This is not a travelogue

This is going to be about Iceland, but I find after I’ve been to a place if I try to reconstruct a trip day by day and place by place, I soon lose interest. I’ll provide a map and some context. Mainly though, I’ve grouped the experiences and photos thematically. (How very English-teacherly of me.) A word of warning: if photos of birds are disturbing to you don't go any further.

I’ve already covered Reykjavik and the Faroes, so I’ll start back at Reykjavik where we caught the ship. How we were to make the transfer from the airport to the ship wasn’t exactly clear but because Richard and I had been from the airport to downtown Reykjavik before, we knew where to get the buses. One person from our Faroe trip stayed at the airport to board a flight and the rest of us got our luggage and caught a bus into the city. We had the name of the hotel where the Adventure Canada group stayed so we headed there with our luggage. The person on the desk kindly let us store our luggage until we found out what was up.

Ocean Endeavour, Old Harbour, Reykjavik 

In the meantime, we had lunch with friends we met on last year’s trip and who were on the Faroes with us. We managed to confirm that the ship was going to be moored in the old harbour and figured the Ocean Endeavour would be pretty hard to miss once it was in. By the time we finished lunch, said goodbye to our friends and made our way down the hill, the Ocean Endeavour was moored and we were able to check in. A bonus was that other friends from the Faroe tour had arranged to have our luggage brought down from the hotel! Thank you Christine, Donna, and Clayton! We thought we’d have to go back up the hill and get our own luggage. We then had some time to wander around. 

Richard at the bottom of Thufa

We climbed up Thufa, an art installation that is a manufactured perfectly rounded hill covered in grass with a path of stones that spirals its way to the top. I tried to climb to the top when we were first in Reykjavik, but the wind was pretty stiff, and I was concerned about losing my balance. This time I made it to the top where there is a replica of a fish-drying shed complete with dried fish.  

Rescue exercises

A woman from Rekjavik explained that the mound was a sculpture. She also told us that the helicopter and ship we saw farther out in the harbour were doing rescue drills.  Every person who goes to sea on a ship must be trained in rescue. She says the safety record of the fishermen of Iceland is very good. We watched the helicopter maneuvers for a while before making our way back to the ship to set off on our circumnavigation of Iceland. This is the point at which my chronological account stops.

One of the questions I get most often is, ‘What was your favourite part?’ My favourite part of the Iceland trip was the birds. There were always birds around the ship and we visited some great bird-spotting locations. After being introduced to Arctic terns in Reykjavik, we visited one of the biggest colonies in Iceland on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. 

Road through the terns

The colony is divided by a road and the terns were not terribly amused by people and cars moving through their territory. We tried to stay back and watch them until our hiking group took to the roadway. The terns dove and scolded, and many people held things above their heads to give the terns a higher target to aim at. I was probably naïve, but I had my Tilley hat on and reasoned that if a tern did strike me on the head it wouldn’t do too much damage through the hat. One actually touched Richard on the head, but I was lucky. I like to think that talking to them and telling them that they were beautiful and that I wasn’t going to hurt them or their babies helped. As I say, probably just naïve.  We heard a story later of a man who got a pretty good gash from a disgruntled tern through his hat. I was able to watch a chick in the grass while one of the parents swooped in to feed it. I had a blast trying to get photos of the fast-moving terns. I think that’s the day I came home with over 1000 photos. I found my new camera quite delightful to use, although I still need lots of practice to get good shots of birds.

Tern and chick

Tern hovering

One of the things that fascinated me was how the terns can hover in mid-air and then swoop down and come up with a small fish. They are stunning birds with their white and black feathers and their orange beaks and it’s a toss-up as to whether they or the puffins were my favourites. We visited another breeding colony in a private nature reserve that we had to reach via two buses. The first was a normal passenger bus and the second was a special 4X4 bus that drove us through 3 rivers.  I would have called them creeks, but they are probably quite a bit more spectacular when there has been a good rain. At any rate, the banks were steep, and the driver didn’t dare stop once in the water or he would get stuck.

Coming in for a landing

The same nature preserve also harboured puffins. I got some good photos of puffins in the Faroes and was delighted with the chance to see more.  One little guy took up a position on a rock slightly below me and stayed there for quite a while. Again, I need a lot of practice in capturing images of birds, but I had a good deal of fun trying and I got one amusing shot of a puffin landing. 
Most of the ones I got of them in flight featured their butts, otherwise dubbed ‘go-away birds.’

Heading for the burrow

My photogenic friend

Puffins are great in the water but not so good in the air. I heard them referred to as ‘flying footballs’ and that’s pretty much what they look like. Sort of like the bumble-bee, they shouldn’t be able to fly but they do. It’s difficult for them to get airborne, especially on the water. The process involves frantic flapping of their wings and running along the surface of the water until they have sufficient lift to take off.  I watched several get almost airborne only to be smacked head-on by a wave. It looked funny from my vantage point, but I couldn’t help wondering how often it happens to any given individual. Because the ship was moving, I wasn’t able to see how the birds reacted to the waves. Since they are expert divers, I assumed the waves merely washed over them and they tried again for a launch.

Fulmar

One evening I watched out the porthole as a series of fulmars flew past just above the water. I couldn’t tell if it was the same group circling the ship or if there was a large contingent passing low near the water. I loved watching as the birds zipped alongside the ship and then cut in front of the bow and veered upward.

Phalarope

We also saw phalaropes, red-throated loons, gannets and eider ducks. Eider down is the best down insulation available and farmers keep close track of the nests. They take the eggs out very briefly and remove some of the down lining before returning the eggs. There are strict rules as to how much down they can take from the nests while the birds are in residence. Once the chicks have fledged farmers go back and take the remaining down from the nests. It’s labour-intensive work which helps me understand the high cost of down clothing. The farmers take their responsibility for the ducks very seriously and the ducks return year after year to the same spots.

Despite the thousands of bird photos I took, I never tired of watching them or of trying to capture them with my camera. It makes me think that perhaps I should look at a birding trip. Just another possibility for the bucket list.

Reykjavic day 1

Arctic Terns

Well, this is quite the challenge. it’s supposed to be easy to log into accounts from anywhere and I even have a program that will save my passwords for me. Nevertheless, I seem to be consistently able to do something that the computer gods don’t like. Here I am in Rekjavik at an ungodly hour of the morning because my eyes sprang open and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Ah the joys of international travel. I’m glad to be here though, in this little apartment near the centre of town. It’s a very pleasant place, kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath with a small hallway. It gives us enough room to spread out and we’re very good at that. When we were cycling we could reduce a motel room to a shambles within five minutes of arriving.

One of the nice surprises of this place is that there are 3 power adapters here. We brought 2 and with all the electronic stuff we carry, the other 3 are a great bonus. There is no consistency in them so I suspect that previous visitors have left them unintentionally. There are three opened bags of coffee. R says one is stale and he tossed it last night. There are tea bags and coffee whitener. R ventured forth last night and bought coffee and milk so we are set for the mornings.

We landed yesterday at around 7 in the morning local time or about midnight our time. Neither of us got much sleep on the plane. It wasn’t dark until we came down into the clouds to land. I was looking out the window, expecting to see something through the fog and by the time we were flying over cars on the roadway I could almost see the drivers’ faces. We retrieved our luggage and bought bus tickets then got on the bus for the ride from Keflavik where the main airport is located to Reyjkvik, about 40 km. We put our luggage in a locker at the bus station and proceded to play ‘how can we stay awake until 3:00 pm when we can get into the apartment?’

By the time we got into town the rain had stopped and we followed some other bleary-eyed tourists to the Paris Cafe where we had a lovely but expensive breakfast. I had no idea where we were going and got completely turned around in our wanderings. Good thing R has a good sense of direction and a GPS on his phone. It took us all of about 2 minutes to decide to pay the $12 per day roaming charge on the phones. After all, what’s the point of having technology if it doesn’t make your life easier? Besides, we’re on holiday and this is not the time to ‘swallow the cow and choke on the tail’ as my mother was fond of saying. I have no idea where she got that and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else say it.

We poked our noses into several shops. They have beautiful wool sweaters and I’d love to get one but I know it would be too warm for me to wear at home and too bulky to carry on trips like this, so I’ll content myself with admiring them. R saw some wool hats that look a bit like Viking helmets and they have braided ties to keep them on. We didn’t find one that was good for him colour-wise and he really wants one with braids. We will keep looking.

We debated whether we should watch an hour of films at The Volcano Centre or whether that would be too much of temptation to sleep. We decided to chance it and every time I thought I’d just give my eyes a rest, R nudged me. I wasn't sure whether to appreciate him for being so conscientious about the rules of the ‘stay awake’ game or irritated because I wasn't sleeping: I was just resting my eyes.

So with a bit more wandering we made it to noon. With a substantial breakfast in our stomachs killing time by having lunch didn’t make much sense. We checked out the harbour, walked past the whale-watching kiosks, had a look at the survival suits one of the whale-watching companies had on display, found the library, city hall, and visited one of the tourist information places. There were brochures on all sorts of tours plus a map of hiking routes and another one of bicycling routes in Iceland. I thought the cycling sounded like fun for about a millisecond until I remembered the forecast for rain, rain and more rain for the next few days.

If lunch wasn’t an option, tea was a necessity. R had two cappuccinos with breakfast but I only had one cup of tea. We went into another little cafe that overlooked the harbour and I got my cuppa. The prices there were better than at the Paris Cafe.

We debated as to whether to walk to the bus station and then get a cab to the suite or to haul our suitcases. In the end the clouds cleared and the sun came out. The temperature was perfect ‘sweater weather’ so we decided to take advantage of the weather and walk, dragging our wheely bags behind us. I’ll take this opportunity to confirm that I’m crazy because I love summer temperatures that require a fleece, a waterproof-breathable jacket and, for folks with less hair than I have, a toque.

There were still a couple of hours to go until check-in and I wasn’t sure I could stay awake but as we walked towards the bus station we stopped to watch a number of birds on a small lake. There were geese, ducks and best of all, Arctic terns. I was absolutely fascinated by the terns. They could hover like a helicopter, plummet into the water and come up with a fish. We sat down on one of the benches and watched. There was a lot of tern activity on a small island at the end of the lake so we relocated to a bench there. Tired as I was, I made the effort to haul my camera and telephoto lens out of the bottom of my backpack. Suddenly, as I watched the terns swoop and dive,I wasn’t tired anymore. I didn’t actually see any eggs or young ones but birds certainly were sitting on the ground all over the little island and the air was filled with their calls. No award-winning shots but I had a wonderful time. Every time I take photos of birds my admiration for stunning photos of birds goes up a few notches. Difficult enough to get photos of Arctic terns which are reasonably sized bird, much more difficult to get photos of sparrows and song birds that hide in bush and zip among the branches.

Three o’clock came and we got into our digs. We slept for a couple of hours and then went out for fish and chips. The place we chose to eat is just around the corner from where we are staying and the shades on the lights above the bar are a couple of fish skins, minus the heads. I’ve certainly never seen anything like that and, to be honest, I found them kind of creepy. The meal was good, the cod so fresh it flaked at the slightest touch of a fork. On the tables were spray bottles with cider vinegar in them. After exchanging ours for one from another table, R and I gave up on spraying the vinegar on our food, opened the bottle and poured it. It seemed impossible to get enough vinegar on the fish and chips to even taste it otherwise. By supper time it was raining again and while R went in search of coffee and milk, I sorted through some of my photos. I packed it in when I could no longer see straight.

I’ve now had two cups of tea. The apartment is quiet except for the occasional conversation among the geese outside. I’m not sure what we’ll end up doing today and it’s wonderful not to have an agenda or a ‘to do’ list. If we run true to form, I’ll want a nap just about the time R gets up. We have a tour booked for tomorrow but today is completely open. I can hardly remember the last time we had a day like that. it’s a real treat but the highlight so far has been the Arctic terns. Any pursuit that requires my entire concentration and makes the passage of time inconsequential is a true gift.

Will I be able to get photos of the headless-fish lights in the fish and chips shop? I’ll certainly try. I doubt that will go down as a highlight of the trip but it’s so unusual that I want to share. Stay tuned.