I am still running a day behind in my postings. I plan to catch up on Sunday when we have a
day free from a lot of planned activities or travel.
On our third day in Iceland we spent almost the whole
day traveling from Suðureyri to
Húsavík. Suðureyri, our
starting point for the day, is only 300 kilometers or less from our
destination, Húsavík as the crow flies. However, due to the extremely rugged coast
line and the number of fjords between Suðureyri and
Húsavík our overall travel would be in
excess of 600 kilometers. Even through
this was only kilometers as opposed to miles, it was still a very substantial
distance to cover.
After a “hotel” breakfast we packed up and left Suðureyri. However before we left the general vicinity
of the town, we took a comprehensive tour of it all. First we drove as far to the west as I felt
comfortable driving as the road quickly gave way to a 4 wheel drive track and I
didn’t want to push our little rental too far. The scenery past the breakwall of the town was
absolutely beautiful. Though we were
very close to the end of the head lands surrounding the fjord, there were
numerous farms that dotted the desolate terrain to the west of the town. With the intense beauty of the land beyond the
break wall, I can only wonder about all the unseen landmarks of natural beauty
that are only known to the few people who live that far out from civilization.
Checking out the local ship packing plant, we found that it
was a very small operation but it produced a large quantity of frozen fish
ready for shipping to overseas markets. The
fish processed in this plant came from the small fishing ships that make Suðureyri
their home port.
(Land beyond the breakwater in Suðureyri.)
After that we filled up on gas and began the long trek to
our next destination. At the upper
reaches of the fjord we once again encountered the marvelously long tunnel that
would lead us out of this wonderful little paradise on Earth. This time however we took the opposite
direction in when we came to the turn in the tunnel and headed to the much
larger port town of Ísafjörður.
This town has a full time population of
around 2800 and seems worlds larger than Suðureyri.
We stopped in Ísafjörður for a while and wandered around the
town. It was very exciting to be at the
port as it was a hub of activity. A
large fishing vessel, by all appearances a bottom trawler was unloading it’s
catch of fish. The fish had already been
processed and was in frozen cases for shipment to Japan by the looks of things. It appeared like it was headed to Japan as half
the writing on the cases was Japanese. (I
am not a fan of bottom trawling as it takes in all kinds of fish and there is a
high amount of wastage as a result.)
(Fishing trawler being unloaded of it's already processed catch. Hard to see in this picture by there is an army of young men working to move and re-stack the boxes as they come off.)
We also spent some time hanging looking around the local
museum that is dedicated to the fishing trade.
There was a considerable amount of fish out side the museum curing. I can’t say I have every had cured fish they
way they make it here, but certainly looks interesting.
After our time in Ísafjörður, we hit the road again and
began our constantly curving journey through the fjords. We stopped a short time later in the small
town of Sudavik, which is home to the Arctic Fox
Research Center.
For whatever reason, Zack has long had a
fascination with Arctic Foxes. I don’t
know why, but for whatever reason he seems to love them. Granted they are very cute, but Zack seems to
have a real passion for them. Regardless
we stopped and paid the 800 kronnar fee to enter and explore the center. The center presented exhibits on the biology
of the foxes and how they have been extensively hunted in the past. An interesting fact about Arctic Foxes is they
are the only terrestrial land mammal that is native to Iceland. All other large land mammals have been brought
to Iceland
by people. Biologists are uncertain how
the foxes got to Iceland,
but there is speculation that at some point they may have floated to the island
via ice flows. Or perhaps they came during the last ice age when Iceland may
have been connected via ice to other large land masses.
After that we settled down to the routing of driving in
spectacular scenery. I am sure that Zack
found it annoy but I would stop every 20 – 30 minutes to take more pictures of
yet another amazing scene out in front of us. The trip was routine except for two incidents
involving birds. In the first incident I
stop the car to take a picture of a beautiful fjord. As soon as I exited the car I was literally
attacked by a bird. It wasn’t a gull,
but it was bigger than a robin and it just didn’t like me. While I was taking the picture it kept trying
to dive bomb me. It would go for my head
while continuously crying at me. I
defended myself with my camera until I realized it wasn’t really going to
strike me. At that point I let him fake
dive bomb me all he wanted. Needless to
say I was glad to get back in the car and get away from that bird!
(Wonderful views but there is lots of emptiness and desolation in the fjords.)
(Lots and lots of emptiness and quiet out here!)
The second bird incident was no where near as funny as we
ended up killing a bird – I believe with the car. We were motoring down the road and suddenly a
bird flew up from the side of the road and flew into the car. The bird struck the car on the passenger side
front, bounced up into the air and came down on the road. I really couldn’t tell if it was killed or
not, but I can’t imagine that it survived. I felt very bad about the whole situation as I
hate killing anything.
After that our ride settled down into a routine normal
drive. However I still felt bad about
hitting the bird. Despite the distance
we arrived in Húsavík shortly before 8:00PM. The sun was still shining brightly and it was
a lovely day in Húsavík. After grabbing a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant
we spent what little of the evening we had left in our room doing some things
on our computers. I wrote and uploaded
photos to Facebook and Zack played video games.
That wrapped up our third day in Iceland. Our fourth day definitely brought lots more
adventure, but I will save that story for tomorrow’s writing.
Thanks and peace to all! ~ J.
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