troll gardens and Ragnarok (the destruction of the world in a climactic battle of gods and titans) all seemed natural somehow.. Casual roadside signposts to Asgard didn’t do much to dispel the mysticism of the place.

With no standing army and a crime rate of next to nothing in the capital you can see why the Global Peace Index labelled Iceland the most peaceful country in the world. The locals were inevitably friendly (and most spoke perfect English) when we actually came across them, since Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe, making it possible to go days without seeing anyone. However, we were frequently offered meals and beds for the night in local farmhouses, which felt like little bastions of rugged human defiance in a world still very much defined by nature in a way that few European countries can boast. Finding a place to camp was never difficult, though we were on various occasions stared down by families of apparently wild goats; chased by a guard dog which seemed highly unimpressed by our garish cycling kit, or unnerved by the isolation on one night spent in the grounds of an isolated and deserted hotel with a distinct aura of The Shining about it.

Iceland is known for special natural locations like Gulfoss, the ‘Golden Waterfall’ and Thingvellir, the site of the country’s first parliament from the 9thcentury, which itself lies in a rift valley marking the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: a 7km gap between tectonic plates. However, Reykjavik showed us that there is more to Iceland than nature. A buzzing hive of human activity, it has a thriving art and culture scene, providing a youthful face for a country steeped in its ancient geographical history.