Float Days 10-13 (Sea Day, Húsavík, Akureyri, Ísafjörður) - Part 1

    I haven't really been keeping up my end of the bargain by being timely with my posts.  A couple of long excursion days have put me behind.  To prevent this particular post from becoming overly lengthy (and because upload speeds for images have become pitiful as we get farther from Iceland), this post will be broken in half for the photo-logue portion. 

    (Reference point:  Day 13 is 7/11).

     Day 10 was a sea day.  The ship did a pass by the island of Janmayen to sea the rugged vulcanism and landscapes.  The ship's scholar gave a lengthy description of the history of exploration of this island, the small group of scientist that continue live there, and the island's import during WWII as a weather station.  I will leave the details to the photo section.

    Days 11-13 were Iceland's northern shore.

    Húsavík was a self-guided exploration day.  Went through the main part of town (in about 10 minutes), then to the Eurovision Museum and Jaja DingDong Pub (which were not open yet).  After that, I looked up at a hill with a radio tower (430m elevation) and decided that I needed to climb to that radio tower.  A lot of new birds and very cool wildlife on the way.  After getting back to the base, watched some of the Arctic Terns and Atlantic Puffins at the dock, and headed back to Eurovision/Jaja-DingDong building. 
    I asked if they had any souvenirs or giftshop (no, not here, go to the souvenir store down the street - yes, but they don't have any Eurovision stuff - Really? - Yes, really - Huh.).  Can I buy one of your Jaja-Dingdong menus? You can set the price.  -  The menus are not for sale and I only have 5 and would not know what to charge. 
    A real capitalistic opportunity is being lost here.
    Got back to the ship in time for dinner.

    A short overnight journey got us to Akureyri, another small town.  We had a bus tour that took us inland through some of Iceland's rugged terrain, lava fields (hardened), Goðafoss waterfall, and bubbling mud pits.  The sights were beautiful, but it was rushed.  Sidenote - they fed us chicken-salad sandwiches just downwind of a sulfur vent; made me wonder about the quality of the chicken.  More with the pictures.

    A very short overnight journey around a bend led to Ísafjörður, some 146 miles away.  Another bus tour, to a magnificent series of waterfalls (Dynjandi).  There will be several pictures.  Followed by a short farm visit that was .. fine.  Again, more in the pictures.

    The next stage of the journey, Greenland, is a bit up in the air right now.  All of the stops and tours have been cancelled due to elevated ice in the channels.  New stops have been added.  Over the next three days, we will need to figure out our plans.
    A couple of other minor notes:
    1) We are now far enough South that there is a Sunset and Sunrise (12:30 AM, and 2AM).  But if midnight is not between sunset and sunrise, I'm not sure I can comprehend.
    2)  On all prior occurrences of Captain's daily announcements, he does his knots/nautical-miles to next port, followed by metric and english units.  Today it was just "12 knots".  We are moving at a veerrryyy slow pace.  There must have been some complications in arranging the new ports.

    On to the Pictures!!

    Day 10 - Sea Day, and exploration from sea of Janmayen Island.
    We had a >2 hr lecture on the island.  It is severely rugged with an active volcano.  This is the view as we approached this magnificent island.

    As we approached the island's midsection, I stepped outside for a less impeded view:

    And a farewell to the island as we finished our circuit and resumed are path toward Iceland:

    As an aside, for the 12hr interval leading up to the island 'tour' and the 12hrs after, our ship tooted its big-horn every 10min, which I suppose is normal protocol.  And I also suppose it is important for the big-horn to be very loud.
    2nd aside - 12hrs after leaving the island, visibility again became near-infinite, like every other part of this cruise so far.  Kind of like trying to explore Kong Island (from the original movie).

    Day 11 - Húsavík

    For those of you who are uninitiated, Húsavík is the nominal setting for the movie Eurovision with Will Farrel, their band name is Fire Saga, and their hit song is Jaja Ding Dong.  First thing we see as we leave the ship:

    Oh, and a poppy:

    There were Arctic Terns everywhere.  Aggressive critters.  We were specifically warned not to bug them, because they *will* attack.  One of our friends on the ship once (a long time ago) had to go to a hospital for scalp stitches for accidentally inciting one.

    As you can see, as I pose with some local artwork, visibility has improved:

    A bunch of Common Eider (their fluff is used for Eider Down Pillows):

    And at an untended tub of fish, the Black-Headed Gulls were fighting (I guess only one bird was allowed in the tub at a time):

    Outsde, and Inside the Jaja Ding Dong

    At this point, we had pretty much seen the town.  Then I saw a radio tower and decided that I should climb to it, and see what I could see along the way.  There was a geocache up there, so there must be good trails, right?

    And just a short bit later, same view:

    But the weather here changes quickly, so it should change back momentarily, right?  So I found a hiking buddy, and we were off.  Approaching the trailhead to the trail that would lead to the actual trailhead, a Redwing:

    And a bit farther up, a Redpoll:

    And fields of Lupin and Yarrow:

    Unfortunately, at this point, my hiking partner decided to head back to the ship, but pointed me to the 'official trailhead'.  Since my phone has no data in Iceland, I promised to be careful (and there were a handful of other folks on the trail).
    I got lucky and got a bare glimpse and shot (and caught-in-frame) a European Golden Plover.  Certainly not a great shot, but enough for ID.  And a second (at some distance) on a mound:

    Then I got really lucky.  Spotted a Parasitic Jaeger (presumably) eating the chick of a Redwing.  Two Redwings (presumably the parents) were divebombing it while it ate - you can hear them in the video clip.  I managed to get pretty close before it noticed me and flew off. (movie and still below):

    OK.  Time to start climbing again.  So much lupin:

    At about the midway point, a view up, and a view down:

    By the way, the black dot on the right-hand photo above is a Common Snipe zipping across the frame.  Lots and lots of them were flying about.  Long-beaked and loud.  When they dive, they sound like old-style arcade-games.  They are fast.  They tend to land in thickets and become invisible.  I tried recording their calls, and did manage to get one of the non-video-game flying ones.  A couple of the best pictures I was able to take.:

    At the top (and it did clear up again!):

    Tremendous views in every direction:

    And, at the top, a trio of sheep (presumably mom with two kids).  Many Icelandic sheep are allowed to roam freely during the Summer months.  They certainly know how to pick a view.

    And on the way down, Nature continued to provide gifts.  Here, a Rock Ptarmigan crossed the path:

    So many wildflowers:

    And a Small Garden Bumblebee on a daffodil:

 
    Most of the way down, a scenic scene:

    Some tiny blues along the path (Alpine Gentian):

    Back in town...  All the cars look like this.  I think Iceland may have bugs.

    A last bird before returning to the ship - an Atlantic Puffin (which chose not to cooperate by putting itself directly onto the reflection of the sun, would dive (I would move) and would come back up directly on the reflection of the sun.

    Final photo before returning to the ship.  Insert your own caption: