After waking up early and a good breakfast, we headed off to the docks for our whale watching tour. There were a few dozen French people waiting for our boat to start loading which surprised me, as our tour person had said that he'd only sold two other tickets for that time. He had claimed his boat could carry 41 people, but it was beginning to look like it was going to be crowded. Our luck changed, though, when the French found out they were waiting in front of the wrong boat and left. Our numbers reduced to a dozen or so, I felt we were in for a more comfortable trip.
The first thing that happens when you board a whale watching boat in Iceland is, they give you a waterproof, neon-colored overall and tell you to put it on and tighten it around you wrists and ankles with the velcro strap. Apparently that is to help you float should you fall in the water, which, by the way, they do not recommend you do as it's very,very cold. We put our suits on, me with a little difficulty as they did not have one in my size, but we made it work and soon, under the watchful eye of our guide, Veronica, we were on our way.
Our first destination was Puffin Island, and we eventually we got there after a detour to look for a humpback whale that never materialized. The puffins were, as K would say, adorable and sight to behold. Apparently they were getting ready to migrate south, but there were thousands of them still there, flying around, diving or just resting in the water. I was impressed by how fast they fly! Our guide said up to 80 km/hr, an impressive number for a bird so small.
When we got our fill of puffins we went further out in search of whales. We soon found a pod of white-beaked dolphins, apparently residents of the area. They were curious and playful, swimming along with the boat and jumping out of the water, until they got tired and left us to look for more whales.
It was somewhat of a long search, but we did find a mink whale swimming leisurely along the bay and got to admire it for several minutes, before it was time to head back to land and the rest of the activities for that day. Our plan was to drive to lake Myvatn and enjoy the volcanic attractions around that area: Dimmm???, Hverfjall crater and the Hverarond geothermal area.
Dimmuird??? was our first stop. It was a maze of black lava rock formations, and supposedly the home of the "Yule lads," thirteen sons of a couple of trolls that spend their time telling stories and playing pranks on each other. There were well marked paths that took us among the rocks, each one more strangely shaped than the other, with small caves all over the place. Our path eventually led us to the Kirkja rock, a big hollow formation that locals say looks like the apse of a church. It took us over an hour to go there and back, and the Kriklja rock was a little anti-climatic, but it was worth the effort: there were interesting formations everywhere.
The next stop was Hverfjall, a volcanic crater about a kilometer wide and 420 meters tall. I mention the height because, when we got there, we found out that parking was at the base of the mountain and you had to walk all the way to the top to look into the crater. And climb we did, with several stops along the way for rest and recreation. I will say that the crater was large, but unimpressive, just a big, dark gray, sandy bowl. Maybe the view from the other side of the rim was better, but I was tired, the climb had drained most of my energy and there was no way I was going to walk around. So we toop pictures and started the long trek back down.
Our final destination for the day was the ???? geothermal area. Despite the beautiful description in the guide book, it was a disappointment: a few fumaroles, a couple of mud pools and the worst stink I've ever smelled at a geyser area. I'm beginning to believe that if you've visited the geysers at Yellowstone, with all their colors and gushing water, there is no point in visiting the ones here.
By then we were tired and gave up on our tentative plan of going to a geothermal pool by the lake to relax. Instead we went back to our hotel, had dinner and went to bed by 9 pm, with the sun still shining outside.
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