It got very stormy in the night and at 4am I had to get up to check all the pegs, and tighten the guys up (l also had to knot them, as I found its possible for the wind to slacken the fancy plastic sliders on the guys). It seemed like the plan to stay here for an extra day was the right one. The wind and rain continued, with no real let up all through the morning. I walked down to the N1 service station (and tourist office), to book the bus – the bus company office saw no problem with a bike, but I couldn’t pay online for it, and would need to pay the driver direct. I sat in the N1 and had a coffee, (I’ve certainly sat in this cafe a lot!). I also bought lunch, with a plan to visit a hot pool when a gap in the weather appeared, and walked back to the site. There was a washing machine (but I had no powder), and a tumble dryer – so I hand washed, used the washing machine to spin and then found the tumble dryer didn’t work (or I couldn’t operate it). Luckily I hadn’t washed everything – but the inside of the tent was soon festooned with wet washing.

I also downloaded the Iceland weather app (Vedur) which is really good and gives a detailed map view of the forecast. This showed a window of opportunity in the early evening when the rain should stop, but the strong south westerly wind would continue. My plan was to cycle out to the hot pool, the German guy on the Faroes had told me about. I set off, with one pannier contains a strange mixture of warm clothes, waterproofs and my swimming stuff. Battled a strong headwind all the way, but physiologically I was imagining freewheeling back, so it wasn’t too bad. It was about a 10km ride, and relatively easy to find once I’d worked out it was called Fosslaug, and I had to go through a gate and along a track through some fields. There were two cars parked, but as I arrived a group of heavily wrapped up hikers appeared and jumped in the cars. I locked the bike, and set off through a gate, down a track, through another gate to the open moor. The paths lead to the waterfall, which is impressive, but you need to push on and cross a little bridge.

A path, which strangely appears to have been mown, leads to the pool which is at the top (and round the back) of the waterfall that I first saw. As I approached the pool it was blowing a gale, and started to rain so I put on my waterproof to keep my down jacket dry. Initially, I thought there was no chance of going in, but first fingers, then a paddle and before I knew it I’d changed into my trunks and was in the water.

It was glorious, and strange. My biggest concern was my clothes being blown away! The hot water comes from the narrow side between the river and the pool, I made the mistake of testing the heat – it was very hot! I spent about 10 minutes in the pool (on a better day you could spend a long time), and hilariously battled the wind to get dressed. It wouldn’t have been too funny if my trousers (with cash and cards) had blown into the waterfall – luckily it didn’t. As I was leaving, a couple were just coming over the bridge, so I’d timed it perfectly.

As I predicted, the ride back to the campsite was a breeze (almost), and gave me plenty of time to admire the horses, which were everywhere. Usually in very big fields and charging around, looking like they were having a good time. I got back to the campsite site at about 8pm, just as the rain set in – as forecast.