Our last day in this great place

Oh, what a day! We woke to brilliant blue skies and warm air. The latter reminded us that we were on the south coast of Iceland which is influenced by the North Atlantic Drift- a current of warm water originating off Florida as the Gulf Stream. It is what keeps northern Europe and Iceland MUCH warmer that they should be if you just look at latitude.

So today we were headed for the iconic Westmann Islands. They got their name from the fact that when the Norse came west to Iceland, they would stop off in Ireland to take slaves on their way. The "west men" were the slaves from Ireland.

Our first close look at the Westmann Islands was of Surtsey (Island of Surt). Your faithfully blogger is old enough to remember the big news of the birth of Surtsey in 1963. From the North Atlantic rose explosive columns of smoke and ash and together with the molten lava, grew quite quickly into the island we see today. Since then (only a little over 50 years ago- a geological blink of the eye) the island has been eroded somewhat by the sea and is somewhat smaller than it used to be. Perhaps it may end up as a pinnacle of hard rock sticking out of the ocean (as we saw around the islands). Remarkably Surtsey looks like it's been there for millions of years!

From Surtsey, we had great views of the mainland and the Eyjafjallajokull glacier. The volcano associated with the glacier erupted a few years ago and caused a major disruption in trans-Atlantic air traffic because of the ash put up into the air and atmosphere. Here it is to the right in this image.

As we arrived to Surtsey, we were very lucky to see a pod of Orcas (Killer Whales). Close to the Orcas was a Humpback Whale and we were pretty sure that the Orcas were hunting the whale.

After Surtsey we cruised to Home Island- Haemaey- the largest in the Westmann Island archipelago, and the most populated. We had several opportunities to see the island via bus, walking or from a small cruise boat. A strong theme on Haemaey is the eruption that occurred in 1973. This destroyed 300 houses in the town, dumped millions of tonnes of ash over the rest of the town. Houses were buried half way up the walls and the town grave yard was inundated. However, you would never know the ash had been there!

On the walking tour we climbed up the volcano that was created in the 1973 eruption (see the red mountain in this image). It was thrilling to stand on new land, only a few decades old!

In the eruption museum, one of the houses that was buried in ash has been excavated. The museum was brand new, beautifully designed and very sophisticated.

There is a tradition in the Westmann Islands for hunting puffins using a net called a fleygur as dipicted here on the side of a building.

As this is the last day of our Iceland circumnavigation, here is a commemorative image of our great Expedition Team! Hi everyone!!!

Djupivogur, all day!

We countinued our clockwise circumnavigation of Iceland with a visit to the southeast Iceland town of Djupivogur today. We had all day in the community to explore and get to know Iceland even better. This tour so far has really given us an opportunity for total immersion in everything Icelandic.

Guests had an opportunity to stroll around town, have a coffee and just relax. Djupivogur is part of the 'slow city' movement and so was very conducive to this. One of the most famous highlights of the town can be found around the bay in another harbour where 34 granite egg sculptures of some of Iceland's birds can be found. They were created by Sigurdur Gudmundsson and installed in 2009. It is a truly impressive display. The eggs are large, colourful, and very smooth, very tactile! One has to wonder how on earth the artist made these perfect eggs out of such a hard rock as granite.

The two excursions guests took advantage of both had a theme of glaciers with Djupivogur being not so far from Europe's largest glacier called Vatnajokull. It was a fairly long but scenic bus ride to the glacier lagoon. Let these images tell the story!

Out of town, just a 15 minute walk, could be found some ponds and hides (blinds) for birdwatching. The area was rich with wildlife, and some of us ventured there to breathe the fresh air, listen to the soft quietness of the place and appreciate the Arctic fauna of the area.

Seydisfjordur and Eskifjordur- Iceland’s eastern fiords

We are now in east Iceland and about 2/3rds of the way around Iceland on our circumnavigation. As an aside, this is a fabulous way to see a country like Iceland. Many parts are remote and difficult to get to by road. On the Fram, we slide almost effortlessly over the surface of the water and make our landings pretty well anywhere we like. Having said this, we are mainly hitting the coastal high-spots. Almost all of our landings have been in communities, towns and cities with a wharf, along-side which we can dock.

You have probably noticed that many of the places we visit end in “fjordur”. This of course means fiord in Icelandic and just indicates how many places along the coast are tucked inside a fiord where the waters are sheltered and normally deep. Seydisfjordur is a pleasant little community, obviously driven by the fishery (at least as judged by the fishy smell outside at least!). Situated almost in the bottom of the fiord, the small town hugs the shoreline on both sides. Our guests had three options for the morning including a nature tour, stroll around the town, and a hike up to a waterfall. Our excursion to Skalanes allowed us to get a real taste of the farm/countryside life in Iceland. Our guide cooperatively owns the place with his family and welcomes student groups from all around the world to teach them about nature. Accompanied by their two dogs, we went on a walk around the property where we saw many birds like puffins, fulmars, kittiwakes and oystercatchers.

About 35 of us hiked up behind Seydisfjordur to a beautiful waterfall. The scenery was spectacular- this is an understatement. On the river above the falls, we found two pairs of Harlequin Ducks. They are there to breed. This species feeds on fly larvae in the river and when the chicks hatch the larvae are particularly abundant.

After lunch we cruised south along the spectacular coastline of east Iceland. Fantastic volcanic mountains rimmed the coast, plunging straight down to the sea. Almost all of the cliffs had breeding seabirds on them- kittiwakes, fulmars and guillemots (murres). The volcanic rock seems to provide just the right depth of ledge that these bird species need.

We arrived at Eskifjordur later in the afternoon but as we had until 10:00pm no one felt rushed. Some of us went on a tour focussing on the local fishing industry while others travelled in 4x4 Jeeps to a local but remote and hard to get to location.

Husavik- Iceland's first site of settlement

Iceland has had a long history of settlement Norse people, and when they came to Iceland in 870 AD, one of them, a Swedish viking named Gardar Svarvarsson came to the area now known as Husavik. Eventually some farm houses were built and a permanent settlement was established. This is where the Fram and her guests, crew and officers find themselves this morning. The name of the town means 'Bay of Houses' and refers to the original farm houses built around the bay.

Now Husavik is a thriving community of over 3000 people. It is Iceland's centre for whale watching. This is driven by cold productive waters of the Greenland Current which in turn provides great habitat for small fishes such as capelin, which is a favourite food of Humpback Whales. Unfortunately, due to rough seas our whale watching excursion was cancelled but we ended up seeing whales anyway when we left Husavik (more below). From where Fram was docked along side in the harbour we could see the imposing and famous wooden church Husavikurkirkja dating from 1907.

Husavik is a tourism centre as well, and many people come here to visit the amazing Lake Myvatn to the south. We had two excursions to the Lake, which is very productive and full of birds, also history, geology, in fact everything Iceland has to offer on that side of things. One of the excursions visited the Godafoss Waterfall again, for who missed it the day before. There is lots of heat just under the surface at Myvatn and we witnessed many signs of volcanic activity.

As we left Husavik harbour and turned to the east, we began to see small groups of Humpback Whales from the Fram. For some guests this was the first time they had ever seen these leviathans and a big thrill for all of us.

The Humpys were sounding (diving) intermittently, and as mentioned, probably feeding on capelin, a small oily, energy-rich fish. The whales are in these waters for one reason- to feed. They come here from warmer water areas where they spend the winter mating and having their babies.

Akureyri- Iceland's capital of the north Iceland

Today finds ourselves in the bottom of a deep fiord called Eyjafjordur, in Iceland's second largest city- Akureyri. The city of about 18000 people boasts a university, an international airport (the only one in the north), many shops, restaurants and hotels, a vibrant folk and arts culture, wonderfully sheltered harbour, and spectacular scenery. The area was settled by Vikings in the 9th century- that's a long time ago! There is no evidence that peoples settled in Iceland before the Norse arrived here, so Icelanders are true native peoples of this country. People originally traded in Akureyri in the summers and went home for the winters. However, by the late 1700s a permanent settlement was established. Today, fishing is still big business with two of Iceland's main fishing companies headquartered here. It is also a centre and jumping-off point for travellers to explore what the northern part of the country has to offer, which is much!

Our guests were able to join an excursion in the morning to enhance their knowledge about the land of fire and ice and see a little more than just the town of Akureyri. The buses gathered on the parking lot in front of the ship and our Expedition Team welcomed the participants along with the local guides. Our trip started by a little drive through the city which gave us an impression about the size of the capital of the North (of Iceland). On our way outside the city, our guides told us everything there is to know about Akureyri in general, its economy and of course the history. The road took us up in the mountains where we drove through a winter wonderland complete with snow! 

While admiring the scenery we were told a few short Icelandic Sagas in relation to the nature we were seeing. We soon arrived at the Godafoss falls - the "waterfalls of the gods". Legend has it that Thorgeir of Ljosavatn, a chieftain present at the Parliament meeting at Thingvellir in the year 1000, was given the authority to decide which religion was to be adopted by the Icelanders. He was a pagan himself, but after a period of thought, he decided that Christianity was to be the religion here. Upon his return home, he took the statues of the pagan gods he used to worship and threw them into this waterfall near his homestead. From this time, the waterfall has been named Godafoss (Waterfall of the Gods). The views over the falls were stunning and the sound from the water even so. Many of us took beautiful pictures and enjoyed the fresh humid air hanging around the falls.

On our way to the Botanical Gardens, we stop at a viewing point of Akureyri, on the other side of the Island Fjord, which gave us an even better understanding of the city´s location and size. Once at the gardens, we observed many of the locally growing wild flowers of which some were already blooming. Many of the other exposed flora included trees and bushes from all around the world and flowers endemic to the region. The gardens offered an opportunity for a peaceful walk surrounded by nature´s finest. A perfect way to end our tour here in Akureyri. 

In the afternoon, we had a rare opportunity (rare because in places like Iceland, there is very little free time or sea days) to hear our expedition staff give lectures on a variety of interesting topics such as history and sociology of Iceland, its geology and birds. 

Siglufjordur and Grimsey- Herring and puffins

We are more or less half-way round Iceland on our circumnavigation and arrived at Siglufjordur in the north-central portion of the country. By the way, so many nouns in Icelandic end is 'UR'- the ending simply signifies 'the'. In Icelandic, as in many Germanic languages, nouns are declined by adding endings, which signifies the role of the noun in the sentence.

The community of about 3000 people got its start as a trading post and fishing centre but grew tremendously once the Herring fishery started. This was initially a food fishery (1800s) and the Herring were salted, packed in barrels, and shipped out to Europe. Later this turned into an industrial fishery producing Herring oil and fish meal. Untold tonnes of Herring were caught in the rich waters around Iceland and processed in the plant here. However, it wasn't so long after that the fishery collapsed in the 1950s. It came back some in the 1960s but then went for good. Ironically, the tourism which now drives a thriving economy here in Siglufjordur is partially based on a display of the Herring fishing era in the town. This is done at the very interesting Herring Goldrush Museum. So the Herring continue to give but don't get much in return!

After lunch we sailed north to the Arctic Circle and to Grimsey Island. This place is a fascinating microcosm of the whole of Iceland, all contained on an island no longer than about 5 km. We landed in our Polar Cirkel boats in the harbour and had several hours to explore the island on our own. Many walked north to see the breeding puffins and to walk over the Arctic Circle at 66 degrees 34 minutes north. At 60 nautical miles per degree, that means we are almost 4000 nautical miles north of the Equator, which equates to about 4800 regular miles or 8600 km!

A few intrepid guests went out in our kayaks with our expert kayak guide Tessa. They had great views of puffins and other seabirds from water-level. Those who decided to hike along the spectacular cliffs of Grimsey were also afforded great views of puffins, fulmars, and other local birds.

Atlantic Puffins off-duty on the cliff top (the mates are in the burrows)

This puffin was trying to land with nest material but the wind was too strong

 A Northern Fulmar, relative of petrels and albatrosses

Once we returned to the Fram, our Captain circumnavigated Grimsey which meant that all of us crossed the Arctic Circle twice. Of course when an auspicious event like this happens, Fram always gets a visit from King Neptune who insists on initiating those new Arctic Circle crossers with a drenching of ice-cold water.