Category Archives: iceland

Monday 15th July 2019 – YET ANOTHER …

… really depressing night last night. We hit a few strong waves round about 04:00 and that awoke me. I couldn’t go back to sleep and so ended up making a visit down the corridor for the usual reasons. I must stop drinking tea late at night.

But after that, I managed to go back to bed and to sleep, only to wake up 90 minutes later.

Despite the early awakening it was still a struggle to leave my stinking pit and I only just managed to beat the third alarm call.

Upstairs on deck it was cold and windy, and really foggy too. We had somehow managed to negotiate the entrance to the harbour at Heimaey here on Vestmannaeyar without having to turn round at the harbour mouth and reverse in as we did last time. Instead, we turned round inside the harbour.

After breakfast I had a little relax and then took Rosemary to visit the old buildings down by the lava flow. She had missed them last time.

Later on, while Rosemary went for a walk to the museum, I went for a really good stroll around the town and right around the other side of the harbour and the fishing docks. And if you think that I smell bad, you should smell the air when you have a fish-processing plant on one side of you and a colony of seabirds on the other.

One of the things that I did was to make some kind of story of photographs involving a returning trawler, a couple of fork-lift trucks stacking boxes full of fish, another fork-lift truck loading them into a shipping container, a huge lifting truck loading the container onto,the back of a lorry and finally the lorry disappearing into what passes for the sunset around here.

There is a ship repair yard here too and it makes the one in Granville pale into insignificance. They have a kind of internal railway system to move the ships around from the slipway and although it wasn’t being used it was still something interesting.

But I was surprised to learn that one of the largest customers for Icelandic fish is Nigeria. I wasn’t expecting that at all.

Back on board ship I started to edit the outstanding pile of photographs but didn’t get very far because it was time for lunch. And time for an argument too (it didn’t take long, did it?) when someone asked me if I would be reaping the benefits of Brexit.

This afternoon I had another good crack at the photos and managed to edit quite a few dozen, although I was interrupted by going to crash out for a good 90 minutes during the afternoon. I’ve not been having such a good day.

But I’m impressed with some of the photos that I have taken. editing them, cropping and enlarging them has produced a good few that are quite spectacular. Investing in this camera was a very good decision.

Bad news though in that we aren’t going to go near to Surtsey to have a close look at the island. The sea is too rough and the weather is too bad for us to approach it with anything like the proximity that we need to have a good look.

After tea we had a singles party but there were only a few of us there. The weather has really got up now and the waves are not to everyone’s liking. But there was one person too many – a young guy who had been everywhere and done everything, a German who blamed the French for all of Germany’s problems.

I really don’t know where they dig up these people.

The evening soon came to a close as people disappeared quite quickly. I stayed up to do a little work and to organise myself better. We gain an hour tomorrow so we aren’t in too much of a rush to go to bed.

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Sunday 14th July 2019 – THIS MORNING …

… we walked all the way from the harbour at Reykjavik right the way through the city and out the other side, and up the hill to the big new modern church that towers above the place.

When we eventually arrived there we were greeted by a burly man standing cross-armed blocking the doorway, with the air of “none shall pass” as in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
“Why not?” asked Our Hero
“Because there’s a Mass going on. And you won’t understand it either because it’s in Icelandic so come back in an hour!”

Yes, it’s Sunday of course and I had completely forgotten.

Last night I had had a terrible night’s (lack of) sleep, probably one of the worst that I have had for quite a while. In fact so much so that I found myself on one occasion dictating the same dream twice. I’m clearly losing my marbles – not that I had too many in the first place.

Despite all of my exertions I did actually make it up (just) before the first alarm and staggered once more out on deck to take a couple of photos of Reykjavik in the rain. because the weather has now broken.

We had an early breakfast and then because we aren’t amongst the hordes saying goodbye to the ship today we had an hour or so free time. I spent my hour or so in the horizontal position on the bed and enjoyed every minute of what I remembered about it. Which wasn’t much.

At 09:00 we went out across the road to the café in the Flea Market where we were assured of a good wi-fi connection. And a good wi-fi connection it was too and we spent quite some time checking up on things, including the latest chaos in the UK.

Later, Rosemary wanted to go shopping for some presents for her friends so we headed off into town, looking at a few shops on the way, in one of which she bought a few winter woollies. After all, Iceland is the place to come for those.

There was the church of course, as I mentioned earlier, and then a walk down to the waterfront and back along the shore to the ship for lunch.

Grabbing Strawberry Moose we made our way back into town after lunch. We had had to wait for a while to give the rainstorm time to die down, so we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked.

The flea market was now open so we had a look around, and Rosemary tried some dried cod. A few more shops and a few more presents, and a couple of photo opportunities for His Nibs.

By now the rain was coming down in torrents so we fled back to the ship. All of our new co-voyagers were waiting to board but we didn’t hang about. We just charged through them and up the gangway onto The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour.

First thing that I did was to dive into the shower, taking a handful of clothes in with me. I needed a good scrub up and I have to keep on top of the laundry for I have a long way to go.

And then we had all of the briefings that I have sat through on innumerable occasions followed by the mandatory lifeboat drill. And in the time that it took to organise the drill we would have all disappeared beneath the waves a good while ago had we really been in trouble.

For tea we made the acquaintance of a couple from Edinburgh in Scotland on their first voyage. The husband had visited Greenland many years ago so he’s in for a bit of a shock when he gets back there.

After tea we had a tea and a chat, but it’s an early start tomorrow so we decided to retire early.

And I can’t say that I’m sorry. The pace is now going to heat up considerably.

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Saturday 13th July 2019 – HAVING HAD …

… yet another reasonable sleep with only a moderate amount of disturbance, I was ready for the alarm when it went off. And ready for the second one too. I did however manage to beat the third alarm.

For a change just recently, I remembered my medication too, so properly provided, I staggered up on deck to see what I could see. And the answer to that conundrum was “nothing at all” because there was more of this thick, clammy fog everywhere.

After breakfast, things changed slightly. We had a briefing or two but I drifted away after a while because I could see in the distance the mast of a boat. This was the pilot boat pulling up alongside and that told me that we must be close to land.

Accordingly, I went up on deck. And I’m glad that I did (and consequently missed the group photograph) because the manoeuvre to get into the harbour here at Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyar Islands is quite interesting. There was a volcanic eruption here in 1973 and a flow of lava spread down from the Eldfell mountain, engulfing half of the houses and flooded into the harbour entrance, almost closing it off.

As a result, the harbour mouth that used to be about 800 metres wide is now about 150 metres. The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour had to perform a series of spectacular manoeuvres, including turning around and reversing in. And when you have a 137-metre ship trying to turn round in a 150-metre opening, it’s certainly exciting.

Eventually we found our way in, pursued by a ferry from the mainland, and tied up.

I’d missed the start of lunch, which meant that I had to dash to be ready for our coach trip around the island. Our driver took us to the museum where we could see the history of the eruption as well as a house that had been excavated from the ash, and then off on a sight-seeing expedition.

He took us to a bay where Algerian pirates had landed and carried off half of the population into slavery, and also to the site of what is considered to be the first settlement on the island, dating from the late 9th Century and may even precede the official date of 874 AD that is given for the first Norse colonialisation of Iceland.

But it was very interesting listening to the guide and the driver talking about “Iceland” as if it were somewhere else and a completely different country to their own out here on Vestmannaeyar.

And had I known – but the local football club IBV Vestmannaeyar plays in the Icelandic Premier Division and they were playing “at home” this afternoon about half a mile away from here. I could have made the game had I put my skates on.

Back at the ship, the others wandered off for a zodiac ride. Strawberry Moose and I went for a walk down to the old fort, the old church and the old house to see what was going on. And I’m glad that I did as I only just managed to beat the caretaker locking up the church.

There were kids playing around, and a wedding party there too. All of the passing ships and boats were saluting them.

My trip took me to the local supermarket to compare prices. Seeing as this is an island in the Far North, I found that the prices were not as ridiculously high as I was expecting. In fact, some of the goods were priced quite reasonably when compared to the mainland of Iceland. I still couldn’t afford to live here though.

Back on the ship we had tea, interrupted by passing the island of Surtsey, the new one that sprang up out of the Atlantic 50-odd years ago and which we saw on our way into Iceland.

We all said our goodbyes too because tomorrow will be quite hectic as people leave. And then we had the “talent show”, from which I steered well clear. I’ve seen at first hand the embarrassment that this kind of event may cause.

So now it’s bed-time. And an early start yet again tomorrow. There’s a lot to be done so I hope that I have a good night’s sleep.

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Friday 12th July 2019 – LAST NIGHT …

… I mentioned the overwhelmingly thick fog that we had encountered coming out of Seydisfjordur. This morning when we awoke, the situation hadn’t improved and we were swathed in a rather thick blanket of nebulous nonsense.

I heard the alarm go off at 06:00 and then again at 06:07. However I did manage to beat the 06:20 alarm, although there wasn’t all that much in it.

The weather wasn’t all that good for photography but I took a couple just to be on the safe side, and then went in to breakfast;

After breakfast we put on our winter clothing and headed out to the zodiacs. The sea was calm but visibility was pretty poor and it was trying to rain. We made it ashore at the small town of Djupivogur without any major mishap, but we aren’t staying here. There are a couple of buses waiting for us to take us onward. One of them was an elderly MAN-engined Bova Futura, tri-axle and 15 metres long. Quite naturally I leapt aboard.

After about an hour’s drive we stopped at the Foss Hotel for a toilet break as we were not so equipped on our bus. It gave me an opportunity to have a little wander around and take a couple of photos of the Icelandic scenery. Here on the east coast, the coastal alluvial plain is very good farming country, although it’s compressed up against the mountains in the same way that the land is on the western coast of Newfoundland.

Back on our bus we headed off to the glacial lagoon. Here at the foot of the VatnaJokull ice field, a glacier discharges its icebergs into a lagoon and we had come here to witness it. After all, ice fields, glaciers and icebergs won’t be around for much longer at the current rate of global warming.

We were really lucky too. A huge part of the glacier had calved off a few days ago and the lagoon was littered with icebergs waiting to melt down so that they would be small enough to drift out to see on the meltwater current. There’s a submerged terminal moraine that stops them floating straight out.

First item on the agenda was a good walk down to the lagoon and around its edges looking at the ice. It really was so spectacular down there; A little further around I found a ruined, collapsed bridge. It would be nice to think that it had been brought down by an iceberg or an ice field, but that is extremely unlikely.

Lunch was arranged for us too, and they did me proud with a vegan carrot soup followed by ratatouille. No complaints at all there, except that a second helping would have been delicious.

Once lunch was over we donned more wet-weather gear and headed off to one of their zodiacs. A young Czech student took us out for a ride around the lagoon to see the icebergs, the ice face and to tell us all about the place and the history. And it started to rain while we were out there.

Our zodiac was almost the last back so our bus was last to leave. And on the way back we were waylaid for 15 minutes by a pack of harbour seals on a gravel bank just offshore. One of them was having a whale of a time floundering and flouncing about in the water, giving all of us quite a performance.

With a pit stop too back at the Foss Hotel, we were definitely the last back at the quayside and the zodiac crews had gone to sleep. There wasn’t time to put on our wet-weather gear because we needed to leave our anchorage pretty smartly, so we all ended up rather damp, as by now it was raining quite heavily.

Back on board, I headed for a shower. Not because I needed one but because it’s the quickest way of warming me up. And I washed my clothes too. They were quite wet anyway with the rain so they would benefit.

After tea I lounged around for a while but there’s a late breakfast on offer tomorrow so now is the time for an early night, I reckon and I can catch up on my beauty sleep.

If only …

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Thursday 11th July 2019 – WE’VE HAD …

… a really busy day today. And I do mean busy.

Last night I had a very mixed night – I went to bed early, fell asleep watching a film, managed to awaken in time to switch everything off and go back to sleep.

Nevertheless i was awake enough at about 04:00 and again at 05:50 but hardly in any mood to leave the bed except for the usual reasons that any man of my age will know.

Once the alarms all went off (I found my phone last night under a couple of pieces of paper as I was tidying up) I had a struggle to leave my stinking pit, but once on deck I found that we were pulling in to the port of Seydisfjordur.

And we weren’t alone either, for there was a big car ferry, the MS Norrona, moored alongside. This is the ferry that goes to the Faroe Islands and Denmark and how I would have liked to have gone for a ride on that in order to come across the North Sea.

Mind you, I would have had a few logistics problems as it’s a once-a-week only sailing. And then I would have to get to Reykjavik. But there were hordes of cars of all kinds of European countries lined up ready to board, and streams of ditto disembarking all over the place. There were even several British vehicles.

After Breakfast I came back to my room where I … errr … had a little rest and almost missed my call at 08:40.

Jessie led us on a photography hike to the waterfall where we climbed up to the top of the path and took a pile of photos. The day had started off cold but by the time that I was on top I had divested myself of almost everything.

Back into town afterwards, where on the way I stumbled across an ancient Scandinavian vehicle. No idea what it is so I shall have to do some research. But while I was doing that, the ferry loaded up and sailed out. “Gone and never called me mother” as they might have said in “East Lynne”.

We photographed the Rainbow Walk and a few other places in the town centre and then off to the church.

On the way back to the ship I came across the local scrapyard where I spent a very pleasant half hour poking around the ruins and relics. Nothing all that exciting or old unfortunately. But while I was continuing on to the ship, another cruise ship pulled in and tied up to where the ferry had been.

One mug of tea later we were back on shore. Rosemary had missed the church so I took her there, only to find that it had closed for lunch. So we went for a walk and a visit to a couple of arty places. But by now the wind had increased and it was going bitterly cold. A hanging cloud was rolling up the fjord making things worse.

Back yet again at the ship and I fetched my packed lunch as we were off on the bus.

First stop was at an archaeological site at Thorunnarstadir where an old Norse church had been discovered. We had a good look around it. They had come across and excavated a graveyard there, of which half of the bodies had been interred in the foetal position indicating a pagan burial, but others in the more usual Christian style. Iceland was Christianised at 1000AD so the church and the Christian burials would date from some time round about then.

But it’s interesting to speculate about what might have been on the site prior to the church that led to it being chosen as a site for pagan burials. There was a Norse village here that has yet to be properly investigated, and interestingly, a modern village had sprung up in the immediate vicinity but had been abandoned comparatively recently, in the last 50 or so years.

While they were excavating the church they unearthed some relics and these are now in the museum at Rejkjavik.

On we went to the Skalanes nature reserve at the edge of the fjord. We were given a discussion on lupins, how they were planted to anchor and fertilise the soil but how they have gone on the rampage and found to be most pervasive – the country is covered in them. There were plenty of rhubarb and angelica growing here in the neighbourhood.

Dodging the terns, we went to a cliff site to see the nesting birds but I was more interested in the geological formations. And a gyrfalcon put in an appearance but unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough with the camera.

There was a pile of feathers lying around and it was explained to us that a short while ago a Skua had caught a fulmar, drowned it to kill it, and then dragged the carcass onshore for a feast. This had all taken place in front of a crowd of onlookers.

The road out there was narrow and treacherous and involved driving through several rough, rocky fords where there were several impressive waterfalls. It was a good job that we had a 4 wheel drive bus.

Tea was a barbecue and I almost missed it, having a shower and a clothes wash, followed by yet another relax.

We had a chat afterwards, including a young American boy, and now I’m off for an early night. I need it too. There won’t be any photography tonight because we are now encased in an overwhelmingly thick fog.

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Wednesday 10th July 2019 – I HAVE TAKEN …

… today probably the most exciting photograph that I have ever taken in the whole of my life. And it’s been described by the professional photographers on board as a “unicorn moment”.

It was even featured as one of the Photos of the Day.

We’re in the town of Husavik, another one of the towns on the north coast of Iceland. Its claim to fame is as a whale-watching centre and we were out whale-watching this morning. There were plenty of them about too, hump-backs giving us a most amazing performance. There was even a mother and calf swimming around close by our boat.

At one point though I was rather bored and started to look around for something else of interest. My eye settled on an old sailing boat out across the bay, quite a long way. And just as I clicked on the shutter to photograph it, a large hump-back whale leapt out of the water.

I know that they can do that but it happens so infrequently that it’s rarely photographed. And here I was, quite by accident.

Last night was rather a strange night. Fell asleep watching a film yet again, but awakening round about 04:00 for a trip down the corridor. I did manage to go back to sleep and even on a nocturnal voyage involving Rosemary and an old Ford Anglia 105E but the moment I awoke it evaporated even before I could reach for the dictaphone.

It was a struggle to leave the bed this morning and having an early breakfast didn’t help matters. Back down to the cabin for a short repose and then off whale-watching.

We were on traditional oak boats and wrapped up in waterproof rain gear overalls although the sea was such that we didn’t really need them. Mind you it was rather hairy when the observer shouted “Thar she blows!” and 60 people all surged over to the other side. We shipped a wave in on more than one occasion.

But it was worth it because the whales were so active. We counted at least 5 different ones (not including my leaping whale) and we saw them on many different occasions too.

3 hours the journey was to take, and we were out for 3 hours and 5 minutes, so we had our money’s worth and i don’t begrudge them a penny.

Lunch was back on the ship and then we went out for a walk. We made it through town to the local museum (which we didn’t go in due to payment issues) and then walked back across another part of the town to the harbour.

There was a free exhibition there talking about the history of whaling and that was extremely interesting. So much so that we were well-engrossed in the place and they had to send a guide from the boat to remind us that we were due to sail.

On the way back I had to make a detour. I couldn’t find my mobile phone and I wondered if it had fallen out of my pocket on the whaling boat. As luck should have it, our boat was tied up at the quay with the staff from this morning helping people on board. They remembered me (who would ever forget me?) but there was no trace of my phone.

Time to go back to the ship, which I undertook in the company of another fellow-traveller who is recovering from a serious operation. Lots of people on here with health issues.

Evening meal was taken with the ship’s historian with whom I’d spoken a couple of times about the Norse. I floated a couple of names past him but he gave no hint that he recognised them.

So I dunno.

There’s a full house of activities tomorrow. I’m off on a photo safari with the official photographer tomorrow, followed by some free time and then a coach trip into the interior to see a nature reserve and the excavation of what is said to be a Norse settlement. I’m looking forward to that.

Something tells me that I had better have an early night.

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Tuesday 9th July 2019 – HAVING SAID ..

… that I was planning on an early night last night, I wandered back to my cabin and began to watch a film. However, I never even made it past the credits, so tired was I

And it will be the same tonight because I feel totally wasted. It has been a really hectic day.

Something of a struggle to tear myself out of my stinking pit at the sound of the alarm. However I did make it to breakfast at the appropriate time, but it would be wrong to say that I was the life and soul of the party.

During the night we had sailed down the Eyjafjördur fjord and moored at the quayside in the town of Akureyri, the “Capital of the North”, just as Tintin did in the Aurora in The Shooting Star.

First item on the agenda was a trip out to some archaeological ruins but as our bus wasn’t until 09:15, I had time to chill out for a while before leaving. At least, that was the plan, except that my reverie was interrupted by the cleaner bursting in to clean my room.

But I made it onto the quayside in time and much to my surprise the driver was from Wolverhampton. Married to an Icelandic girl whom he had met in London, she wanted to return home so he came too. And just like us, he has no intention of ever returning.

We also learnt a few Icelandic definitions today. A tree is a tree, a wood is two trees standing close together and a forest is three trees ditto.

This morning’s destination was Gasir, an abandoned Norse village about 11 kms away. And when I say “Norse” I don’t really mean it because although it’s from the late Norse period, it’s actually a settlement just occupied seasonally by merchants trading with the area.

We don’t know for sure who these traders were but the discovery of German goods from the pre-Hanseatic days and alse English trade goods is very significant.

There were the remains of a church here and these were quite visible following some excavation, even down to the churchyard wall. Plenty of foundations of booths too, many of which have never been excavated. It was quite a big, busy place during the trading season.

So why was it abandoned? The answer is that you can see from the photo the spread of alluvial silt that has accumulated. Most boats anchored in the river to the side of the settlement but round by the 15th Century the accumulation of silt made this impossible.

It’s very tempting to consider the influence of the mini-Ice Age of this period that put an end to the Medieval Warm period, and look for a change in the weather, the tides and the currents causing the build-up of silt.

But one thing is quite clear. The archaeological investigations of the area so far carried out have turned up absolutely nothing of any size whatever. Trinkets that were easily lost or discarded and broken objects, but nothing of anything that would be classed as a large object. There was no wood discovered of any importance.

This points to what would be described as an “orderly evacuation” of the site where everything possible would be taken away for re-use, rather than a panic-stricken flight such as you might have when invaders arrive and the inhabitants take only what they could carry, or an evacuation following a fire.

Something else I learnt about Iceland this morning too. There are horses everywhere, thousands of them, and we asked their purpose. And the reply can only be given with an Icelandic accent, which is impossible to do in a text format, so you’ll have to do the best you can.

“Ven the horssiss is born they go out into the fields and learn to become ponies. Zen ven they get to four years we go to ride them. And of they bite and kick too much ve make zem into sausages”

So now you know.

On the way back I sat next to our Norse expert, hoping to pick his brains. However he must have had a hard day too because he dozed off and slept all the way back to the ship. So much for that!

After lunch we decided to have a little rest for a few minutes before setting off on our travels. We would meet again at 14:00. I remember seeing 13:50, but the next thing that I remember was that it was 14:10. I needed to put my skates on.

I ended up heading off on my own. Right out of the city to the Air Museum, the Motorcycle Museum and the Museum of Industry. But my admission pass didn’t cover them after all of that, so I headed back to town, stopping off at a few civic museums on the way.

One of them had an exhibition of maps and one of the comments startled me. It went something like “improvement in ships and navigation techniques in the 15th and 16th centuries meant that mariners could visit the New World” or something along those lines, completely forgetting that the Norse had been visiting the New World for 500 years prior to Cabot and Columbus.

Nothing else of any great interest although my admission pass covered them, but we did discover a Toy Museum. Several toys such as pedal cars and kiddies’ tricycles parked outside and Strawberry Moose enjoyed them immensely.

Further along on my route back I came across an ice-cream parlour that sold – would you believe – vegan ice cream, so I stocked up with a large coconut ice cream, that cost me almost €5:00.

Across the road was a signpost pointing up a steep path to the Botanical Gardens, so I staggered my way up there. And “stagger” was the word because it was long and steep.

But well worth the climb because not only was it beautiful, blue poppies and black tulips included, but the smell was delicious. I sat there for a good half-hour to soak it all up, and regular readers of this rubbish will recall that this isn’t like me at all. As I have said before, and on many occasions too, the only time that I would ever be likely to take a photograph of a flower would be if an old car were parked upon it.

Back down into town where I was nearly squidged by a couple of cars, I discovered that many restaurants are selling vegan options. No danger of me having difficulties about eating out – except the price of course because things are horrendous here.

After tea I had a nice hot shower which helped me to relax after my efforts. I washed my clothes too – I need to keep up-to-date with my washing as I don’t have much stuff. Then I girded up my loins. It’s going to be another very long day so I need to be on really good form. I remember the rush around that we had last year and if anything it’s intensified.

Still, no peace for the wicked.

There was another beautiful sunset so I stayed on deck and watched it as the pilot helped us navigate our way out of port and then came back down to go to bed. I need a good sleep ready for tomorrow.

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Monday 8th July 2019 – I DIDN’T EVEN …

… know whether I was right or not last night, because I went straight to bed. And fell asleep in the middle of a Fu Manchu film.

Right through to about 05:20 too, which is pretty unusual. So when the alarm went off at 06:00 I was out of bed quite promptly.

Remembering my medicine for once, I went out to take a couple of early-morning photos. We were off the island of Grimsey, 40 or so kms off the Iceland mainland and half in the Arctic Circle.

A very early breakfast and I went to put on my cold weather gear. There are limits on the number of people allowed onshore at any one time so half of us, me included, were going for a ride in a zodiac first.

We saw the basalt columns and the stratified lava layers, and also puffins. There’s a big puffin colony on the island. One of them even performed a dance for me. There were several birds in nests jealously guarding their chicks.

Once we were allowed to land, I took a couple of photos of the harbour and the boats, and then we went for a walk out past the airport. Strawberry Moose came with me and he posed on the marker where the Arctic Circle crosses the land mass.

On our way back we passed another colony of puffins, one of whom had a load of sand eels in his beak. Or so it seemed at first, but on closer inspection it appeared to be its beard.

Back on board ship I had another relax and then it was lunch. Yet another buffet again today, and delicious it all was.

As we left the harbour I noticed a ship in the distance heading our way, so I set out down to the bow to photograph it. But I bumped into the guy who did the presentation yesterday on the Norse. I asked him a couple of questions about his presentation because there were certain things about which I disagreed.

And by the time that I had finished, not only had the other boat gone past, but it was in the harbour and out of sight. Instead I attended a presentation on polar bears in Iceland. And I still disagreed with the previous presenter

Later, we docked at Siglufjördur. This was formerly one of the biggest towns in Iceland but was badly affected by the collapse of the herring industry in the 1960s. At one time, 20% of Iceland’s exports was in herring and herring products from here.

Much of the old infrastructure had been abandoned but a couple of local teachers had collected what they could and restored it, and opened a museum in the old abandoned buildings. We were all invited to see how the herring fishery was back 100 or so years ago.

But aren’t people funny? I’d positioned Strawberry Moose at the wheel of an old trawler and stepped back to take a photo of him. And as I was stepping back, someone pushed right in front of me and climbed into the wheelhouse, obstructing my view and almost knocking His Nibs off his perch.

The old workshop and mechanics’ room was so interesting that I was almost the last person back on board. But I’d been delayed by a moment of high amusement. There was a kiddies’ bouncing castle thing with a pile of kids on it. A girl of about 8 was showing off, bouncing down onto her derriere and back to her feet. An older girl, about 10 or 11 or so, thought that she could do it so she bounced down onto her derriere and bounced right off the mattress into the bushes.

But one thing that I do have to say, and that is that on board our ship is an ancient guy who needs to go everywhere with one of these wheeled walkframes. It’s a totally unsuitable arrangement for life on board a ship, as you can imagine and it’s even worse on land, where conditions are even more difficult.

He set off with his walkframe to visit the museum, which is a good couple of kilometres from the docks, and as you might expect, gave out along the way. He struggled into the museum but they had to send a car to fetch him back to the ship.

This is really rather thoughtless of him, of the people with him and the people who run the operation. A certain level of mobility must surely be an absolute requirement on a voyage like this.

Tea tonight was another buffet and I almost ate the wrong meal. There was a vegetable curry so I helped myself to a good portion, only to find out that it had cream in it, and there was a special supply for me.

Later on, we were entertained by an Icelandic folk group playing all kinds of traditional airs. Not my cup of tea but I stayed and watched nevertheless.

Well, almost, because near the end a big trawler in a neighbouring berth set out to sea so I went outside and photographed it.

Now it’s another early night, and I can’t say that I’m sorry. I’m exhausted after my two long walks and it’s another busy day tomorrow.

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Sunday 7th July 2019 – HAVING TAKEN …

… advantage of my early night, such as it was, I awoke at about 04:15 or something and had to make a trip down the corridor. And to find my dictaphone because I had forgotten to put it to hand. This kind of thing defeats the whole purpose of having an early night. I don’t have too many of them and I don’t seem to be able to take advantage of them at all.

I suppose that I must have gone back to sleep eventually because the alarm awoke me at 06:00 and I leapt out of bed with something rather less than the usual energy. Up on deck taking a few photos and wandering into breakfast, I was halfway through my muesli before I realised that I had once again forgotten my medication.

Our luck was in too, for the captain came to join us and we had a lengthy chat.

We were right down the end of a very spectacular fjord and ahead of us was an equally spectacular waterfall, the highest in Iceland and known as Dynjandi. That was our destination for the morning.

Having been first off the ship yesterday, we were last off today so we had plenty of time to watch them loading up the zodiacs and preparing the kayaks for those who had reserved that option.

The ride out was incredibly smooth, due in no small measure to the sheltered location and we arrived at the shore without even a hint of spray and dampness. And divesting ourselves of our warm clothing and wellingtons, we headed off.

It was a stiff, steep tough climb up to the waterfall with plenty of stops for breath for the less-fit members of our party, but most of us made it to the top of the path at the foot of the falls, passing several smaller cascades on the way. Some even made it higher still by scrambling over the damp rocks but in my case discretion was the better part of valour in my state of health.

Strawberry Moose made it up there too and he had a great time, being photographed on several occasions and by many people.too. His fame is spreading.

After a lengthy pause for a rest and good look around, we descended. And that wasn’t as easy as it might have sounded because the path was steep and there were plenty of loose stones about.

Back on the ship I headed for a nice hot shower and to wash my clothes. They are now nice and clean, as am I and it really was beautiful in there.

After lunch there were several lectures. I attended the one about the Norse (not the Vikings as our lecturer insisted on calling them) but it was one of these brief shallow discussions with much glossed over and several opinions that don’t accord with more informed thought. All in all, I was somewhat disappointed.

A little later on I felt a wave of fatigue creep over me so seeing as there wasn’t all that much going on, I retired to my cabin. 90 or so minutes I was there, and I actually dozed off for about 20 of them. But I was quite comfortable and for the want of anything better to do, I stayed in bed until we were called for the briefing for tomorrow’s events.

At tea we were joined by the host of our expedition and we had a lengthy chat about Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia. And while we were so engaged, a voice came over the tannoy to inform us that we had now crossed beyond the Arctic Circle.

Later there was a party and dancing with social games and so on. But I don’t do this North American happy-clappy stuff so I retired to the upstairs lounge where there’s a power point and I did some work.

But I’m not going to be here long. Even though I had a lengthy repose this afternoon I’m pretty tired and we do have an early start tomorrow. I’ll go to bed and watch a film. That’s almost guaranteed to make me fall asleep. But things are so inverted just recently that I’ll probably still be awake at 06:00.

No point in waiting for the sunset because it’s overcast and tying its best to rain, as I expected. I’ll see nothing whatever out there this evening.

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Saturday 6th July 2019 – HAVING SAID …

… last night that it was bound to rain before long, I can say that it didn’t at all today, which is always very nice.

And for a change, I was up and about early yet again. Straight after the second alarm went off. That gave me a good 45 minutes to bash away at what I wanted to do before breakfast, which is something that I like to do otherwise tend up falling behind.

After breakfast, we had to get ready as we were going off on a zodiac cruise to shore and a town called Rif. There’s a strange guy there who runs a theatre and hostel, and he was to entertain us for half an hour.

The ride in was good, not too rough so we weren’t soaked. And just for a change, we were first off out of the blocks. That doesn’t happen every time.

The guy there gave us a talk and a few songs, and I talked to one of the residents, a girl called Sonia.

But it was the wrong time of year to be visiting Rif as the centre of the village is well-known for its colony of nesting terns and right now, the eggs have only just hatched so the birds were quite aggressive. Several of us were dive-bombed and received little gifts from the heavens, but one or two of the people where physically attacked by the birds and injuries were suffered.

There was a church in the vicinity that I had wanted to see but the aggressive birds put quite a few areas out of bounds. For the same reason it wasn’t recommended to walk to the town of Hellisandur either.

A waterfall , the Svodufoss, 4kms away was a very good substitute so some of us went there instead. But I don’t know by what route they calculated the 4kms but my fitbit made the round trip 12.1 kms – a bit of a difference and I could certainly feel it.

And it’s as well that I hadn’t had much to drink. After all, you can’t go behind a bush in Iceland because there are no bushes to go behind.

Of course I was not alone out there .Strawberry Moose came with me and took full advantage of the situation, being photographed in several exciting places.

Back on the zodiac and it was lunchtime. I was good and ready for it too, having walked all of that way in just a morning.

After lunch I went and had a shower and washed my clothes. It’s been a couple of days and I bet that they could pick me up on the ship’s radar. And then we had a series of lectures on different subjects.

One of our lectures, on the geology of Iceland, was interrupted. A blue whale had been observed off the port bow so we abandoned the lecture – another “Gold Strike at Bear Creek” moment as in Carry On Cowboy. We were in luck too because there were two of them and they gave us quite a performance.

After tea we sailed past a series of very high cliffs at a place called Latrabjarg. And very impressive they were too. We weren’t the only ones to think so either because right at the point of land (it’s the extreme western edge of Iceland) there was a scenic viewpoint with quite a few cars and people admiring the view.

There was a rep from Nikon there too offering us a trial of various equipment. She had a very high quality 28-300mm lens amongst her hire equipment so I have borrowed that for a few days. I’m interested to see how that shapes up, so I’ll let you know in due course.

Now I have a few things to tidy off and then I might go to have an early night. The sunset might be a good one again but I really need to catch up with my sleep.

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Friday 5th July 2019 – I WAS RIGHT …

… about the sunset last night. It really was beautiful. And still going at round about 23:30 too. We are approaching the Land Of The Midnight Sun and at the right time of the year too.

So having taken a few photos I toddled off to bed.

Much to my surprise I awoke bang upright with a jolt at 05:40. I’d been dead to the world, out like a light. And I’ve no idea what had awoken me because the engines were at “slow ahead” and we were crawling along, almost stationary. Mind you, 05:40 is actually 07:40 in real money due to the time difference so that might explain some of it.

Yesterday we had seen land in the form of a couple of islands. But this morning we really were in sight of the mainland.

So up and about, I took a couple of photos of the Icelandic coast, round by Keflavik to start with, and we hit a problem. The laptop hadn’t switched itself off last night and this morning the flattery was bat. So I had to find a power socket in which to plug it while I did some work. But that gave me an opportunity to gaze out of the window at the beautiful morning.

After breakfast, I went up aloft and watched as we slowly inched our way into the harbour at Reykjavik, picking up a pilot on the way. There was plenty of shipping in there, including an Icelandic gunboat, which I imagine will be seeing plenty of action pretty soon when the silly Brits realise just how stupid they have been.

I took a really good action photograph of one of the sailors throwing a line to the quayside.

We had lunch, which was a buffet, and then we headed off onshore. While the crew and the staff were sorting themselves out, they had arranged for the half dozen of us to have a guide and go for a walking tour for 90 minutes.

It was quite interesting, and I came to the conclusion that I could live quite happily live in Reykjavik, provided that I could afford it. Prices here are astronomical. A portion of fish and chips would cost something like €12:00.

We needed to find a bank, which was easier said than done, but eventually we came across a cash machine. So now I have 8,000 Icelandic Kronor, which is about €55:00. I might be able to buy a coffee or something with that if I’m lucky.

Back on board the ship we had a briefing and a lifeboat drill the latter of which took an age. We’ll be in trouble if we ever spring a leak. We were also issued with our expedition jackets, which took longer than it ought to have done too.

The portions of food at teatime seem to have diminished which is probably just as well because we were eating far too much.

Later on, I sorted out the photos and wrote up some of my notes, although not be any means all of them. Now I’m waiting for the sunset and if I’m lucky it will be another beautiful one. I’ll have to make the most of them because they won’t last for ever. It will be bound to rain before long.

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