Góðan daginn Iceland

[Pug1]

23rd July Grimsey Island
We sailed from Akureyri at around 18.00 hours for the overnight cruise to Grimsey Island, our northernmost point of the cruise, and with its northern tip above the Arctic Circle. Grimsey has about 100 hardy residents mostly fishing the seas around the island, plus about 1 million seabirds. It has a surprisingly busy tourism trade as well. The small village is around the tiny harbour and there is a shop and café plus a couple of guest houses.
In 2017 Grimsey installed a new attraction the “Circle and Sphere” to mark the Arctic Circle. It replaced a permanent marker near the small airport because the Arctic Circle line changes with the Earth’s movement – I didn’t know that! So the clever Islanders made the marker as a sphere so they could move it as required. However at some point in the future the Arctic Circle will move off the northern tip of the island into the sea. So I guess they will need a floating ball!

The highlight of the visit to Grimsey was our 7 Kilometre walk to the sphere and our very close sightings of the delightful little Puffins that inhabit the island in their thousands in Summer.

 

[love_the_life]

We visited in an August and the puffins had already left so I am very envious.

 

[Pug1]

We visited in an August and the puffins had already left so I am very envious.

yes we were really lucky having tried to get close enough to photograph them in Norway and Scotland on previous trips.

 

[Pug1]

24th July

We sailed for Mjoifjordur where we cruised to the head of the Fjord and then back down it to head for Nordfjordur and our stop in the little village of Neskaupstadur. This is a seldom visited part of Iceland and the road in is closed during the winter with the locals relying on a weekly ferry service.

Here are some views of the Fjord and Neskaupstadur.






This was the day Hebridean Sky had its BBQ lunch on the Lido deck, which was a sumptuous spread and the crew had gone to great lengths to decorate the tables with carved fruits and veggies.

 

[Pug1]

Then it was away to Hofn for our next day highlight visits to Vatnajokull Icefield and Jokulsarlon and its “Diamond Beach”. Vatnajokull takes up around 8% of Iceland’s land area and is apparently the third largest Ice mass after Antarctica and Greenland.
The lagoon is an amazing mini Antarctica.



Jökulsárlón is a glacial lagoon. Its Glacier blue waters are dotted with icebergs from the surrounding Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier, part of larger Vatnajökull Glacier. The Glacier Lagoon flows through a short waterway into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving chunks of ice on a black sand beach. You can take a tour of the lagoon on an amphibious vehicle, which we did. The black sand beach is absolutely beautiful with glistening icebergs melting away on the sand and a line of them floating out to sea on the opposite side of the outlet.

One of the icebergs in the lagoon had overturned just before our visit and was a deep blue colour.







Our guide brought us a piece of ice to chew, would have been very old ice for a G&T.





My photos don't do this scene justice, it was spectactular and we were really lucky with the sunshine.


Next stop was lunch and then a coach trip up a hair raising road to the Glacier and Icefield.

 

[drron]

You would need a bucketload of gin for that iceblock!

 

[Pug1]

You would need a bucketload of gin for that iceblock!

She broke it up into little bits to chew on but I wasn't sure where it had been before she got hold of it!

 

[VPS]

You would need a bucketload of gin for that iceblock!

I have bucket loads of gin

 

[Pug1]

Next stop on 25th July was up a very hair raising twisty road to the Vatnajokull Glacier and Icefield. We then went onto the ice on a little red truck thing and had a walk around throwing a few snowballs and heading back down trying not to look at the huge drops on either side of the road. More hardy members of our group went onto the glacier on snowmobiles dressed up like Michelin people even though it was only zero to plus 2C.






The road up and down

 

[Pug1]

Our last port on the cruise was Heimaey Island and town in the Vestmannaeyjar or Westman Islands. We expected a cruise around the islands and little else however this stop proved to be one of the most interesting and emotional for a couple of reasons. Firstly the town was destroyed by the eruption of Eldfell Volcano in 1973 and nearly all of the inhabitants (about 5000), evacuated by sea and air. Half the town was buried under lava and the rest under ash. The lava flow was slowed by the residents pumping seawater onto it, which saved half of the town. The eruption threatened to close the harbour but in fact improved it by creating a narrower opening to the sea with a dog-leg into it. It is now one of the busiest and safest fishing ports in Iceland and the town is back to its pre-eruption population.
The second reason for our interest in this port was the story of Keiko the Orca. More on that later.

Heimaey has an 18 hole golf course, small airport and great camping facilities, with the inclusion of a replica dual Viking longhouse alongside that the campers can use when raining or for meals and drinks. There is an annual music festival on the island in August and the locals were preparing for that. This included the biggest pile of wooden pallets we have ever seen that would be the 4 day bonfire. We are told the festival is a constant line-up of Icelandic rock bands at high decibels, lots of drinking culminating in thousands skinny-dipping in the freezing waters!

One of the buried houses was excavated after 40 years and a museum built over it to house a display of the eruption and subsequent rebuilding of the town. This is a must see.
Entry to Heimaey Harbour



The town from the lava field


Volcano museum displays





the museum



Camping area and music festival site



the bonfire pile



Recreation of Viking longhouse

 

[Pug1]

Keiko the Orca
As mentioned before we had Colin Baird on board Hebridean Sky for our cruise. Colin had trained Keiko and other Orca and he was the main driver of the release of Keiko in 2002. Keiko was captured in Icelandic waters at about 2 years old and spent the next 25+ years in tiny pools in US and Mexican Sea Life parks. He was captured by this ship that was in harbour at the time of our visit.


Colin gave a talk on the story of Keiko's release and his death in a Norwegian Fjord and there was hardly a dry eye on the ship including Colin's. On his release from a Mexican park Keiko was flown to Heimaey and released into a penned off cove just outside the harbour. There Colin and his team gradually worked with Keiko to try to introduce him to the open sea again and to learn to feed himself. He did swim briefly with wild Orca but never fully adapted. Keiko was fitted with a tracking device and swam across the Atlantic to a Norwegian Fjord where sadly he died in 2003. He is buried in a secret location on a farm by the Fjord. Thankfully the capture and transfer of Orca is now banned in Iceland.

On the one hand Keiko's release could be seen as a failure. However as Colin said he did swim in the free ocean again, learnt to feed himself and probably lived the normal life span of a captive Orca.

 

[Pug1]

Farewell to Heimaey Island.
This was our last picture on the island; you can see the Volcano that caused all the problems with flights in 2010, Eyjafjallajokull.

 

[Pug1]

Reykjavik and home
We spent a few hours in Reykjavik on disembarkation and then flew home via LHR and HK. Found a couple of interesting sculptures in Reykjavik town





The only thing to note on the CX flights was that on the LHR to HK leg we had the four class configuration on the 777. That meant the PE cabin had its own loo, which was on the starboard side - see plan below. Whilst this was very handy for us it must have annoyed the passengers in centre row 30 as us port side passengers had to clamber past them to get to the loo.

That's all from my TR folks. Hope I didn't bore you too much and that perhaps you are motivated to visit Iceland one day or again.

 

[tgh]

Thank you Pug1 for a really excellent TR.

 

[Denali]

Bravo! So beautiful and thank you for sharing. I really enjoyed your trip report.

 

[VPS]

Excellent thank you. Iceland is getting higher on the list of places to go

 

[craven morehead]

Reykjavik and home
We spent a few hours in Reykjavik on disembarkation and then flew home via LHR and HK. Found a couple of interesting sculptures in Reykjavik town

View attachment 133473

View attachment 133474

The only thing to note on the CX flights was that on the LHR to HK leg we had the four class configuration on the 777. That meant the PE cabin had its own loo, which was on the starboard side - see plan below. Whilst this was very handy for us it must have annoyed the passengers in centre row 30 as us port side passengers had to clamber past them to get to the loo.
View attachment 133475
That's all from my TR folks. Hope I didn't bore you too much and that perhaps you are motivated to visit Iceland one day or again.

Thanks for putting together an outstanding TR with awesome photos to make us all jealous. I've done Denmark, Finland & Sweden and it looks like I'm now going to have to have a go at Iceland & Norway. Cheers CM

 

[maggies1]

Thank you for your fabulous trip report. Of interest there is an Icelandic tv series on SBS at the moment called Trapped, very watchable, has subtitles.

 

[love_the_life]

Thank you for your fabulous trip report. Of interest there is an Icelandic tv series on SBS at the moment called Trapped, very watchable, has subtitles.

We watched that a few months back. It was quite engrossing. We do like Nordic noir though.

 

[Pug1]

Thank you Pug1 for a really excellent TR.

I appreciate the kind words tgh