Kemst þó hægt fari – A Cinematic Cycling Journey Through Iceland.

“Kemst þó hægt fari” The Icelandic cafe owner said while pointing at my fully loaded touring bike in the rain outside. As I stood dripping wet and confused in front of her she went on to explain that this phrase was an old Icelandic proverb meaning “You will reach your destination even though you travel slowly”.

It was Day 15 of my 2000km trip cycling around Iceland and just happened to be the toughest day so far. I had spent about 6 hours riding directly into cyclonic costal winds and almost horizontal rain with no rest at all until I came upon this small cafe nestled in a tiny village with an impossible name somewhere in northern Iceland. Before I left the cafe to continue pushing through the rain and wind I scrawled the proverb on the back of my hand so I wouldn’t forget it and recited it over and over for the next several hours back in the saddle. This proverb ended up sticking with me for the rest of my trip.

This film is something I have been putting together slowly over the past 18 months since I returned from Iceland. My goal was to create a short film which captured the truely strange, varied and alien landscapes which Iceland is famous for. I also ended up using this film as a way to test different editing techniques, mixing 3D elements, colour grading etc. so it evolved quite a lot over time.

As per my Project 365 I also commited myself to publishing daily updates via instagram while I travelled through Iceland which can also be seen below.