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Published: August 8th 2007
Whale Watching and Countryside Driving
It turns out that Iceland has a lot in common with New Zealand and Australia. All three of these countries have a love affair with and an identity which is derived from Europe. All of them have unique wildlife that is difficult or impossible to see in other parts of the world. Last but certainly not least is the fact that all three are more important for their nature/countryside than for their cities.
In Europe, for the most part, you come to experience the culture and history which emanate from their historic cities, be them big like Rome or Paris or small like Fussen or Grazalema. Iceland has little to no existing long term historical buildings. Due to volcanic activity and harsh weather, buildings just don’t last here. Thus when you’re here, you are better off getting out of dodge and seeing the rest of Iceland.
Our main activity on Friday was a boat tour out into the bay near Reykjavik. The main tourist activity this time of year is boat cruising in hopes of seeing whales and puffins. Puffins are small black and white birds with very distinctive orange beaks
and feet. They are often referred to as the penguin of the north because of some of coloring and body style similarities. Unlike penguins, puffins are flyers who spent most of their year at sea. They only come on dry land in order to lay eggs like the albatrosses that we saw in New Zealand.
After boarding the boat we started out heading to a small island off the coast that was just full of birds. The puffins who bred on the island are pretty skittish though so we basically saw them as they all flew away from the island as we approached. They do a unique skim/swim across the surface of the water as they take off. But, once in the air, you basically only see them swoop past the boat at full speed, certainly not the cozy nature encounter we’ve had in some places.
After leaving the puffins behind we set out into the bay on a search mission for some Minke Whales. This medium to small breed of whale spends the winter further south but has to summer near Iceland because the water down south gets too hot for them. Thus, they spend a large
Reykjavik Sunset
Special Thanks to Don and Lindz who talked on the phone with me while I worked on this picture. Everything turns out better when you guys are around!part of their time in shallow bays off Iceland where food is plentiful and people are pretty scarce.
As we exited the protection of the harbor things got rocky almost immediately. The boat was pitching enough that most people had a hard time doing anything other than just standing in place holding on for dear life. The wind picked up and with the speed of the boat, it became quite cold.
We almost immediately spotted the top of a whale as it surfaced for air. They pretty much take three to four breaths and then dive for about 20 minutes while they eat. After ten minutes of chasing the whale and then snaking back and forth in hopes of another sighting, I wasn’t feeling all that great. I get motion sickness but usually only in pretty extreme cases. This one was quickly becoming an extreme case.
I went back to the back of the boat, where things are typically calmer, while Kel stayed front and center hoping to catch another sighting. She just loves being on the water with wind whipping you in the face, it’s a throw back to boating with her parents growing up in
Massachusetts. Sadly, even this fun would end as the boat plowed through a serious wave drenching Kel. While it was fun to be whipped by the wind when dry, it was much less cool (or more as the case may be) when she was wet.
We subsequently went below decks to sit in a comfy booth. We could see out the windows as Kel wrapped herself in a blanket to get warm. I did my best to stare at the horizon in hopes of feeling better. While I never actually ever get sick, I feel very nauseous which is no fun.
We both gave up watching out for whales because, after you’ve seen a fin or two it gets pretty dull. We joked that while everyone else stood on top of each other in the front of the boat that maybe one of the whales would come over to our window and jump in the air and start doing ballet on its back fins. This image provided a good laugh for both of us until it pretty much happened 15 minutes later. The lady who had been commentating over the loudspeaker system almost had a coronary which caused
us both to immediately stare out our window in fear that we were about to die. Instead, a Minke Whale about 100 meters away out our window started jumping out of the water. It jumped out and subsequently started splashing back in the water on its back, like a kid doing belly flops off a diving board. It did a quick succession of three belly flops before heading back down into the depths. Our tour guide was whooping and carrying on like someone who’d just seen Elvis in her local donut shop. Turns out that Minke whales rarely do this, this was only the second time all summer that the crew had witnessed this activity. A pretty cool occurrence but, sadly, we got no pictures as we were staring like fools instead of capturing the occasion for you guys. Sorry!
The rest of that day was pretty dull for blogging purposes. Kel did some grocery shopping while I took pictures around town. Later that evening I set off to take pictures of the sunset while I had a long conversation with our friends Don and Lindsay. Kel stayed back in the apartment and did some travel planning and resting.
Rental Car Exploring We love renting cars despite the high expense because having your own car gives you total freedom when exploring the world around you. While in a city you have no need to have your own transportation because you can catch a train, tram, metro or taxi. But, when in a country where you are exploring all that nature has to offer, you need a car if you wish to get good time and really see the land. When you are on a tour bus you stop where they want you to stop and then are stuck with 100 other people everywhere you go. It’s not fun for us or a unique experience in any way.
With those opinions in mind, we rented a car for our last day in Iceland. We were picked up by a local rental company and taken to their office which was well off the beaten path. Here we picked up our ultra compact Suzuki in the gorgeous shade of rental car white. It doesn’t really matter what the car looks like as long as it will get you where you need to go, right?
We set
off for the main tourist attractions outside of Reykjavik and were immediately amazed by the beauty of Iceland. Just below the surface of all of Iceland is black, black volcanic rock. But in stark contrast to the blackness is the layer of about four inches of green moss and hearty plant life. If you get out of the car and attempt to walk through the wild you are amazed by the spongy quality of the ground but can tell with every step that the ground is only moments from being a black, rocky wasteland. If you peeled away the green layer, all you’d find would be a barren plain of obsidian blackness.
Throughout the drive we continued to be awed by the almost moon like quality of the world around us. Huge mountains that were only partially covered with green, some that even had snow at their peaks. In many places steam streamed out of small holes in the ground giving the alien landscape an almost creepy feeling. The overwhelming feeling you have throughout the travel is that you are blessed to be seeing something so foreign yet beautiful at the same time.
Our first stop was at
Gullfoss Flowers
Photo By: Kelley Turner one of Iceland’s largest waterfalls, Gullfoss. The tour busses come and go from this area like ants to and from an ant hill but once you see the falls you can immediately tell why. Kel and spent a while here taking pictures of the falls when our lenses weren’t dripping with mist from the waterfall. We took a bunch of pictures and even got a few of ourselves thanks to the tripod.
From there we took a quick stop at Geysir, the geyser from which all others got their name. This particular spout of steamed water was the first one found in the world but was unfortunately plugged by stupid tourists who would throw things into the hole in hopes of triggering an eruption. For close to a hundred years Geysir was plugged until recent earthquakes dislodged the debris in the hole thus allowing eruption again. I didn’t actually get to see geyser erupt but did get a few pics of a nearby geyser erupting.
Our final stop of the day was Gylmur, the tallest waterfall in Iceland. On the way to the waterfall we stopped a couple of times to take pictures in Pingvellir National Park. The
country is so beautiful here that you could almost stop anywhere you found a place to pull the car off the road and you’d get a gorgeous pictures. Finally, after an hour and a half of driving we pulled into the off the beaten track parking lot for the hike to Gylmur.
Kel had some technical difficulties with her shoes so she didn’t walk very far from the parking lot before returning to the car with her book. I set off to get some pictures of the (hopefully) stunning falls. After about a half hour of walking I ended up on a section of trail that was pretty steep. It wound up a cliff which I assume gave you a view of the falls on the other side. While making it up the cliff side was completely doable, I was really afraid that I would have a hard time getting back down (carrying a camera and full tripod). As many of you may know, up is much easier than down when it comes to steep trails. You feet can find traction much easier when your weight is against your toes but when your weight is on your heels you
can slide down a hill very easily. After walking uphill about a third of the way, carrying my gear, I gave up and turned back. I got some pictures of the stream and the area, but turned tail and headed home. By time I made it back to the car it was pretty late and I was exhausted. Kel had fallen asleep in the car so at least I didn’t bore her too much!
We returned to our apartment and had an early evening. Our night had to be an early one because we had to be up for our flight out of Iceland at 5am the next morning. Never a good hour to wake up, ever!
Hope you guys are great back home! Keep reading!
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jjaccee
j collins
glymur-b/white photo also inlet one
hi what a really fantasic pic! as is the inlet one but not quite so captivating!! your hol; looks great -- wish i was there.