Europe 2019 : Day 22 Whales and Chocolates

Friday 30th August

About ten or twelve years ago Robyn and I took the family (including Rob’s mother) to Hervey Bay in Queensland. This was partly for Robyn and her mother to re-live the long driving holidays they used to take back in the 60s and 70s. But it was also partly for us to go whale watching on a half-day cruise in the waters between Fraser Island and the mainland. On that occasion we were lucky to get some close-up views of a couple of humpback whales who are regular visitors to the area.

So when the itinerary for this trip including a whale watching cruise we were quite interested. So interested that Robyn decided to upgrade us to the speedboat, suspecting that this would give us a greater opportunity for sightings. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way.

As noted in the previous blog entry we had stayed in a small hotel in Darvik overnight as we had an early start and we all needed to be fitted out with wet weather body suits which also act as full flotation devices. Suitably outfitted Robyn and I clamoured onto the speedboat with about six others while the rest of the group stayed with the main bigger vessel.

Robyn poses

The boat awaits

For the next three hours we belted around all over the Eyjafjörður fjord, catching a glimpse of one whale breaching in the distance four of five times. We had been hoping to see any or all of humpback or minke whales, or white-beaked dolphins, but it wasn’t our day. The weather was good and the seas calm for the most part so the trip was enjoyable, just not quite what we hoped.

Fjord mountains

As an aside, Iceland still undertakes some commercial whaling. Our guide Sindri told us that the basic Icelander doesn’t eat whale meat and that the bulk of any sold is sold to tourists. This seemed a little disingenuous to me. The solution to the problem was very simple. If you take it off the menu then tourists won’t eat it, won’t know about it and in a few years will have forgotten it was ever available. It just takes a bit of nerve and conviction.

Lunch spot

The larger vessel group had had the opportunity to fish on their way back to port and the whale watching tour company put on a small barbeque of the catch when the tour was over. This was the appetiser for lunch, which we took at a small restaurant a few hundred metres down the street. Sindri had recommended the fish soup which didn’t disappoint.

The weather had started to turn as we headed off north towards Siglufjörður. Robyn in particular was interested in this town as it is the setting for the Dark Iceland series of crime novels by Ragnar Jonasson, one of her current favourites. There isn’t much to the town so most buses just keep driving straight through. But Sindri knew of Iceland’s only chocolatier who had opened a small café there and an excellent little sojourn was had by all. The interior decoration was certainly different.

Toilet decorations

By now the weather had turned to rain and sleet as we headed north through tunnels and around fjords until we hit a spot were Robyn and I had asked Sindri to stop, it being the furthrest point from home we had ever been. Not that we stayed out in the weather very long.

A long way from home

The rest of the day was a long drive across the northern parts of Iceland, skirting fjords and mountains until we reached our overnight hotel in the small university-centred community of Bifröst.