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.

Iceland, sort of

Canso, Wings over Springbank July 27, 2019

This is supposed to be a post about Iceland and it is, indirectly. The ones about the holiday will follow when I get some photos organized to go with them.

Today we went to the Springbank air show. I saw an ad for it probably on Facebook and we decided it would be a fun adventure. We took the C-train to Crowfoot station and then got on a shuttle bus to take us out to the airport.  We packed our lunches last night and both had water with us since the temperature was about 27 when we left the house. At that point it wouldn’t have taken much to persuade me to hide in the basement for the day.

I was surprised that there wasn’t a huge line to get on the shuttle bus and the event itself didn’t really seem crowded. There were a lot of really interesting planes and helicopters parked alongside the runway. There was a model of the Avro Arrow next door to a Lear jet. The cadets had one of their gliders out and there were a few helicopters in the mix. There was also quite a large plane that was painted yellow and had a buffalo on it. When I got around the front and read the sign, I saw that it was a Canso. 

Instrument panel Canso

Dad didn’t talk too much about his time in the RCAF in Iceland other than the pranks that the Canadians and the Americans played on each other, but I do remember that he talked about working on Cansos.  I never thought I would see one. I mentioned to the woman at the table outside that my dad had been in Iceland and worked on Cansos. She asked me to write down his name and squadron.  I didn’t know the squadron but I put his name on a list of others already there. I doubt they’ll be able to find out anything but it’s a neat connection for me. When I got to the door of the plane and started talking to the guy there, he told me that he would get me into the cockpit, that as the daughter of someone who served in the air force, I was a VIP. That felt weird. I did get to sit in the cockpit and chat with the guy who was there providing information.

Me in the cockpit of a plane Dad probably serviced

He said that after the war this particular flying boat was refitted as a water bomber and ended up at the bottom of a lake from where it was salvaged. It flew more missions fighting fires that it ever did over the North Atlantic. He also said it was commissioned in June of 1944 and transferred to Iceland in December of 1944. I know Dad was there at that time so there is a good possibility that I was sitting in a plane that he had worked on. The guy in the cockpit also told me that the Cansos went out in the dark, caught up with the convoys, flew with then during the day and then found their way back to Iceland in the dark. Apparently, they were armed with depth charges against submarines.  I don’t know how all of that worked since it seems to me, they wouldn’t be able to carry enough fuel to fly most of a night and a day; however, it’s another bit of interesting information and I may have misunderstood what he said.

Many of Dad’s papers had have long since disappeared and others are in binders in a storage locker. For some reason I have kept two photo albums of Dad’s from Iceland and I spent this morning looking through them. I may have inherited my interest in photography from him for there are photos of sunsets, flowers, and boats reflected in water. These are all in black and white, but I doubt he would take photos such as these if his only interest was in documenting where he was. Or, perhaps I’m searching for connections between us. He carefully labelled all of the photos and postcards with his name, rank and serial number – seriously! Annoyingly for me, he seldom wrote anything about where the shots were taken. I have inklings that I’m more like my dad in some ways than my mum, his love of writing and reading, his tendency to be a pack-rat, his love of birds. I think we might have understood each other quite well if only we had allowed it. Now that I have lived longer on this earth than he did, I feel a sense of connection through his tools that I use regularly and, now, being able to sit in an airplane that he probably helped to maintain. I’ve heard others say that death doesn’t end a relationship, but I didn’t think that a relationship could grow stronger after death. I may have been wrong.

Dad is in the end of the front row on the right

The Faroe Islands

At the end of the second day I was sure that was going to be my favourite day of the trip. Then the third day came along. Even the day that rained we travelled to Klaksvik and saw a church with amazing wood art in the hall, but more about that later.


We landed in the Faroe Islands at Vagar airport which is on a different island than the main city of Torshavn. The rest of the folks were on a flight from Scotland and we got in around noon. Their flight was scheduled to get in around 5 pm so we waited around the airport. We had lunch, then tea, then a smoothie, than another cup of tea. It’s a small airport so we could see the planes landing and taking off. At one point I saw a helicopter being towed from one spot to another. We took turns wandering around outside.
When the rest of the group collected, we hopped in a 40 passenger bus, there were 9 of us, and headed for the tunnel under the sea to take us to Torshavn. There are two tunnels connecting some of the islands. It isn’t the size of the tunnel that is impressive but that a small population had managed to get it built. They had help from Denmark but still they got it built and, by having a toll for using the tunnel, they were able to  pay off the loan from Denmark ahead of schedule. They then decided to keep the toll going to eventually pay the whole cost of the project.
On the way to our hotel, Per who was our guide pointed out an abandoned British military base from WWII and asked us to guess what it was used for now. None of our guesses even came close.  Turns out, it’s used as a short-term jail. If inmates have sentences longer than 2 years they are sent to Denmark.
Our hotel was well appointed and had a traditional sod roof. Prices in the Faroes and in Iceland are high. The first night a dinner was part of the package. On subsequent nights we were on our own. The hotel had a buffet with no option to order ala carte. It cost about $60 CDN per person but, as we later found out, going into town to a restaurant was no less expensive.
Each day of our stay in the Faroes was different. We visited a waterfall the first day. On the second day we had a ride in a strip boat, a zodiac with a hard hull. We straddled seats that were very close together and offered hand holds on the back for the person behind. The ride was great fun and at the end the captain decided to give us a thrill and swung the boat into a steep turn which had the top of the pontoon almost touching the water. Then he swung around so the folks on the other side of the boat could have the same amount of fun. One person on our tour had been of a rib boat before and opted not to do it again. I’d happily do it again and came off the boat grinning. Turns out stepping back up onto the dock wasn’t as easy as the young folks made it look and instead of stepping gracefully up I ended up hitting the edge of the dock with my toe and advancing onto land on my hands and knees. Getting in and out of the survival suit further added further opportunities for my to demonstrate my grace and poise.
That same day we had a tour of the sea stacks, one of which soared 300 m into the sky and was named The Troll’s Wife’s Finger. I wasn’t able to determine which finger it was.
One of the highlights of the trip was a helicopter flight to Mykines, the bird island, which is the nesting place of puffins and kitty wakes. The sky was overcast and the pilot advised us to get our activities done early in the day because the forecast was for rain. The plan was to walk through a puffin colony to a lighthouse. Most of the group accomplished that. In my books, looking at a lighthouse is not nearly as exciting as trying to capture photos of puffins. I parked myself just off the pathway in a spot where the puffins came up over the edge of the cliffs enroute to their burrows. I did’t have the long lens on my camera and I don’t have a lot of experience trying to photograph birds in flight. I had a blast despite not getting any really good shots.
When it started to rain, I asked one of the other participants who had opted not to go farther on the hike, if she wanted to start back. She did so we made our way back down the path. I loaned her one of my hiking poles which she said made a huge difference. Richard caught up with us just as we completed the steepest section and we walked together back into the village.
The final day, we visited two more islands: one by undersea tunnel and one via a bridge. We had lunch at a guest house and then carried on into Klaksvik. I don’t remember what else we saw but what blew me away was the King Christian’s church built in 1963. I’ve been know to get ‘churched out’ on tours but this church is different from any other I’ve ever seen.  There is a small boat hanging from the ceiling in the sanctuary and on the lower level are 12 reliefs made from wood by Edward Fulgo. The wood came from the frame around a fresco when the fresco needed repairs. There are 10 reliefs each illustrating a bible story. You can get right up to each one and I was able to examine the wood and see the band saw cuts and the mill marks left in some of the pieces. The detail is amazing. Some parts are sanded and some aren’t. Some of the wood is painted and some isn’t. One of the most striking features is in the eyes of the people: only the dead or dying have pupils in their eyes. I know that sounds creepy but the works are truly gorgeous without any hint of being ornate or fussy. I was so impressed that I and another person on the tour, asked the guide if we could stop at a book store to buy a book about the reliefs, As Told in Wood by Nils Ohrt. I will look with pleasure at the photos in the reliefs and may even turn to them for ideas for my own work.
I loved the Faroe Islands and they are on my list of places to which I would gladly return. When push comes to shove both Richard and I prefer the wild places every time, even though our manner of arriving at and moving through them has changed drastically over the years.
P.S. I’m writing this from the port of Akureyri and there is free wifi right across from the ship. I’m using my phone and a version of word to write this and I’m not sure if I will be able to put in photos or not.  If not I’ll add photos later.