Stunning Isafjördur and the Trolls Throne

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Ordered in breakfast again today, as I needed to be ready to leave for my Sudureyri Food Trail tour this morning at 8:15am. At 6:30 this morning the ship docked in Ísafjödur so that tends to be your wake up call - if you do manage to sleep through this then usually Skulk will be on the loudspeaker around 7am to announce we have docked and to get everyone up and moving.

Ísafjödur Is the largest town in the Westfjords peninsula, with some 2,600 inhabitants. The old town has wooden houses with corrugated tin roofs, built by fishing merchants in the 18th and 19th centuries. The growth of the town was triggered by salt fish production and ever since then the fishing industry has been vital for the community. The town is surrounded by rugged and dramatic mountains however, this has also been the cause of avalanches. In 1995 the area suffered two major avalanches - first in January the town of Súdavik and then in October the town of Flateyri were both impacted by avalanches that caused the death of 34 people. Since this time they have invested in trying to make the landscape somewhat avalanche proof.

My tour took us to the small fishing town of Sudereyri where the people of the village took a chance during the financial crisis and turned to sustainable fishing and built a self sustaining community. We visited the fish processing plant, which has been awarded a MSC rating, and saw how they process the fish from the time it is caught (by hand) and then packaged for export. Our guide lives in this village, although she comes from Reykjavik originally, and she was very informative and interesting to listen to. When then walked through the town, which only has about 200 residents of which 80 are children and headed to Fisherman, which is this tour groups headquarters and is set up with a kitchen, bar/cafe and restaurant. Our guide then proceeded to show us how to cook Plokkfishkur, the dish we tried yesterday. It was interesting to see how she made the dish and we were also given the recipe. And best of all, we were served up a steaming hot bowl of it after she had finished cooking it! We then moved into the bar/cafe and could help ourselves to hot coffee. It was a really cool little place and there was lots of evidence of their sustainable approach to everything they do. There were these cool little coats hooks made from a melted beer bottle!

We continued our walk and headed down to the fjord. We walked along and our guide pointed out the fish drying sheds along the way - they looked more like a chicken coop to me! We stopped at one so we could try the dried fish. She got out this small sledge hammer and smashed the fish on a rock. This apparently how it is done - it losens up the fish so you can get small pieces to chew on. It's like a fish version of beef jerky. It actually tasted ok (yep, I was brace and tried this one!)

We then walked along to another spot where we stopped to meet a man that uses the fish products to make fish cakes. Well, they called it fish cake but it was more like a fish arancini ball and it was served with their homemade tartare sauce on top. Delicious! We continued our walk from here until we came to our bus. Once back on board we headed back to Ísafjödur and the bus dropped us back on the pier. I decided to head into the town to have a look around. It was quite cold, probably around 6 degrees but the wind chill made it even colder. It was good to go for a walk and check out the different buildings and shops.

Around 3pm I walked back to the ship, getting more and more apprehensive about the walk up to the Trolls Throne - as I could see this from anywhere you walked, even my cabin. We had all thought the Expedition team were exaggerating about the difficulty of this walk. They had said you would be walking on a goat trail and it would go straight up for about 550 meters but we thought they were saying that just to stop some of the passengers, who probably shouldn't attempt this from signing up. Once we saw it though, we knew they hadn't exaggerated. By this time I thought I wouldn't do it - I needed some time to write my blog and start packing my suitcase. At 4pm when they made the announcement for people who wanted to do the hike, I decided just to pop down to Deck 3 to see who was going to do it. I just had a tshirt on at this stage and bumped into Scott & Cathy, who were all kitted up for the hike. They asked me why I wasn't ready and I said I don't think I am going to do it. They headed off and i went back to my room - then FOMO kicked in so I grabbed my jacket and life jacket and headed down below. They were surprised to see me and I was a bit worried that I hadn't grabbed my gloves, beanie, neck gator - any of the usual things you need to keep warm.

We were quickly onto the zodiacs as we needed to cross the fjord to the other side for the start of the climb. It really was just a goat track - and it really did just go up! There were muddy parts and parts with lots of loose stones, that made you slip a bit. At times you were on all fours as it wasn't really quite steep. I don't think the photos do it justice! Everyone walked up in a long line but we started to spread out as people needed to do it at their own pace - me included! It was really quite strenuous- even after doing the Cinque Terre! I eventually made it to the top - with a red face lol! But I was so thrilled that I did it and made it all the way to the top. It was simply stunning up there! It was like being in a half crater as once you got to this platform, you could see the mountain went up a lot higher in a semi circle shape. There was also lots of big rocks that had obviously fallen from higher up. The view over the town and the fjord was breathtaking! We got to sign a visitors book to show we had achieved this and we spent a while up the top, enjoying the view and ensuring we captured it all in photographs.

Then it was time to head back down - I found this so much easier, especially when one of the expedition team showed me how to walk sideways down. You had to really pay attention to where you placed your foot but I actually enjoyed this part much better than going up! Once down we got back into the zodiacs and headed backwards to the ship. I finished packing as we needed to have our suitcases outside our cabins by 11pm tonight.

At 5pm we set sail for our final destination - Reykjavik. I then got ready to meet some of the gang up at the Panarama Lounge at 6 for pre pre-dinner drinks. I have got very used to drinking French champagne now so enjoyed a glass of Monopole for my last night on board. There ended up being 9 of us who wanted to have dinner together so Cathy went down and made a reservation for us at 8pm. We then all headed down to the Explorer lounge at 6:30 as we were scheduled to watch the video that had been produced by Bruno of our cruise. As usual we were handed a cocktail on entry to the lounge - this time it was a John English. The video was amazing and really summed up our entire trip. Can't wait to show people once i get home. We then had our last briefing by Skulk and all the Expedition team came onto the stage to say farewell. They really are a tremendous team and they are what makes this cruise so special.

Afterwards we headed backwards up to the Panarama Lounge for a pre-dinner drink then headed to the restaurant by 8ish. There was the usual gang of Greg & Anne, Scott & Cathy, Paul & Cathy (and me, the third Cathy) and we were joined by Dan & Nicole from New York. Once again, we had a fabulous meal. The food quality is just superb and the staff really look after us. The sommelier found me the last bottle of the Barossa red and a few of us enjoyed this one. It was a really fun night and a great way to finish off our cruise. We all had to head back to our cabins quickly as it was almost 11pm and we needed to finish off the packing and get our suitcases out.

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