Day 5: Akureyri - Akureyri
Time: 4:35:54
Distance: 60.72 km
Average Speed 13.2 km/h

Today was most likely the toughest 60km I have ever done on the bike. The reason that the queue for the off licence was so long yesterday was that Holy Thursday was a day off. The town was very busy and we stayed out in the bars until about 3am. We set off at 1pm on the 95km road to Lake Mývatn. After 2 hours on the bike we had only covered about 30km due to all of the climbing and wind. The last 5km of that were into a wind that would almost knock a man from his bike. Without much hesitation we decided it was best to turn back since continuing could of left us stuck on a snowy mountain in the dark and we were sure that we'd have a place to stay in Akureyri. We climbed back up the mountain we had just descended from. The first time up and down the mountain the road was clean. It now had snow in some sections. Another reminder that the weather can turn upside down in minutes in Iceland. For the final 20km again we had seriously strong wind in our faces. At times the speed went down as low as 5km/h. We arrived back in Akureyri just after 6pm looking and feeling pretty beaten up. Luckily there was room to stay in the hostel we stayed in last night and freezing from the cycle we thawed out in the sauna. I found out later that there were storm conditions up ahead at Lake Mývatn so the decision to turn back looked like a good one. A likely next move will be to get a bus out of Akureyri to the Eastern Fjords. As I'm writing this the roads in that direction are blocked with snow blizzards so maybe we'll be stranded in Akureyri for another night.