icloud changing from an old id

On my iphone I have an old email address for icloud that I no longer have access to. The solution I have read about says to change your id temporarily but when I do this it sends a verification code to the old email address, which I don't have access to anymore. So I can't change the email address temporarily. Any ideas how to do this?

Change your Apple ID temporarily

Use these steps to change your Apple ID temporarily:

1. Sign in to your Apple ID account page.
2. Click Edit in the Account section, then click Change Email Address.
3. Change your Apple ID to the email address that iCloud is asking you to sign in with.
4. Sign out of your account page.

Then sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch