Isafjordur – Excruciating, Exhausting, Exquisite and Delicious

cafe braedraborg- mmmm, cake

That pretty much sums up our time in Isafjordur. If I haven’t mentioned it before, let me now make clear what an extraordinarily fit, hearty bunch the Icelanders are. If you’ve never read Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth (you should be ashamed) you should get it out and in the character of Hans, you can see what they are like. They don’t all speak fluent Danish and we didn’t find them taciturn, but everything else was pretty much spot-on. Anyhow, the point of this digression is to make clear that the Icelandic definition of “moderate activity” and everyone else’s idea are wildly divergent. The kayak trip I booked for us – 8 hours of cruising the placid fjord gawking at seals and ending up steeping in a geothermal pool – was a labor of Hercules.

I want to say this post is so late because I have just now regained the use of my arms – but that is a slight exaggeration. The town is the largest and most important city in the entire Westfjords region – over 2000 people. We flew in and wimped out of camping again. It was raining and cold and we told ourselves we had a full week of living rough – totally exposed to the elements in the wholly unreliable Hyperlight 3 ahead of us and needed to recruit our strength. The Hotel Edda chain had sleeping bag space available. This chain is set up for the summer tourist season in schools across Iceland. We shared a chemistry classroom with 3 French people and a Dane.

The “hotel” was a 10 minute walk from downtown and we walked over to locate the café where we were to meet our guide for the kayak excursion the next morning. The café Braedraborg was a haven of organic, vegetarian deliciousness. Everything was wonderful and we were thrilled to hear that they were supplying our lunches for the kayak trip. Next day was gorgeous, and we learned that yesterday’s drizzle was the first precipitation they had seen for a month.

We met our guide and the other three participants and drove out Reykjarfjordur. The winds were fairly strong; the guide said they were just with-in the limits of his having to cancel. The fjord was stunning, the seals were like robins – bobbing up adorably here, there, everywhere. It was a little nerve-wracking actually. They were so playful that I was afraid they might try to tip us into the water.

isafjordur

All our previous sea kayaking has been in Hawaii and Florida – places where falling in is part of the fun. Here we wore a good 15 pounds of thermal/ waterproof gear including spray skirts. These are super elasticized to cinch over the lip of the kayak – whatever you call the hole where you sit in a kayak- to keep the frozen North Atlantic spray from causing your death of hypothermia. They are equipped with a strap that is your emergency release if you tip over. This was pretty scary as I couldn’t budge mine and would therefore be hopelessly trapped under the kayak in an accident. The water was crystal clear; affording an excellent view of the immense swarms of the biggest jellyfish I have ever seen – one more reason to sit there having a conniption fit about a seal tipping me.

psst! there's a seal following you!

If my heart had not already exploded from the incredible effort of propelling the kayak against the current and killer headwinds it would have seriously been lodged in my throat. The trip out to our lunch spot was hard work, but wonderful. If I’d had a grain of sense I’d have insisted on portaging the kayak back to the trailer from there. It was probably less than a mile by land and after lunch the winds had changed direction and picked up strength. I was making good progress back to the shore where we had embarked when the guide pulled up beside me to tell me we were actually headed to a seal beach on the opposite shore. Since the point of the excursion was observing wildlife up close and on their home turf I felt I had to even though seals had practically been riding in the kayak with me the whole time.

It was heart breaking, back breaking, arm breaking crossing the fjord – the waves were much larger now and several times threatened to swamp me. The seals were laid out all over the beach basking and lolling. I didn’t even care. I hated those seals because now I had to recross the fjord again. Brad took a video that look like he panned the beach – he didn’t. He just quit paddling for a few seconds and that is how quickly and how far back he was blown. I have never exerted so much effort for nothing in my life. I had the ultimate humiliation of the having the guide tow me half-way across on the way back. I just couldn’t do it. He didn’t even seem to be working. He was at least two to three inches shorter than me and I won’t humiliate myself further by guessing how much I outweigh him. That is what I mean about the wiry, superhuman strength of the Icelanders. After hauling me half-way back he had to go out again and tow in the gigantic Dane.

By the time we beached, I was completely incapacitated – I could not use my arms at all. Brad had to haul me out of the kayak and put me in the van. The trip to the thermal pool was life saving. We bobbed and steamed and were remade by the hot water. I liked seals again. I even like kayaking again. It really was beyond beautiful and I cannot recommend the guides enough. http://www.boreaadventures.com/  

As if their trips are not wonderful enough, we were thrilled to learned that they are supporters of the Artcic Fox center and donate a percentage of every excursion’s cost to them.

Pictures at: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAQMCmw  Just one, the rest will go up August 1st.

Video: http://youtu.be/CKWKKxrchek  It is just the one – they are too quick and we are too slow, especially dressed up in our gear and trying not to lose a paddle.