Circumnavigation of Iceland

Circumnavigation of Iceland June 1 - 12, 2017 GRÍMSEY THISTILFJORD BAY A R C T I C C I R C L E ISLAND Skoruvik Raudanes Siglufjördur Húsavík VIGUR ISLAND Ísafjördur Akureyri LAKE MÝVATN Seydisfjördur Látrabjarg FLATEY ISLAND ICELAND Djúpivogur Reykjavík Gullfoss HEIMAEY ISLAND SURTSEY ISLAND Friday & Saturday, June 2 & 3, 2017 Reykjavík, Iceland / Embark Ocean Diamond We arrived at Reykjavík’s Grand Hotel and gathered in the early evening for our welcome reception and dinner. We met our fellow travelers, both old acquaintances and new friends, and were welcomed by our Expedition Leader, Russ Evans. After a dinner of Icelandic lamb and turkey, it was time to turn in to prepare ourselves for tomorrow’s exciting excursion. We set out the following morning under bright skies and sunshine on Iceland’s famous Golden Circle Tour. This took us to Þingvellir National Park, an important site not just for Iceland’s history—it was the site of Iceland’s earliest parliament, the Alþing, which met here until 1798—but also a unique geological site. Here, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between two of the planet’s great tectonic plates, makes a rare appearance above sea level and forms a wide, fault-bounded rift valley. From a viewpoint standing on the edge of the North American Plate, we looked across the beautiful flat valley floor and its lake to the edge of the Eurasian Plate. A trail led us down through 9,000-year-old lava flows into a narrow cleft where stretching of the earth’s crust means the rocks to the left are moving westwards while those to the right are moving to the east. This is the spreading ridge of the North Atlantic Ocean, normally submerged under thousands of feet of water. We returned to our buses and climbed out of the rift valley onto a moorland of mossy lava flows, with views of one of Iceland’s most famous volcanoes, Hekla, and on to the valley of the Hvítá River. The river, derived from glacial meltwater, tumbled noisily over Gullfoss in two huge spray-filled cascades over a drop of 96 feet. In the distance, we enjoyed clear views of the icecaps of Langjökull and the even more distant Hofsjökull. Nearby, the geothermal field of Geysir contained bubbling hot springs and geysers; we were treated to several eruptions of the Strokkur Geyser, which threw bursts of boiling water into the air. We stopped for a delicious lunch of fresh tomato soup and trout at the family-run farm of Friđheimar, where a ton of tomatoes are grown each day in greenhouses heated by geothermal power. The farm also raises the famous Icelandic horses which were brought to Iceland by the Vikings, and have remained pure-bred for over a thousand years. They have a unique gait, the tölt, so smooth that a rider can carry a glass of beer without spilling it. Soon it was time to return to Reykjavík where, moored at the dock in the center of the city, was the Ocean Diamond, our home for the next nine days. Sunday, June 4 Flatey Island / Látrabjarg We awoke today to find our ship anchored off the tiny island of Flatey in the middle of the wide bay of Breiđafjörđur. After breakfast we had our first ride in the ship’s Zodiacs, which took us ashore to be welcomed by local guides. The bright morning sunshine illuminated the island’s colorful houses, occupied now only in the summer months—apart from a hardy few who remain through the winter to tend to their sheep. Flatey is noted for its unusual frescoed church, painted in 1990 by a Catalan artist, Baltasar; its tiny library, the first in Iceland; and one of the most famous books of the Sagas, the Flateyjarbók. The clear weather gave us a wonderful view across the bay to the southern edge of the Western Fjords to the north and the Snæfellsnes Peninsula to the south, with the sun catching the icecap of the high volcano, Snæfellsjökull. The island is also home to numerous shorebirds, and our birders were delighted while hiking and Zodiac cruising, to see common eider, fulmar, redshank, ringed plover, snow bunting, and red-necked phalarope, amongst others. Over lunch we sailed to the spectacular sea cliffs of Látrabjarg, the western- most point of Iceland and, at 8 ½ miles long and 1,300 feet high, the largest bird cliffs in Europe. Calm seas allowed us to cruise via Zodiac along the base of the cliffs and amongst rafts of razorbills and guillemots, with kitti- wakes and fulmars wheeling high above us; a spectacular end to a great day. Monday, June 5 Vigur Island / Ísafjördur After breakfast, we cruised by Zodiac to a little jetty on the small island of Vigur, which is just over a mile long and only 1,300 feet wide, and has been owned by the same family since the 1880s. Family members guided us around the island, beginning with a stop at the tiny windmill; the only one in Iceland, this windmill dates back to 1840 and was used for grinding imported wheat until 1917. Birds abound here and our ornithologists were pleased to see not only oystercatchers, redshanks, red-necked phalaropes, black guillemots, puffins, Arctic terns, and common eider, but also king eider. The common eider provides the much sought- after, super-light and warm eider down, collected here and made into pillows and quilts. After our walk we enjoyed the islanders’ hospitality with tea, coffee, and scrumptious home-baked cakes. Our afternoon was spent in and around the town of Ísafjördur, the largest settlement in the West Fjords. In the museum we had the opportunity to taste local delicacies such as dried fish and the famous ‘matured’ shark; not to everyone’s taste, but it could be washed down with Icelandic schnapps, Brennivin. Our tour took us to the lovely valley of Tungudalur and the village of Bolungarvík, with its attractive church where a local girl performed several traditional Icelandic songs. At Ösvör, we visited reconstructed fishermen’s huts and heard about the hard life of these men, fishing from open boats and wearing oiled sheep skin clothing. Back on board for the evening, we enjoyed cocktails with the captain who welcomed us on board and introduced his senior officers before we our welcome dinner. Tuesday, June 6 Grímsey Island / Siglufjördur The Arctic Circle was our target this morning, as we landed by Zodiac at the small fishing harbor on the little island of Grímsey on an appropriately chilly morning. We stretched our legs as we hiked past the island’s little airport to the monument marking the Arctic Circle. However, as the position of the Circle varies from year to year, those of us keen to get to its true current position at 66°33’47.6” continued our hike until our GPS units showed we had reached it, close to the island’s rocky northernmost point. En route, we enjoyed good views of snow buntings along the path and of puffins sitting outside their burrows on the grassy cliff tops. Returning to the ship, the captain took our ship around Grímsey’s northern tip, so that we all had a chance to cross into the Arctic and see the island’s steep cliff coast from the sea. After lunch, as we sailed back to the Icelandic mainland, MIT Professor Ron Prinn spoke to us about Understanding Climate Risks: Past, Present, and Future. Later in the afternoon, we arrived at the small town of Siglufjördur. From the dock we strolled to the award- winning Herring Era Museum which tells the remarkable story of this little port’s dominance of the Atlantic herring fishery, through its preservation of some of the buildings, boats, and processing equipment. The story was brought to life through music and dance as the costumed locals gave us a flavor of the life of the herring girls who flocked seasonally to the town to gut, salt, and pack the herring into barrels which they did with great speed and efficiency. Amongst the herring boats in the atmospheric boathouse, we were able to try the salted and spiced herring with rye bread, accompanied by more Brennivin. Wednesday, June 7 Akureyri / Húsavík From our dock in Akureyri, Iceland’s second largest town, we left for a tour to Mývatn and its lava landscapes. We drove through glaciated valleys cut through lava flows and across open moorland to the spectacular waterfall of Gođafoss where, following the adoption of Christianity in Iceland, a local chieftain hurled his wooden pagan idols into the river below. The large lake of Mývatn soon came into view and we were suddenly in the midst of Iceland’s North Volcanic Zone, with active volcanoes and geothermal areas along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. A sprinkling of fresh snow dusted the lava flows as we looked across from the 1724 volcanic cone of Vítí towards the lavas of the 1980s eruptions of Krafla. Nearby, the geothermal area of Námaskarđ, with its steaming fumaroles and boiling gray mudpots, was once the site of a sulphur mine and the bare landscape of yellow, red, and brown extending up the adjacent hill gave the area an almost extraterrestrial appearance. From the high- way, the gray lava plains below lie along the boundary of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. Along the shores of Mývatn, older lava flows had impinged along the lake’s marshy shallows creating several distinctive landforms. Crater-like hills and islands were formed where the lava turned the waters of the marshes into steam which exploded through the lava flow.

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