Rennie Scaysbrook | January 1, 2023
Certain landscapes make you glad you’re alive. Iceland is covered in them
Photography by Marco Marini
The winds are incredible. They have stopped us dead in our tracks. We are traversing the black sand singletrack that leads up the side of the Hekla Volcano, one of the most active in a land that can count 130 volcanoes within its borders.
During 1300-1500, the time known as the Middle Ages, the Icelandic Norse called Hekla the “Gateway to Hell,” and today, Hekla is mad.
Hekla has a landscape so far removed from anything I’ve ever seen I may as well be on Mars. Charred rock that was once molten lava rippled from the wind that stretches a thousand years lies on either side of the track as we attempt to turn our Ducati Multistrada V4 S machines around and back down to the starting point. We’ve been made very aware that Helka doesn’t want us to go any further.
It’s times like these you realize your own insignificance. It’s a feeling I remember from when I went out to the center of Australia—the real Outback—with the world’s biggest skies. Mother Nature has a way of humbling man.
We get turned around and head back to our starting point, and no sooner do we find our route towards the main road some 10 miles away than the wind ceases. In a flash, the violence of Hekla’s 70 mph winds is a memory, replaced by quiet, unerring stillness.
At this point, I must stop and take a photo with my phone. The view is staggeringly beautiful. I hold the group up, but I don’t care. I need this photo.
We’ve just ridden through the Thingvellir National Park, the first major tourist destination once you get out of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik. The bustling of the Nordic city converts almost immediately to the open plains Iceland is famous for, then we continue along the Geysir nature reserve, home of the Strokkur geyser.
The Strokkur geyser is a series of erupting hot springs, an area that first came to prominence in 1789 after an earthquake unblocked the conduit of the geyser. It’s an Instagram hotspot located in a geothermal area beside the Hvítá River located east of the capital, famous for water eruptions that shoot up to 130 feet into the sky 10 times an hour.
Like much of Iceland, the area smells heavily of sulfur dioxide due to the geothermal origins of the warm water. It’s a smell that can get on your nerves at first, but the country’s natural beauty quickly takes over, and you’re encased in a constantly adapting view that would make David Attenborough blush.
This is only the first day of the Dainese Expedition Masters Iceland adventure tour, an initiative in conjunction with Dainese’s commercial partners Ducati and Metzeler. Led by Dainese’s Head of Experiences Luca Bono, a former pro racer who worked in MotoGP for over a decade and competed at the Le Mans 24 Hour, the Dainese Expedition Masters tour is about connecting the brand to the people who use the product in more ways than simply selling them some gear and a few GPS coordinates.
The Dainese Expedition Masters runs an 11-day tour in the Atacama Desert in Chile and Bolivia, this five-day expedition in Iceland, and an 11-day tour through Arizona, Utah and Nevada as part of the West USA leg. There are also other courses/tours that focus on road racing, with Italian racing legends Mattia Pasini and Manuel Poggiali running courses at Misano and, the big one, flat tracking at Valentino Rossi’s ranch (yes, that’s right), with the man himself.
The Iceland adventure is part tour expedition, part riding course, and part stress relief, as riders can join and experience lands they would otherwise only see on their phones.
“Expedition Master is a very important project for Dainese because it’s not only tours, not only the school,” says Bono in his Italian-English. “It’s a mix between tour and training to improve on- and off-road riding, how is the best way to ride a motorcycle. This year, we organized three Expedition Masters (Atacama, Iceland, USA).
“The package is all-inclusive (except for flights). For example, this Iceland tour costs $7400 but included in that is everything you will need to go riding—motorcycle, lunches and dinners, support vehicles, videographer and photographer, and the full Dainese Antarctica II suit, AGV adventure helmet and TCX adventure boots, which is worth $3950—and you get to keep it. All you need to do is get to the airport and bring your small bag with clothes. We do the rest.”
Bono admits taking on the rigors of Iceland, you need some experience with off-road riding, preferably with a full-size adventure motorcycle, and this is something I can personally attest to after, you know, having to turn around a motorcycle on the side of a volcano.
“The Iceland tour has many fjords (water crossings) that the rider needs to do,” Bono says. “In the shortened trip we are doing, we will do at least 20 crossings. On the longer tour that the customers pay for, we can do many more than that, so, yes, a bit of experience on this trip is good.”
That being the case, Bono was there each night to offer advice on riding style, thanks to having the photographer shooting each of us as we went through the water crossings. He’s a man of enormous experience, so when he talks, people listen.
The second day dawns cold and windy but not wet—yet. Our overnight area of Asahreppur, a community on the western edge of Rangárvallasýsla, looks more like a vast Mongolian plain than something you would expect in Iceland.
The hardy sheep that dot the landscape seem impervious to the bluster and look at us as though we’re lambs to the slaughter. We realize why about an hour into the ride as we head for the Landmannalaugar nature reserve with its black sand beaches reminiscent of those in Hawaii, but the cloud has totally closed off the sun, and we’re greeted with the first of what will be many, many fat drops of rain.
Landmannalaugar is a favorite overnight stop for campers, where you’ll find the Mountain Mall. No, this isn’t some out-of-place eyesore strip mall created by a faceless multinational. Rather, it’s three converted school buses joined in a U-shape that contain all the essentials for a night under the Icelandic stars. Water, packaged food, coffee and booze can all be bought, but this is Iceland, and you’ll pay a pretty penny for everything as it’s all imported, and thus the expenses get passed on to you.
As we turn and head west for Reykjavík, Iceland has another final surprise up her sleeve. With only 60 miles to get home, Iceland does her best to pound us with unrelenting rain, matched to a healthy dose of the wind that nearly knocked all of us off the side of Helka Volcano yesterday. The rain comes down with brutish force and visibility is reduced to 20 feet at times, but there’s nothing much to do than laugh—otherwise, you’d go mad.
I’m following Ducati’s second-in-charge, Francesco Milicia, the diminutive Italian riding his Multistrada at a near-constant 30-degree angle while still going in a straight line. It’s quite a sight and almost looks like the rain is coming in sideways.
We return to Reykjavík rejuvenated, a feeling that can only come from riding through some kind of obstacle in a group. There’s that shared relief you all made it and wonder for the vistas and terrain we just experienced.
Iceland is unquestionably one of the highlights of my riding life. To call the place stunning is a complete understatement. It must be experienced to be believed.CN
Expedition Masters Tour
Dainese is always adding new destinations to the Expedition Masters tour, but if you want more information on this Iceland tour (or any other for that matter), click this link: https://www.dainese.com/us/en/riding-masters/riding-masters-expedition.html.
Each tour offers accommodation, airport transfers, meals, the use of a Ducati Multistrada V4 S, a backup crew including a photographer and videographer, riding instruction, and you get to keep the full Dainese Antarctica II suit, AGV carbon-fiber adventure helmet and TCX ADV waterproof boots, worth nearly $4000. About the only thing not covered by the entry is the flights to the venue.
When you add up all those extras, the Dainese Expedition Masters tour is an exceptional value.CN