CROSSING ICELAND: Adventurous Route 35 (F35) through the Highlands

CROSSING ICELAND: Adventurous Route 35 (F35) through the Highlands

There are only two roots that connect the southern part and the northern part of Iceland directly. Two roots that cross the highlands, the heart of the country. It sounded like adventure was calling, and we decided to take one of these routes. Join our trip on the famous Route 35.

A motorcycle ride through the middle of Iceland to hot springs and to rough beauty. A guide on crossing Iceland. Today is the day. It’s pretty early in the morning, and there are only two routes that actually cross Iceland from south to north or north to south. In our case, south to north. And we are taking one of these routes, which is route number F35, and it will be an adventurous day

Of 200 kilometers of travel. Good morning, everyone. What a beautiful day. We are starting out right here super early today because the route that we are taking is quite popular because it crosses Iceland. So it’s 5:30 AM now, but it’s actually amazing because it feels like the middle of the day

Because the sun rises so early here. The most southern part in beginning of Route 35 is still paved in leading to one of the biggest natural attractions that we had visited the day before. Gullfoss Waterfall. ♪ Hold on tight ♪ ♪ I can smell the shores right in front of us ♪

♪ If we just hold on ♪ – Look guys, here we were yesterday. This is Gullfoss again, and it’s completely empty today. I guess the only people who are here yet are the ones staying here in this guest house. So if you want to have an empty Gullfoss experience,

Just come here at 5:00 AM. You’re gonna be the only ones. Only a few hundred meters after Gullfoss, Route 35 changes completely and becomes a remote gravel road. This is where it starts. This is hopefully also where the fun starts. The real Route 35. Route 35 is also known as the Kjolur route

Or Kjalvegur road, and it’s 237 kilometers long in total. Most of the Icelandic roads cut into the Highlands, but not all the way across. There are only two roads that cut all the way across, taking you between north and south Iceland, and Route 35 is one of them.

So for us it was clear this was our chance to traverse Iceland’s Highlands. It’s really, really stunning here. All this ride has been very nice. I think going so early in the morning was a fantastic idea. The road is super easy, but at the moment, also super dusty.

So I really would not like to be stuck behind a crowd of bigger vehicles. So really, really nice to be. I mean, sometimes we meet some other guys, but it’s more or less alone here. Nearly all of Iceland’s inhabitants live on or nearby the coastlines year round. That’s why the country’s interior section,

Known as the Highlands, is basically uninhabited. Because the conditions are far too harsh and the ground too uneven, permanent human habitation isn’t an option. This makes the Highlands a wonderful area to visit and to explore the country’s best hiking and scenery. Route 35 with its super maintained surface

Is definitely one of the easiest options to go on this adventurous journey. It’s much more cold than it looks. Temperature has dropped to five degrees, so it’s a frosty ride even though it looks super sunny. So unfortunately, the bright blue sky and sunny weather disappeared a bit. It’s actually pretty cold at the moment, but we are proceeding much faster on the route than we thought. I think we soon must be about half of the way, and there we actually want to stop again.

There are several little detours and excursions you can do when crossing Iceland on Route 35. The best option to explore the area is to stay at the few rare mountain huts and campgrounds, and to explore from there. But it’s also worth to cross Iceland on Route 35

In a day excursion like we did. We are approaching this crossroad now and we want to leave Route 35 now for a little bit because there are some hot springs, and I don’t know if I want to swim. Maybe it’s too cold to take off my clothes,

But we will decide when we are there. ♪ I’ll follow you, yeah ♪ – Completely isolated about halfway across the 200 kilometer stretch of the 35 trail, Hveravellir is a geothermal area on the Highland route Kjolur. Placed at the end of the glacier Langjokull, it is a hot spring with smoking fume rolls and water holes that are bubbling.

So I just met, a Got2Go follower here. Walter from Austria. World is very small. How do you like Iceland? – Oh, it’s wonderful. It’s really, really, really great here. – And he had just dipped into the warm springs here. – Yes, it’s amazing. It’s mainly 80 degrees, 10, 200 degrees.

You must look where you see it in the hot pots, and it’s really hot. It’s really fine. – I think we are too lazy to do it, but I will show you some videos of this. Part of the springs can even get several hundred degrees Celsius hot,

So be sure to only take a swim in the suggested areas. Hveravellir is one of the most popular hot springs to visit in Iceland. Surrounded by glaciers, mountains, and lava fields, it has breathtaking views everywhere you look, and there is a restaurant and guest house.

So if you want to stay in the area, Hveravellir is a good place to be. The only other option on Route 35 is a place called Kerlingarfjoll that also has a campground. Some people on motorcycles we met said that the part coming right after the springs now

Is the most difficult part of the road with some rocks and bigger loose stuff. We will see. I’m a little bit worried because I don’t really want to be at a very difficult road or do difficult stuff at the moment. But yeah, we will see. So here it starts. These are some potholes.

Actually, that doesn’t worry me whatsoever. Potholes are very inconvenient, but I usually don’t find them scary when going slow. And here it gets much more wash body and a little bit more loose, but so far not difficult. Actually, I like it. It’s much more fun. Yeah, yeah, I like this.

I hope it continues a bit like this. The further we got north, the more greater weather became, and the gravel road of Route 35 turned into a easy gravel autobahn where we could drive nearly 100 kilometers per hour. I don’t know how this landscape would be in good weather,

Maybe nice because as you can see here on the right, there are also lakes and so on, but due to the excellent surface of the road and the weather, it feels much more boring now. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but we thought we would ride the whole day.

But if we proceed at the speed, we will be done with Route 35 very soon actually. In addition to the gray weather, it also got extremely windy so we had even problems to put our motorcycles down on the side stand when stopping, and flying a drone became impossible.

But the views of our Blondulon Lake were definitely the most interesting thing about the northern part of the Route 35. At 57 square kilometers, Blondulon is one of Iceland’s largest lakes. It was created in 1984 to 1991 as a reservoir for a power plant, and has a depth of 39 meters. It’s so cold at the moment, and even though it’s not pouring, it’s kind of wet and damp. Not very nice. Yeah, but we are out of Route 35 soon anyways. I think this here is the end. We are getting out of Route 35 now. End of the gravel and heading towards the Ring Road. So we are going to this town here called Blonduos, I think. I mean, we were so much faster than we thought. It’s just a little after lunchtime and we are already done with Route 35, but we are actually both cold and wet. So I’m happy that we don’t need to do

The three hour ride back to Reykjavik today. Instead, we found a little guest house that sounds actually great, and that’s where we will go now. So to be honest, we thought this would be a full day adventure of riding, but we are now already in the place where we wanted to go

And it’s one so we can’t check in before three. So this road basically was not as long as we thought, and we as well think that it would have been much nicer to only go like halfway to the place where the springs were, and then turn around because actually the last part,

I don’t know if it was the weather, but the last part was really not as spectacular anymore. The road was like a gravel autobahn, and you could just go like a hundred. We were just blasting down all these kilometers in the end. So yes, first part, super nice.

Second part, I would skip it next time. And because the world is a very small space and full of coincidences. While we were sitting in the cafe, I spotted someone I knew who parked right in front of the window. So guys, today is the day of great meetings. Guess who I met? Martin.

– Hi. – From? – Austria. – And your Insta page? – I am on Instagram with World Spins As Fast As We Ride, and yeah, great to meet you. – And we’re kind of neighbors, and I’m following his page for a long time

And you should do that too, and he’s riding Iceland too with this nice bike you see behind me. Goodbye! One of Blonduos’ main characteristics is that the town is split into two parts by the glacial river Blanda, which it is named after. The old part of town has many original houses from the late 19th and early 20th century. But the best part about Blonduos, in my opinion,

Is the amazing view on its waterfront, and the lovely guest house we found. Look at these views here. Brimsloo Atelier Guesthouse and Restaurant is situated right beside the sea in the oldest part of the village. The accommodations are lovely renovated rooms in several of the beautiful houses of the old town.

But the most special asset of the guest house is definitely its dinner. At Brimsloo Atelier, a three course set meal is served at a large communal table in the spacious dining room, and the owner and his family are cooking themselves and enriching each dinner with their lovely stories about Iceland and the area.

The delicious home cooked meals are Icelandic heritage food with a modern twist, prepared with local ingredients, and on top, you get good conversations and great company. You can also join the dinner if you don’t stay in the guest house with making a reservation at least one day in advance.

Guys, I hope you like the big crossing of Iceland. If you did, give this video a thumbs up, and let me know if you would have taken a dip in the hot springs, or kept on your motorcycle gear in the cold. In the next episode, we will return to Reykjavik

Even though we are not done yet with exploring the Highlands. But I will use this chance to introduce you to Iceland’s Capital, it’s best places to visit, its history, and the most pretty roads of its surrounding. Tune in next Thursday to get to go to Reykjavik.

South to North through Icelands remote Highlands: crossing Iceland on Route 35 ( F35 ) on a motorcycle.

There are only two routes that connect the southern and northern Iceland directly. Two routes that cross the highlands, the heart of the country. It sounded like adventure was calling – and we decided to take one of these routes. Join our trip on the famous route 35 ( Kjölur Route or Kjalvegur Road ) – a motorcycle ride through the heart of Iceland, to hot springs and to rough beauty. A guide on traversing Iceland.

00:00 Intro to Route 35 to cross Iceland
01:09 Starting on Route 35 at the Golden Circle
02:53 Where the adventure begins – dirt road Route 35
06:05 Hveravellir Hot Springs – Route 35 Half way Point
08:43 Route 35 Northern Part
10:46 Blöndulón lake
12:27 Blönduós and Brimslóð Atelier Guesthouse – the perfect place to stay

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// Time of the journey: August 2022

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// Riding a Yamaha Ténéré 700 called Fox. Bought the Fox myself in 2019 in Germany.

Watch the review of my Yamaha Ténéré 700 here:

//Equipment & Gear:
– Klim Artemis Goretex Jacket (self bought)
– BMW Pants Enduroguard (self bought)
– BMW GS Gloves (self bought)
– Raingloves from another brand (can’t remember the name and they were terrible!!!)
– Alpinestar Toucan Boots (self bought)
– Klim Krios Pro Helmet (self bought)
– Leatt Neckbrace (given to me by Leatt as my self-bought neckbrace was still in Africa)

Watch the review for my helmets here:

//Filmed with:
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Iphone 14
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