Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Two by two
That's two journeys, two days, two puffins, two rainbows and two blue whales.
E's gap year visit to Iceland continued yesterday with a shortened tour of the north. Shortened by the requirement for me to attend what turned out to be a pretty ineffectual meeting in work in the morning, with the knock-on effect that we didn't get back until dawn (that's about 01:30 at present). Fortunately I could do the rest of the tour today as we headed out to Egilsstaðir to stay with B overnight.
After lunch at Bláa Kannan, where they had the most delicious pineapple cake, we headed off for Húsavík in time for the late afternoon whale-watching trip. The reports on the website over the last couple of days had suggested that there were a lot of whales in the bay so we started off in high hopes. We then spent about two hours pottering around the bay seeing nothing more than a couple of puffins, a dozen or so gulls and an (admittedly spectacular) double rainbow. The crew were clearly getting a bit worried, as if you don't see any whales on a given trip then they give you a voucher for a free trip at some point in the future.
Just as we were giving up hope the cry came from the lookout that there was a whale spout on the horizon. This was, in my view, exceptionally good news, as I hadn't seen any spouting whales before now so it had to be a new species for me. This turned out to be not one but two blue whales quite a distance a way. It was the distance that made me realise just how large these creatures are - from our vantage point on the boat several hundred metres away they still looked big. Close up they would have been twice the length of the boat upon which we stood.
Unfortunately we didn't have much time to follow them as the boat was needed for a final tour that evening, so we headed back to the harbour at full speed. By now it was past 20:00 and we were feeling decidedly peckish so it was off to Gamli Baukar for deep-fried (but not battered) cod with salad and mashed potatoes before heading south to Jorðböðin at Mývatn. While E was quite excited by the whale-watching trip, she was utterly captivated by the geothermal pool. It was quite tricky to coax her out at 23:20 before the horde extricated themselves from the combination of hot water and cold beer at 23:30. Naturally we had to complete the entire bathing experience with the traditional ice-cream (caramel Magnum, in my case) before the hour and a half drive back to the house.
With an 01:30 arrival it was probably a good thing that we'd planned a slightly later start this morning, simply hoping to be on the road by 10:30. We succeeded in this, and by that point had made it as far as the Christmas House, another place of great amusement and delight. Today we could catch up on all of the things I'd missed out yesterday, like Goðafoss, Dimmuborgir and Námafjall, and E was suitably impressed with all three.
Then there was just the couple of hours driving from Mývatn to Egilsstaðir in the east. Route 1 through the highlands is okay, but then there's the Corner From Hell and then the seemingly-endless drive down the valley to the town. It's not one of my favourite drives but the prospect of B's apartment at the end of it kept me going, and we arrived in good time for once.
It's now ridiculously early to go to bed but I'm planning just that, given that we've got what is probably going to be a 12-hour journey to the hostel at Eyrarbakki for tomorrow night. I tried to get us into somewhere a bit closer but for some reason they all seem full at present. :) The only closer hostel can only be accessed by experienced drivers in modified 4x4s... and while the yeti has been appropriately modded my driving hasn't. I could probably do it, but the car isn't mine and I have a passenger so I'm not going to take any chances.
E's gap year visit to Iceland continued yesterday with a shortened tour of the north. Shortened by the requirement for me to attend what turned out to be a pretty ineffectual meeting in work in the morning, with the knock-on effect that we didn't get back until dawn (that's about 01:30 at present). Fortunately I could do the rest of the tour today as we headed out to Egilsstaðir to stay with B overnight.
After lunch at Bláa Kannan, where they had the most delicious pineapple cake, we headed off for Húsavík in time for the late afternoon whale-watching trip. The reports on the website over the last couple of days had suggested that there were a lot of whales in the bay so we started off in high hopes. We then spent about two hours pottering around the bay seeing nothing more than a couple of puffins, a dozen or so gulls and an (admittedly spectacular) double rainbow. The crew were clearly getting a bit worried, as if you don't see any whales on a given trip then they give you a voucher for a free trip at some point in the future.
Just as we were giving up hope the cry came from the lookout that there was a whale spout on the horizon. This was, in my view, exceptionally good news, as I hadn't seen any spouting whales before now so it had to be a new species for me. This turned out to be not one but two blue whales quite a distance a way. It was the distance that made me realise just how large these creatures are - from our vantage point on the boat several hundred metres away they still looked big. Close up they would have been twice the length of the boat upon which we stood.
Unfortunately we didn't have much time to follow them as the boat was needed for a final tour that evening, so we headed back to the harbour at full speed. By now it was past 20:00 and we were feeling decidedly peckish so it was off to Gamli Baukar for deep-fried (but not battered) cod with salad and mashed potatoes before heading south to Jorðböðin at Mývatn. While E was quite excited by the whale-watching trip, she was utterly captivated by the geothermal pool. It was quite tricky to coax her out at 23:20 before the horde extricated themselves from the combination of hot water and cold beer at 23:30. Naturally we had to complete the entire bathing experience with the traditional ice-cream (caramel Magnum, in my case) before the hour and a half drive back to the house.
With an 01:30 arrival it was probably a good thing that we'd planned a slightly later start this morning, simply hoping to be on the road by 10:30. We succeeded in this, and by that point had made it as far as the Christmas House, another place of great amusement and delight. Today we could catch up on all of the things I'd missed out yesterday, like Goðafoss, Dimmuborgir and Námafjall, and E was suitably impressed with all three.
Then there was just the couple of hours driving from Mývatn to Egilsstaðir in the east. Route 1 through the highlands is okay, but then there's the Corner From Hell and then the seemingly-endless drive down the valley to the town. It's not one of my favourite drives but the prospect of B's apartment at the end of it kept me going, and we arrived in good time for once.
It's now ridiculously early to go to bed but I'm planning just that, given that we've got what is probably going to be a 12-hour journey to the hostel at Eyrarbakki for tomorrow night. I tried to get us into somewhere a bit closer but for some reason they all seem full at present. :) The only closer hostel can only be accessed by experienced drivers in modified 4x4s... and while the yeti has been appropriately modded my driving hasn't. I could probably do it, but the car isn't mine and I have a passenger so I'm not going to take any chances.