Reykjavik, Iceland & Greenland June 2012

Reykjavik  Tuesday 5th June

Do you guys remember the volcano that erupted in Iceland in 2010, and effectively stopped air traffic in Europe? Well, we climbed it – well almost! I will explain.

But first – we arrived in Reykjavik late afternoon, after a stuff up with the airport bus company, who advised us that we shouldn’t go to the address of our apartment, because the system had changed. They would drop us at the correct address and the apartment people would then drop us at the apartment. Wrong!

They dropped us at an address which had nothing to do with our apartment. While we were looking lost a friendly fellow came out of a building enquiring as to whether we had a booking at his apartments. We said no, and told him where we were booked. He said ” What idiot told you that? Don’t worry I will drive you to your apartment, nothing is ever a problem in Iceland”. So he drove us, nice man.

We were really exhausted after a long day so decided to have biscuits and cheese and a scotch for dinner.

Now most people when they travel, and arrive in a new city, like to take their time and have a good look around to get their bearings. Not us ( read Elly), we embarked on our own Iron Man competition. We have 5 days in Reykjavik, and on all but 1 have arranged adventure tours/excursions.

Day 1, the morning after our arrival, we were picked up at 8 am, and along with 3 young girl tourists, and driven for what turned out to be about 4 hours to the east of Reykjavik. Our guide, a nice guy named Allie, had confided in me as a point of interest, that most big 4WDs such as ours had a built in air compressor and also an external one, and both of ours were broken. I thought that was a bit sloppy, given that we didn’t carry a spare tyre – they are enormous things. It might be interesting if we had a flat tyre.

It was just after that, that we got the flat tyre!

There seems to be a bush telegraph arrangement, because it wasn’t long after that, that a big guy in a big truck drove into the rim of the large crater we were parked in, produced a puncture repair kit and promptly fixed it then pumped up the tyre with his (functioning) compressor. This meant we were an hour behind schedule.

The aim of the day’s exercise was to climb up between 2 volcanoes/ glaciers and at the top we would scale the last section of the volcano which had started the eruption 2 years ago. We climbed and climbed, seemingly forever, in some very spectacular scenery and through some quite scary situations i.e. scrambling up steep slopes requiring a cable for assistance, and traversing very narrow (1 metre) land bridges with sheer drops either side. These terrified Elly, and I suffered crushed fingers assisting her across. I can’t understand why someone who is terrified of heights would book a mountain climbing tour!

The climb continued on for an eternity, and my unfit legs and lungs were suffering badly. We were climbing stone strewn tracks and areas of snow/ice, which required solid footholds to keep from falling. I was wondering why we weren’t strolling the streets of Reykjavik, maybe pausing for a beer, and I was beginning to think unkind thoughts about my wife.

When, finally, we arrived after about 3 and a half hours of non stop, exhausting climbing, at the stage for the final assault on the glacier/ volcano, the guide said that we were still late, and that he wanted to scale the last section ( this is climbing a really steep snow covered slope with only hiking boots) in an hour, so we could be back at our current spot by 6pm, which would mean we could be back at the car by 8:30 pm and back in Reykjavik by 11:30 pm.

I decided that since I was slower than everyone else, and I was also a potential heart attack case if I tried what he was suggesting, I would wait there and sacrifice my chance of reaching the summit. Good decision. Elly and I decided we would descend on our own, hopefully without getting lost.

We met up with the others when they finally arrived back at the car after conquering the peak, and we drove back to town arriving at 11:30 pm.

We had climbed for 17 km and descended the same distance to a height of 850 metres. We were totally exhausted, had a scotch and went to bed, because, guess what? The Iron Man competition was due to start again in the morning at 8:30 am!

Bike tour Wednesday 6th June

Next morning we were to be picked up at our apartment, to be driven to a place called the Blue Lagoon, which is a spa type place, and we would do a bike ride around the area. Elly assured me that ” It is only 6 to 7 hours, and only 23 km on the bike”.

Our guide Stephan collected us, and we drove to the Blue Lagoon. Iceland has a very extensive geothermal infrastructure, which actually provides households with hot water for washing etc and also for home heating. It is quite an extraordinary engineering accomplishment, and works well. The other side of the coin means that they have around 50 earthquakes a day (very weak, and we haven’t felt any) and there is steam coming out of the ground in many places.

We set out on our bikes and after riding on the highway for some time, turned onto a track which ran through massive areas of lava, some very old, and some relatively recent. This was tough bike riding, negotiating lumps of lava and also tiny granules of lave on the tracks. Steam was seeping out in some areas. Often we had to dismount because the tracks were just too rough to ride on. Here we were again, just a little jaunt turning into an epic and making us exhausted yet again. I haven’t ridden for a while and my bum was getting really sore, – no padded Lycra seat on my jeans, and a bike seat harder than mine at home. After a couple of hours negotiating this moon like lave covered expanse, I was thinking this would never end.

Then we found ourselves riding through a golf course! What an amazing contrast.

Having survived the golf course without getting hit, we arrived at a small town which was celebrating Fisherman’s Day. Lots of really tough looking fishermen were engaged in a weight lifting competition, lifting very big pieces of something in a lift and jerk type scenario. Apparently this is an annual event, and this was the day.

By this stage I was again thinking unkind thoughts about Elly, as our 23 km ride was turning into something a lot more (Stephan had mentioned that Icelandic kilometres are quite long), and basically I could only ride standing out of my seat.

Finally after a final stretch of 6 km we arrived back at the Blue Lagoon, we had ridden for 6 hours, where staying on the bike was very often the top priority. We put on bathers and went into the very well presented lagoon, which is very rich in supposed health giving minerals, and is, in fact, a strong blue colour, and edged in, I presume calcium, which lines everything at water level, white.

They had it really set up well, with an armband, which was scanned for entry, but also when you are in the lagoon, there is a bar at the water’s edge, and you can charge drinks to your armband and pay on the way out.

Finally home again, and again too stuffed to go out. Been here 2 days and haven’t had a look at the city yet. Guess what? Another 11 hour adventure at 8 am tomorrow!

Rafting Thursday 7th June 2012

OK, perhaps this one wasn’t quite Iron Man stuff, but still lasted 13 hours. I think that these guides here must have unhappy home lives, because once they hit the road with their clients they just keep going, showing no sign at all of wanting to finish.

That was the case with Gilli, our guide this time.

The day began with white water rafting. We joined up with groups from elsewhere, most of whom were American merchant marine trainees, who provided entertainment, doing all the macho stuff, crashing their rafts into each other, throwing their mates overboard and encouraging their leader to intentionally capsize, so they could have the fun of righting it again. This was great fun because we wimps in our raft could watch everyone get drenched, while we remained relatively dry.

No photos of this adventure because we obviously didn’t take the camera, but we did buy a little toy waterproof camera, and used all the shots on that. Now we have to find somewhere that actually develops FILM!

Next we headed to one of the major waterfalls in Iceland, called Gullfoss, which means Golden Falls. This was really spectacular, with an enormous volume of water flowing down from the glaciers. We weren’t sure of the relative sizes, certainly not as large as Iguazu falls in South America, but the girl travelling with us was from Toronto, and she was adamant that these were far larger than Niagra.

Private enterprise had tried to buy the falls for hydroelectricity in the 1920s, but the owners refused to sell, thinking it would not be available for the public. Some private individuals later later convinced the owners to sell, but it transpired they were a part of the original group. The daughter of the owner took legal action and fought them in court for many years, until finally the deal fell through, and the land was bought by the government and remains a public attraction.

Next we journeyed to visit the Geysir ( as in geyser). This main attraction actually is no longer active, but the one 50 metres away (Strokkur) erupts every 6 to 10 minutes. Our guide, Gilli, was a general enthusiast about everything, including photography, and he was giving Elly lots of hints all day. He was showing us how, just before each eruption, a large bubble forms for about half a second, and then the main mass of water is propelled about 25 to 80 metres into the air. The object was to capture a photo of this bubble, so Gillie set up Elly’s camera on his tripod, using his knowledge of how the eruption occurred to capture the bubble in that first half second before it became a jet of water. Their efforts were rewarded.

Finally we visited the place where the oldest existing parliament in the world was established. All the representatives of the various areas of Iceland came once a year to meet, and set up stalls for trade, remnants of which can still be seen, and to enact new laws.

This all took place adjacent to an amazing feature, which looks like a man made wall, about 20 metres high stretching either way as far as you can see. This ” wall” is actually one edge of where the American tectonic plate is separating from the European plate. These are separating at a couple of centimetres a year, and are currently 7 km apart. This line of separation runs right through the centre of Iceland. Both lines of the rift can be seen, but this one was really spectacular, as the land in the rift was so suddenly lower than the adjacent land on the side of the American Plate.

We finally headed back to town, and Alice, the girl with us on the tour, and Gilli, had dinner at a local restaurant. This was the first restaurant meal we have had since arriving here, because on all the other days it was too late and we were too stuffed to go out.

Our wi- fi connection is a bit dodgy. If we stand outside the front door it works well. If we come inside the front door it is OK. But when we move down the hall it drops out entirely. This means that when I am uploading photos for the blog and Elly is talking on Viber, we are both on kitchen chairs huddled around the front door, what a sight.

We have a day ” off” tomorrow. This may mean a relaxing day, or maybe not, depending on whether Elly gets restless not climbing mountains.

Day off

We took our time this morning, because we didn’t have to be out the front at 8 am. After breakfast and getting our act together at a reasonable pace we headed out to the environs of Reykjavik. There is a prominent church on a hill overlooking the city, the church is shaped like a rocketship. We went to visit and take the lift to the top to look over the city. As we entered the church there was the organist doing some practice. As we took the lift to the top of the tower, Elly’s phone sounded with a message.

The message was that our dear friend, Kevin Rush, had passed away a short time ago. Kevin had been a very close friend for 30 years, and had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Kevin, thanks for being our friend, sorry we weren’t there for your goodbye. Vale Kevin, we will miss you.

We spoke with son Michael, in Germany, and he said that Kevin would say. ” Dont mope around, get on and enjoy your holiday.” So we decided we would try to do that.

After finding a wi- fi cafe and ordering a couple of coffees and phoning friends in Australia about Kevin, we strolled into town and came across the backpackers venue, and went in to make enquiries about the next day. Our travel agent had booked us for a whale watching boat trip, but had given us no indication of which company we were booked with. The backpackers strongly suggested we should find out as there are several companies doing whale watching. We phoned our agent in the U.K. And left a message to get back to us with the info.

We decided to wander down to the harbour, in the absence of reply from the agent, to check it out for the next day. On the way we stopped in at the Harpa, which is the concert hall for Reykjavik, and is quite a spectacular piece of architecture. We spent an hour or so looking around.

When we arrived at the harbour, we went to the first whale watching company we came to, and asked if they had us booked with them the next morning. Amazingly they had us on their list. The boss came out and said the trip the next day would leave from a fishing village 40 minutes drive from Reykjavik because the forecast was not good. An alternative was to go on a trip at 5 pm ( current time 4:45 pm). We decided to do that, so changed our plans. So much for our day off – this was scheduled to finish at around 10 pm.

The whale watching trip was really enjoyable, although compared to others we have done, was less than brilliant. We spotted a whale loping along, but only visible briefly. That was followed by some dolphins leaping out of the water, until we got close, then they stopped. Towards the end we found a couple of Orcas appeared briefly. Elly also had the chance to practise using her new lens on some local birds.

The guide talked about lots of things enroute, but one thing impressed us. He said that, as tourists, we would be encouraged to eat whale meat, as it is on the menu in many places, however, most Icelanders don’t eat it, and we should make a small step, by not eating it. Tourists are really the main ones eating the whale meat. Interestingly, our guide the previous day had said we should eat it, because the locals all eat it.

The guide, Lucas, had to come back to our apartment to pick up our voucher, so Elly dragged him inside and poured a couple of scotches down his throat before he knew what had happened. Poor soul. But we had a nice chat with him, and told him we appreciated his comments about non whale eating.

Another day over, nice, but sad. Our friends fly in tomorrow to join us  for the sailing cruise in Greenland.

Reykjavik  Saturday June 16th

Having woken up on the day the others were due to arrive, we, of course, had a spare half day, because we had done the whale watching the previous evening. What an opportunity for Elly. She was on the phone enquiring about whether the Puffin tours were running. They were, so she booked. Puffins are gorgeous birds, much smaller than I thought, which only inhabit a limited number of places, two of which are islands just outside Reykjavik harbour.

We went to the office to pay for the tickets, and Elly asked whether there was a discount for having done two trips ( same company as the whale watching). The man, who was the owner, I think, said we could have it free of charge, since the Puffins should have been part of the normal whale watching tour. So off we went to the motor cruiser, only to find we were the only ones booked, so we had a personalised, free trip.

I had envisioned Puffins as being penguin-like land bound birds about 60 cm high – that is the way they look in the tour photos. In fact, they do fly, although their wing area is barely adequate for their weight, so they have to flap like mad to stay airborne. They are, in fact very small, around 20 cm long. They were all either flying, or standing in grassland a couple of hundred metres from the boat, so, as hard as Elly tried, she couldn’t get the nice, close up photos she had imagined.

The afternoon saw the arrival of Bev and Andrew, and John and Bronia, who had flown across from Helsinki. That evening the travel company had arranged a restaurant reservation for us all, as well as a few others who were doing the Greenland boat trip. (a number of delicious and really interesting meals – Geni would have loved !)

Greenland

Aasiaat  Saturday 16th June 2012
Next morning a car took us to the local airport ( Reykjavik has its main international airport, 45 km away, as well as a domestic airport, adjacent to the city). Fortunately our flight left from the domestic airport.

A 3 hour flight in a Dash 8 aircraft took us to Aasiaat, a small frontier type town, on an island half way up the west coast of Greenland. Some of us walked the 50 minutes into town, and then wandered around for a couple of hours until we were allowed to board our beautiful 3 masted sailing ship, the Rembrandt.

At 5 pm we sailed out of Aasiaat, unfortunately, under motor, not sail. We were all up on deck, as we cruised past many icebergs – smaller than Antarctic icebergs, but very numerous. Elly was, of course, on deck, with camera and lenses looking for anything that might come along.

After dinner, some of us ( mainly the males) were exhausted, so went off to bed. Elly was still on deck late in the evening, when the announcement advised that some Bowhead whales had been sighted. This was the stuff of Elly’s dreams, so she stayed on deck clicking away, and Bev got up to join Elly, whilst most of the rest of us stayed in bed.

The cabins are very nice but also very small. It is an exercise in efficiency to fit all our things in, and still be able to walk around. Internally there is a bar area, and a dining area. The main thing that is missing is an observation lounge. This means that if you want to see what is going on outside, you really have to be out on deck, which means rugging up heavily.

Next morning after breakfast, we all piled aboard the zodiacs, and set out for a landing on the beach on Disko Island, just off the Greenland mainland. A beautiful beach which would do well in a warmer climate, but noticeably free of sunworshippers at 3 degrees. Our group had a few dedicated British bird watchers, who also took an active interest in what very little vegetation existed. They spent a great deal of time making judgements on whether this bird or that was a female, Lesser Spotted Arctic Bagpiper, or a Northern Arctic Blue- tailed Tank Warbler.

I am being unkind to these ladies, who were far more intelligent than me, and had a serious interest in their hobby.

As we were on our walk, the Rembrandt had to manoeuvre among the icebergs, as they were constantly changing position, and presented a challenge to the crew to stay in the clear. Walking along the beach in fairly loose sand, I noticed a quite unusual set of prints in the sand, almost circular, but with toe like serrations. I asked our tour guide, Charlotte, who was carrying a rifle in case we met any polar bears, what sort of prints they were. She examined them, and obviously had no idea what had made the prints. Then Bronia came up and said that maybe they were made by someone’s walking stick. Sure enough, Martina, one of the group had a walking stick with a ski pole type circular base. Talk about feeling like a goose ( Greater Striped Arctic Goose)! Now you know what I mean about intelligence comparisons.

On our return to the ship, both zodiacs became grounded on a sandbar, so I recorded the scene on video, just in case we all died out there, so they would have a record of the stuff up. However, all was well with the help of some of the strong passengers shoving with paddles as the outboard motor thrashed itself to exhaustion.

Back on board, we were advised that the ice to the north of us had thickened to the point where it would be dangerous to proceed, so the decision was taken to head south again, travelling around the southern side of Disko Island and then up the western side. As we headed further south, the weather became magnificent, and we were travelling downwind, so there was no actual wind on the deck, and bright sunshine to help keep us warm, whilst we watched the passing parade of icebergs.

We had further periodic sightings of the rare Bowhead whale, but these are quite shy creatures and tended to keep their distance. Elly nevertheless continued shooting and managed a few shots of elevated whale tails as they did their occasional dive.

The latitude here is around 69N, so the sun stays up all night. This situation tends to encourage the party animals, most particularly Elly, to stay up later than they should.

We had an evening expedition to a remote landing spot at the end of a fjord, with a gentle walk to look around. This seemed a bit unreal, as we started this after dinner, and arrived back at the ship around 10 pm, still with very bright daylight.

Next morning we visited a small settlement on the south coast of Disko Island, in fact it’s name in Greenlandic means Disco Fjord. The reason we were in this area was that our plans had had to change due to iceberg accumulation on our original track up the east coast of Disko Island. We, in fact were the first tourists into this settlement, even the expedition leader hadn’t been there before. We wandered around this largely deserted settlement, as it was Sunday morning, and there were only 30 odd inhabitants anyway, so we doubled the population.

There were random, simple, multi coloured houses, and a couple of areas where the working dogs were kept. We were told to keep away from the dogs, since they have never been treated as pets, however, there were some pups, which we were allowed to pet if they came our way. A couple did. So we gave them, probably the last cuddle they will ever get, as the mother looked on warily.

A local man came by and gave us a wave, so Elly immediately latched on to him. His name was Christian, and, in conjunction with our expedition leader, Thor ( the Viking ), we had a long chat. His wife, who was the local minister, arrived, and we were invited in for coffee and cake. We were very honoured, and all ( about 8 of us), trooped in and made ourselves at home. Although these people are very isolated, we found that Christian had spent some time in his earlier life at sea, and had seen many places and spoke a couple of languages. Their daughter was the local school teacher, so all in all they were a fairly influential family in the area.

We spent a considerable amount of time in Christian’s house, before getting a quick tour of the church and the local school. Thor dug around in the school bookshelves and proudly came out with a book, which he had written. We then waved goodbye, after taking photos of Christian and his wife together with our group.

Back to the ship, again with the most magnificent weather, we set off up the west coast of Disko Island, with sunshine and very little wind. After much pressure from the passengers, who, via John, threatened mutiny, the crew deployed the sails. Ironically, shortly after that, the wind died to nothing, so we had to keep motoring. The sail deployment was extremely complex, not only knowing what bits and pieces and sheets and halyards etc.(ropes) were connected to what, but after it was all done, the rearranging of equipment and ropes took longer than the sails deployment. Not a wonder they were reluctant to set the sails when they had a perfectly good motor.

To celebrate the sails going up, the crew organised waffles and coffee laced with rum on the deck in the sun. A superb setting, along with the sightings of a few whales – Elly yelling ” Whale at 1 o’clock!).

Now all we need to do is convince the crew to launch the zodiacs, so we can all get to photograph the Rembrandt with sails, which should be a magnificent sight.

In fact, only 3 of the 5 sails were set initially, but after many of us ( me included ) were in bed, they raised the remaining sails. Bev and Elly were still up, and Bev lent her expertise to help with the remaining sails, hauling the rope to put up the outer jib.

I was really disappointed the next morning when I found out that the sails were no longer deployed. Imagine, all that effort, and you just undo it all after a few hours. We were midway down the length of the North Fjord in the morning, and were shipped via zodiac to the shore for a wander around. We were perched up on a ridge admiring the view, when John said ” Anyone for a beer?” this was at 10:30 am. He had snuck a couple of beers from the bar on the boat and brought them with us. Although it was against all I believe in, and hold dear, I had to help him.

The view was magnificent overlooking the fjord and the Rembrandt, and we spent some time there. Later, walking along the beach, John was seen dragging a piece of kelp along behind him. When asked what he was doing, he replied: ” I am taking my Kelpie for a walk”. The world loves a comedian.

Back on board, the crew decided to raise the sails again – all of them this time. Also this time we had sufficient wind to drive the ship. It was just beautiful, in bright warm sun, and just a little wind, to sail quietly along on our beautiful vessel. Elly was looking forward to getting back into Whale Street, so had her camera gear with her on deck. We are up to about 5000 photos so far. So I am hoping the 64 gig storage on the iPad will be adequate!

The days tend to blend in to one another, so it is important to regularly update the blog while it is fresh in the memory. At about 5 am this morning we were woken by a cacophony of noise from the engines. It sounded as though we had run aground and were trying to free ourselves. Turns out we were just docking at a jetty at the small town of Godhavn, right on the southern tip of Disko Island. Why we had to dock at that hour is a mystery, because it woke everyone on the ship a couple of hours early.

We had a few hours to look around the town. These towns, and this one was no exception, seem to have a rule that no two houses can be painted the same colour, so some will be red, some blue, some green. They all look very cute, and we did wonder why they are built out of wood, when there are no trees, rather than of stone, which is everywhere. As we wandered through the town we came upon more groups of sled dogs, just has we had in previous towns, chained up and periodically howling to say they were hungry. One house had about 4 puppies lying outside, unchained, and a couple of them came over to say hello and have a pat. They were just gorgeous.

Back on the boat we did a quick 15 min zodiac ride to the shore to have a look at a couple of waterfalls and some really interesting basalt rock formations as well as a rock arch with very unusual rock structure. We sailed the zodiacs through the arch.

Shortly afterwards we were on our way again, and a couple of Humpback whales appeared in front of us in the distance. They kept us entertained for a while before dinner. Still a bit too far for Elly to be happy with her photos.

The evening had us cruising in millpond conditions to an island which is home to many Arctic Terns and Puffins. Unfortunately we couldn’t take the boat in close enough for photos, even though the bird watchers were having a great time with their binoculars. The Arctic Terns travel each year from these waters down to Antarctica, then return the next year. Over their 30 year lifespan they fly the equivalent of three return trips to the moon.

It seems as though some of the iPad owners, including Bronia, haven’t brought along their accessories for downloading their photos, so I am finding myself to some extent in demand. This is good because I can make all the mistakes, and do all the experimentation on other people’s iPads.

Next morning heralded the final day of our cruise. At about 6:30 am, before our normal wake up, an announcement was made that there were seals and Arctic Terns to be seen from the deck. Elly, who had had yet another late night, leapt out of bed, threw her jacket over pyjamas, and raced outside. She was back within 5 minutes, saying they were too far away. About 10 minutes later, another announcement advised of a whale sighting. Elly was out of bed again and heading for the deck. This sort of behaviour necessitated an afternoon siesta for Elly to keep her conscious in the evening.

Thor had advised us that he had obtained a landing permit for us to set foot on a special island which is the largest habitat of Arctic Terns, and other birds. However, we would not be allowed to walk around, but would have to congregate in one area, and observe. Not sure what happened, but Thor had us walking for 3 hours ( obediently following in conga line formation). Mixing it with the circling hoards of Terns, were circling hoards of mosquitoes. These things were the size of sparrows, and if you pointed your camera at the sky for a photo, you would have difficulty distinguishing between the Terns and the mossies!

Back on board, we reverted to whale watching, and, on this occasion, for the first time, the Humpbacks appeared. These guys tended to be a little less shy than the Bowheads; they seemed to come in a bit closer to us, in fact one swam across the bow of the boat. Elly was beside herself, as the netting attached to the prow of the boat partially obscured the close up.

After dinner on the final evening, some people headed for their cabins to start packing. We didn’t do that, of course, there was some photo swapping to organise and general talking to be done. Elly had managed an afternoon nap, which is always a potentially alarming scenario. I wandered off to bed just before 11pm, as we had to get up for a 7 am breakfast prior to disembarking.

Elly arrived back in our cabin at around 3:30 am. She and a few others, including staff had been partying on. Thor had apparently opened the bar and drinks were flowing. Tour leader, Charlotte says that Elly has been black banned. Every time Charlotte said she was going to bed, Elly would say: “You can’t go, I still have a drink”.

Still she managed to surface a couple of hours later to pack and have breakfast prior to disembarking in Aasiaat.

Farewell to the Rembrandt

We walked the hour to the airport, as we had some time to kill, and we had been there only a few minutes before Elly was asleep on one of the benches. This would be a feature of her day. With some hanging around, non direct flight, and time zone changes, most of the day was used returning to Reykjavik.

An interesting phenomenon occurred on the Fokker 50 flight back to Reykjavik; John pointed his iPad out the window, and noticed the propeller blades appeared to be only slowly rotating on the screen, rather than just a blur as they are to the eye. He took the photo and the result is below. Another passenger tried to duplicate it on a camera using a high shutter speed, but only got what you would expect – propeller blades with blurring due to the high speed of rotation.

Weird Apple science!

Return to Reykjavik

Back in Reykjavik once again, the next morning John & Bronia and Bev & Andrew headed off to do some of the stuff Elly and I had done last time.We, through our Aqua Firmer team leader, Charlotte, had booked a little known expedition.

This involved being lowered down the inside of a volcano!It turns out that two brothers, one of whom is a renowned local geologist, and who actually discovered this hollow volcano, have set up this infrastructure at their own expense, but only temporarily, because everything is hired, and will be dismantled after summer.

After a 45 minute bus ride, we set of on a 50 min walk across broad lava fields. These are very old and very uneven to walk on without twisting ankles. The area is covered by very beautiful ground cover in the form of tiny flowering plants and a thick, soft, mossy growth, which is very spongy to walk on.

Upon arriving at the volcano itself we were fitted with a safety harness and a miner’s helmet, and lead to the top of the crater entrance. They had rigged up a beam across the crater, from which was suspended an upon caged platform. This held 5 people, so we climbed in, attached by our harness, and descended into the crater, 120 metres to the floor.

The inside of the volcano expanded out, from about 10 metres at the mouth of the crater, to about 30m x 30m at the bottom. It wasn’t really the bottom, you can go down further if you are a professional caver. The whole area was floodlit, and showed all the variations of colours of the rock walls.

This situation is unusual, because, normally with a volcano, either the whole cone collapses on itself, and makes an open crater, or the lava cools inside the volcano and leaves a rock mass, which is eventually exposed by erosion over time. In this case, however, the lava seems to have contracted back below the volcano, leaving this vast cavern as a hollowed out mountain.

These men operating it, are going through a feasibility study, with a view to actually cutting a tunnel through into the volcano, rather than lowering people down a few at a time. The plan is to set up permanent infrastructure and develop the site into a major attraction ( which we feel may diminish it) .

This is a brand new enterprise as far as the public are concerned, and, apart from a National Geographic team, we were the first tourists to enter the volcano. They are just starting to take tourists to help fund the project costs.

In the evening we all went out to a beautiful revolving restaurant overlooking the whole of Reykjavik. This also served as a farewell to Charlotte, from our travel provider, Aqua Firma, who had been looking after us and accepting a lot of cheek from us for the sailing voyage. The restaurant was excellent, and, in our good fortune, happened to have a Norwegian male choir dining there, who would now and then get up and sing some wonderful pieces, or simply start singing while they were seated. It gave the whole place a magnificent atmosphere, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely, in spite of our waiter, who appeared to be in training for the Supercilious Award of the week.

Tomorrow it is off to Oslo for a day, then to Longyearbyen in Spitsbergen for our next sailing adventure.

On our final morning in Reykjavik, everyone except me went on the Puffin boat trip. John & Bronia and Bev & Andrew, because they hadn’t seen the puffins before, and Elly because she wanted to have another go at getting some better Puffin photos. This she did, as the weather was clear and bright, and the photos worked well.

Elly, John and I sat down at the waterfront in sunny calm weather and had a beer whilst the others went on another excursion. We all came together later and made it to the airport for the flight to Oslo.