Day 14 - August 9
Heimaey, Iceland
Heimaey Island is an Island off the south of Iceland. It has a population of around 4300 people. There are lots of little islands around it but this is the only one that is inhabited.
We saw these three boats tied up together. Reminded us of the three bears.
In a harbor town, what better use for your old buoys than in a playground?!
This church built in 2000 was a gift from Norway as part of the anniversary of Iceland converting to Christianity in the year 1000. It is a replica of the Haltdalen Stave Church located in Norway.
We set off on a wildlife cruise to see the small islands and thousands of puffins and gulls.
Many of these smaller islands offer hunting memberships to locals. Some have little hunting lodges as seen here. No electricity or running water. Our guide says they have become more of a man cave getway for weekend drinking.
If you look closely you can see cables running through the "cove" . This is where they tie up their boats, and climb up the side of the cliff to get on land.
People are allowed to hunt puffins (no more than you can carry) and collect eggs from the cliff side nests (always need to leave at least 2 eggs in a nest). The collect them by lowering people down on ropes and pulling them back up!
This volcano right near the harbor erupted in 1973. Thanks to bad weather the harbor was full of boats and they were able to evacuate the whole island with no loss of life. It created this cone called Eldfell.
A few people stayed behind, hooked up hoses to pumps and sprayed the advancing lava with seawater to cool it enough to save the harbor from being destroyed.
The erruption lasted 5months and cause widespread loss of homes and businesses. They have excavated some of the homes and covered the site to create a museum about the eruption.
One of the thousands of puffins swimming and flying around their nesting cliffs.
Apparently puffins can fly up to 88km/hr but cant stop, so they just crash and roll into the water when they want to land.
The mainland glacier in the distance.
The ship was "parked" in this little cove. There were not anchor lines, nothing tied to the ship. It would just occasional use it's thrusters on the sides to keep it from moving. It was amazing.
As we drove back into the harbor, it was just peaking around the rock and eventually, all there!
We ended our wildlife tour by going into Keiko cave located in the cove where our ship was parked. This cove is where the "Free Willy" whale Keiko lived while they tried to rehabilitate him to try to release into the wild.
Keiko's cave from the bow of the ship.
This shows how close to the rock face the ship was!
Another late night sunset!