Road to Nowhere Ends in a Pot of Gold

The day began with kleina, tasty little twisted Icelandic doughnuts and blue sky. We decided to try to drive to Dettifoss, a spectacular waterfall in a chain of beautiful waterfalls in Jokulsargljufur National Park, it is actually the North Unit of Vatnajokull National Park. It is pretty much on the way to Seydisfjordur, our next port-of-call, so why not? Because the gravel goat trail out there became entirely too rugged for the Hyundai, in spite of what Lonely Planet told us. It probably smoothed out agaiun a bit further on, but the second time we almost bottomed out we chickened out. We had to turn back, and I mean turn back and take an alternate route to Seydisfjordur that added literally hundreds of km to the day’s drive. Thankfully we are well provisioned with a giant bag of kleina from the bakery.

Us at Selfoss

K & Z at Selfoss

We went back to Husavik and back around Lake Myvatn; it was interesting to see all the places we visited on our first day again! We went around and entered the park from the southern end, which IS paved. The landscape on this side couldn’t have been more different. The northern end was all green – a veritable Icelandic forest of stunted birch trees and assorted shrubbery. The southern end looked like the surface of the moon. It was a volcanic wasteland; nothing but black sand and rocks as far as the eye could see. Now we really wish we’d made it through from the north – we’d have loved to see where and how the landscape transitioned.

We walked the path out to Selfoss first. There are several major falls on the primary hiking route through the park. We had originally planned to do the two day hike, but that plan ended up sacrificed to squeeze in the trip to Heimaey. We really needed to spend another week, if not two. I digress, wildly. Selfoss was lovely – a somewhat horseshoe shaped fall with several small cascades off to one side. It is only 11 meters high, but the way it plunges down between a valley of columnar basalt is very striking.

The family at Detifoss

Next we walked up the path to Dettifoss. This was the roar we had heard as soon as we parked the car – almost 200 cubic meters of water pour over the edge per second. Our timing was perfect, as the sun came out and a spectacular rainbow formed over the falls. We oohed and aahed and got soaked in the spray. It was very interesting to see that the east side was a giant rock pile and the west side, constantly misted by the plume of spray, was lush and green. Slideshow of the falls at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAiAMYj .

 

Didn’t all this make you terribly late getting to Seydisfjordur, you may wonder. Why, yes, it did. Thank goodness for 24 hours of daylight.

Husavik – A Whale of a Good Time



Charming Husavik nestled at the base of a mountain smothered in lupines

Husavik is incredibly charming – colorful houses line the streets overlooking the beautiful Skjalfandi Bay, a glorious blue and purple mountain rises up behind the red and white church (it is truly blue and purple, not an atmospheric trick. The entire mountain and surrounding hills are cloaked in a dense blanket of Alaska lupines.), and snow capped peaks are just opposite the city on the other side of the bay.

Husavik also has a claim as the first settlement on Iceland, but this isn’t why anyone comes here. You come for the whales. Husavik is the whale watch capitol of Iceland. It is certainly why we are here. The town is also home to the Husavik Whale Museum, an incredible facility dedicated to all anyone has ever known about cetaceans. They have very informative displays for every major member of the whale family, a gallery dedicated to whale strandings, one on the history of commercial whaling, another for a profile of indigenous whale hunting, an echolocation section, another on the ocean food chain, and so on and so on and so on. We felt pretty knowledgeable on this subject, but were quickly brought to realize the depth of our own ignorance. Did you know whales extract 90% of the oxygen from the air they breathe? Did you know that the bowhead whale can live for more than 200 years? Did you know that some whales can stay under water for more than 2 hours? I could go on like this, but I won’t.




Orca skull at the Husavik Whale Museum



One of the more amazing features is the 2nd floor “whale walk”. This is a cat walk under the peak of the roof with actual whale skeletons suspended from the ceiling. All of the specimens came from whales stranded on Iceland’s shores. Most interesting to me was the sperm whale skeleton which came from an individual with almost no lower jaw. The autopsy showed that the lost jaw had not killed him. The wound was healed over and the whale had managed to catch enough food to live. We also gained a great deal of useful information on the processing and preparing of whale skeletons – it isn’t pretty and can take up to two years!

The staff was wonderfully knowledgeable and helpful. We got quite good at “fingerprinting” whales by their unique fluke patterns (humpbacks) and learned about “fin matching” technology as well. We felt well prepared for our whale watch.

We selected the four hour trip with the visit to Lundey Island. This is home to anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 puffins. The island is private property, and the farmers who own it use it mainly to harvest eggs and hunt the puffins. The little island was indeed honeycombed with nests and awash in puffins. It was much easier to observe their marine activities from the boat than during yesterday’s cliff walks. They dive remarkably deep – up to 70 meters, and are completely hilarious to watch taking flight from the water. Puffins mate for life, with qualifications. Due to the uncertainty of life in such a harsh environment they can lose their partner, and then they will find a new one. However, if the original mate returns, the new one will be tossed out and the previous relationship renewed.



Thank you Fund for Teachers!



Our first hour at sea yielded no cetaceans and we were somewhat disappointed. Obviously, it’s not a zoo, and they are wild animals, but in our imagination the seas around Iceland were just seething with whales. Our fellow sailors (it was a beautiful oak hulled schooner) were mainly a split of Germans and Italians with one pair each or Austrians, Swiss and French to ease the soccer induced tension (Germany was playing Italy in the Euro semifinals today). The Italians turned out to be outstanding whale spotters and soon the air was full of cries, “Ecco la! Three o’clock! Ecco la! Eleven o’clock!”



After that first hour there were humpbacks galore and we discovered that whale identification is significantly easier with pictures than with actual whales. The whales were not terribly cooperative about raising their flukes at easy to see angles and we are in need of a camera upgrade as well. However, there were so many and so many good opportunities that we did get some nice pictures and some good video – there will be a delay on posting the whale video because the netbook doesn’t have video editing software and to catch a good whale dive there is a good bit of empty ocean and blow beforehand. It would take millennia to upload most of the video at this point. We did a couple posted, http://youtu.be/z5VBlfHb8vU  and http://youtu.be/D5-UyGASUS0  . The Slideshow is up however and here is the link. http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAiz52E . There were three whales feeding in this shallow (for a whale) area, so their dives didn’t last very long. We were able to use our fluke printing on these, so that was good. There was also abundant bird watching and hot chocolate spiced with rum (the captain poured with a very liberal hand) and cinnamon rolls. So all in all, despite the fact that we still can’t manage to see a Blue whale, an excellent day!

 

Inside the Arctic Circle



arctic circle



We got an early start to catch the bus to Dalvik. This is the departure point for the thrice weekly, three hour ferry service to Grimsey, the only part of Iceland that is actually inside the Arctic Circle. Unimaginably, people live there – 90 of them to be exact, and people have been living on this frozen, wind-blasted rock since 1200. It is very pretty in the summer. Rolling green hills are carpeted with buttercups, blooming dandelions and daisies. The jagged shoreline cliffs serve as home and diving platforms for literally millions of sea birds.

The birds were primary purpose of our visit; we learned a great deal of lore regarding the Arctic Tern and the puffin primarily. The puffin watching was a piece of cake as the cliffs were absolutely buried in them. All the key behaviors were on display so we were able to take excellent field notes, pictures and some good video for our classes. Plus they were mind-bogglingly adorable! We have seen puffins before in Alaska, but that was maybe three of them? These looked a bit smaller than their Alaskan kin also.



The terns were a bit more challenging. They were also everywhere, but they are kind of aggressive. It did make it very easy to locate the nests – these are the locations where the minute you step in that direction thousands of terns appear out of nowhere screaming and diving at your head. The puffins were incredibly indifferent to our proximity. You could be within a few feet of them before you’d rate a glance. The ducks and geese we encountered around Myvatn were the same. This bird watching thing is easier than expected! The main difficulty has been honing our identification skills. Do you have any idea how many types of gulls there are? They all look alike to the untrained eye, and our eye training is still at the baby stage.

All in all it was a wonderful day. The local café served these marvelous crispy-fried camembert rounds (served incomprehensibly with Pace picante sauce), giant, whipped cream topped mugs of hot chocolate and very tasty French fries – the healthy lunch we packed sat in the bag.

Tomorrow we pick up the rental car and prepare to take our chances with the feral sheep (in summer the nation is open range, and the sheep have right of way).

More Grimsey pictures at the link below.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAgdXJq

Marvelous Myvatn

The tour guide picked us up at the airport and we were off for an exploration of Myvatn and the surrounding area. It was a glorious day – beautiful blue sky, temperature in the high 50s and 60s. The guide, Bjorn, told us not to get over-attached to the idea that this was what Iceland was always like in the summer. We were amazed to see spectacular carpets of brilliant blue and purple lupines everywhere. They imported the Alaskan lupine to combat erosion and it is doing such an incredible job that it is now a pest that threatens the native species.




Godafoss



Our first port of call was Godafoss, waterfall of the gods, so named in tribute to the sacrifice of Thorgeir’s (Icelandic parliamentary leader @1000 AD) pagan idols at that site. The nation was threatened by potential division by the existence of two religions and they decided to abide by his choice of which faith to follow. He voted in favor of Christianity and to set a good example to other followers of the traditional Norse faith, tossed his idols of Odin, Freya, Thor, et al over the falls. It was absolutely gorgeous -glorious glacial blue waters foaming and racing over basalt columns. We took scads of pitifully inadequate pictures – be sure to check out the slideshow at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAgdmdm

boiling mud

Myvatn, which can be roughly translated as midge lake (very aptly named), is the remains of an ice cap that once sat over a volcanic basin. When the basin began erupting the ice melted, forming the lake. Eruptions have been fairly frequent in this area and there are multicolored lava flows all over. As we mentioned, the lake is aptly named. The flies are unbelievable. The instant we emerged from the shelter of the van they were in our faces. The flies are the base of the lake’s food web and their abundance is what makes the lake a draw for numerous bird species, particularly ducks.



myvatn



Our first stop on the lake was near a series of pseudo craters. These formations look like volcanic craters but are actually the pockmarks of explosions on the surface of a lava lake as it cooled. This was probably the worst area for flies. Mercifully, they didn’t follow us into the van and any that did stray inside landed on the windows wishing to be outside again. We next visited a series of different lava fields around the lake. There were several curious formations, columns, arches, benches where the hot lava has come in contact with cold water. In the distance were several snowy volcanic peaks, any of which could erupt on short notice the guide informed us.



troll



After lunch we spent a while exploring a lava field called Dimmurborgir, which means dark castle in Icelandic. We were introduced to a variety of troll tales including those of the Yule lads who are a combination of Santa Claus and the archetypal trickster. Our favorite story is that for each of the twelve days of Christmas the lads brings gifts to good children, potatoes to bad children, and really bad children get a rotten potato. Children too terrible to rate a rotten potato are taken away and eaten by the Yule Lads evil troll mother, Grylla. The Dimmurborgir itself came into existence due to an incident when the trolls were having a celebration, got carried away and lost track of the time, and were turned to stone when the sun rose on them.

Next stop was the mid Atlantic Ridge which is exposed here in Iceland. Were took the requisite “one foot in Europe one in North America” photo. We also crawled into a highly unstable cave at the bottom of the ridge filled with hot sulphurous water. We also saw the crater near the summit of Krefla, the most active of all the active volcanoes in the region. Later we visited an active geothermal field full of boiling mud puddles, steaming fumaroles, and the overwhelming stench of sulphur.

Last, but certainly not least, we stopped at the Myvatn Nature Baths. This is a pool of hot outflow water from the nearby geothermal power plant. The mineral rich water is a milky blue and wonderfully relaxing. We steeped ourselves in the hot waters for a while which was the perfect remedy to 36 hours on the move. Good first day in Iceland.

north america on the right, europe on the left

Et tu, Expedia?

Boston has never been high on our list of favorite places (rat capital of America). However, it has managed to sink lower in our opinion by virtue of its absurd airport where the terminals are not securely connected. We had 90 minutes to make our connection which should not have been a problem. It became a problem when, 1, we landed late, 2, we had to physically leave the terminal and RUN through 2 terminals to get to the international terminal and 3, we realized that American Airlines had not checked us through to Reykjavik so we had to check in again with Iceland Air. Then we had to go through the security screening again, all in about 30 minutes. We have to say here that every single person in the airport was great. Sweating like animals and freaking out about missing our flight (the only one of the day), we looked 15 kinds of crazy. Fortunately they didn’t take us away for questioning but they did let us line jump a bit. So thank you, people of Boston Logan Airport and curse you Expedia for booking us such an impossible connection and you too whoever is in charge of funding an upgrade of the airport so people can move between terminals without leaving the secure area.




goda nuit, indeed



We landed in Keflavik, which is the international airport serving Reykjavik. It’s about as far out of town as IAH from Houston, but without all the sprawl in between. We cleared immigration, customs and scrounged for dinner/breakfast before heading out in search of the bus to town. We emerged from the terminal about 1:15AM, just in time to see a lovely sunset. Our next flight didn’t leave until 7:30 and was from the domestic terminal. We wanted to leave in plenty of time to check-in, clear security and the like so we walked over from the central bus terminal about 4:00 and saw the sunrise, not that it ever actually been dark. We arrived to discover that the airport wasn’t open yet so we spent about 20-30 minutes debating when we thought it might open and walked back to a gas station with a convenience store we had spotted on the way over.

It was with great bitterness that we found the Primus canisters – we had gone back and forth endlessly about bringing our stove. Looks like we’ll be picking up a new primus stove here – it was nice to see that they’ll be easy to find – they had a good selection right there at the gas station. Anyhow, pastries hot chocolate and coffee all around and we decided that the airport had to open at 6:00. We walked back to find a lonely French backpacker locked out also. The airport opened at 6:20 – check-in started 30 minutes before the flight and there is no security screening. Now we know.