Ups and Downs

My new tactic of staying 2 nights somewhere and having a day out walking worked well for the sheep walk so I was going to do the same again. I drove to Husafell and with a clear weather forecast for the next day I got ready for a big day out walking, even cooking extra dinner so I'd have a good lunch to take with me.

I woke up to rain on the roof, not happy. I got up, had breakfast and it was still hammering down. Knowing how soaked through I'd got 2 days before I wasn't keen to go out so plan B, drive to a swimming pool nearby and hope the weather cleared. I got as far as the washblock on the campsite when Bertha's wheel didn't look right. I had a puncture.

I got my pump out and got some air in it, stupidly optimistic that it would solve all my problems. I drove to the car park at the entrance to the campsite and had a look - still looked ok but I could hear air escaping. I went into reception and asked where the nearest garage for tyres might be - he reckoned Reykjavik 100miles away.

At this point I decided to book on the tourist trip that I wanted to do from Husafell for the next day, I didn't want this puncture changing my plans for that.

I was texting a couple of knowledgeable friends for advice and moral support and the verdict was my spare had to go on. Then they got sent pictures showing the condition of my spare - I had checked the tred before I'd left but I'd not spent the time getting it out of its cradle under the van to check the condition of it - pretty poor it turns out. The verdict was still that it needed to go on.

The car park was a pick up point for tourist trip buses. Not one tourist asked me if I was ok or if I needed any help.

I got the locking wheel nut off, double checked where the jacking point was and then hit a problem - my wheel brace doesn't fit my wheel bolts. There were some pre-trip checks I should have done before I left - the list will be complete by the time I get home.

I spotted an Icelandic monster truck with a personalised number plate and reckoned that as it wasn't a hire car, he might have some tools and the right sized socket. He did! But the socket bar wasn't strong enough to get the bolts undone and it split. He told me not to worry, he'd make a phonecall and we'd get it sorted. Peter the glacier tour guide - my knight in shining armour. He found out that the next glacier tour bus coming in had a full toolkit on-board which we could borrow. The bus driver, glacier cave electrician and Peter set to work and in no time it was done. They also thought I'd need to get to Reykjavik to sort it - it would hopefully be a repair as it was a horseshoe nail in the middle.

With my less than ideal spare on I drove back onto the campsite - driving to Reykjavik would happen after tomorrow's trip.