{"id":678,"date":"2021-06-22T05:03:05","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T10:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/?p=678"},"modified":"2023-12-26T22:00:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T03:00:19","slug":"mon-june-21-2021-day-6-more-of-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/?p=678","title":{"rendered":"Day 6: Whale watching and more of the North"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

We woke up nice and early this morning and headed out at about 9:00 am to go on our Puffin-Whale watching excursion with Gentle Giants, Husavik.\u00a0 The morning started out very sunny and a bit on the warm side for Iceland.\u00a0 But as the morning progressed the clouds and wind started to roll in from the ocean.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We picked up our pre-ordered on-line tickets at the front desk.\u00a0 Got our instructions and headed to the hut for special gear as directed. There we were warmly welcomed by our guide and handed massive snow-suit looking things and a life preserver.\u00a0 We were later told that the suits had some floatation properties in them, just in case.\u00a0 Then our group paraded down to the dock in our huge and brightly colored suits.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Man\r\n
Paul in his fancy floating jumpsuit. When the wind is strong enough you can also float in the air like a ballon. In reality the suits kept us well protected from the cold wind.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The boat (a Rib Boat) we were all piling into, was small holding maybe 12 people total. The seating\u00a0 was arranged down the middle. You sat on them as if you were in a saddle.\u00a0 Your feet making contact with the floor of the boat at all times.\u00a0 This helps you stay stabilized when going over choppy waves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Gentle<\/a>\r\n
This is the Gentle Giants Rib Boat Pier you can see the blue empty Rib Boat under the welcome sign.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Our first stop was Puffin Island.\u00a0 You could see the little birds flying about before we got there.\u00a0 As we go to closer to the island we could see it was covered in little white dots. Thousands of pairs nesting in homes that they return the same specific home every year.\u00a0 We got a great talk about these amazing little birds. Due to our orientation with the sky (causing a lot of backlighting) and dark ocean it was hard to get a good photo of them on the wing.\u00a0 They rarely settled in the ocean long enough to focus on them before they took off on their hunt for more fish.After the stop and puffin talk, we moved out into further into the bay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Puffin<\/a>\r\n
Puffin Island from a distance. White dots are puffins as are the birds in the sky<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The hunt was on for Blow Hole mist or, as our guide said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153let\u00e2\u20ac™s go find some whales\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac™t long before some was spotted and we were off, speeding in that direction.\u00a0 The Humpback whale made an appearance moving its body gracefully over and under the water.\u00a0 The tail being the last part of its body to gently disappear below the waves.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Whale\u00e2\u20ac™s<\/a>\r\n
There she blows, some breath released as they come to the surface. We hard that the the Whale\u00e2\u20ac™s breath smells of fish.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In its wake the fishing birds scramble, dart and dive, for what ever left overs the whales spit out. We followed along with this whale for a while seeing it arrive to the surface numerous times.\u00a0 The boat\u00e2\u20ac™s captain taking care to move the boat around every now and again so both sides would get to see some whale activities.
After a bit, we moved on to find a pair of whales working the water together.\u00a0 When they were relativity close to the boat,\u00a0 you could see the color of the water changing to a light marine blue as their fins grew closer to the surface. Also the churning of the water below them caused tiny\u00a0 bubbles to appear on the surface. This also changed the color of the water to a lighter hue. Sometimes the birds would anticipate their arrival and hover over the bubbly water.\u00a0 The agile Arctic Terns were especially good at that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Whale<\/a>\r\n
A whale heading back down. Birds on his tail.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"Arctic<\/a>\r\n
Here the Arctic Terns are scrambling for the Whales discarded food<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We saw some other smaller whales on our adventure as well and as we turned to head back to shore a family of White Nose Dolphins appeared and swam along side us for a bit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Water<\/a>\r\n
Here you can see the change in the appear every of the water\u00e2\u20ac™s color when the whales have been working that patch<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

All in all it was a great time out on the water. The clouds darkened but it never rained or snowed on us while we were out there.I would highly recommend taking this tour if you are in the area, and if not its worth going out of your way a bit to put it on your itinerary.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After the cold wind in our face on the way back to shore, we were both ready of a cup of hot chocolate and we found one in a cute little cafe just up the street from the Whale office.\u00a0 I got a cinnamon bun and Paul got a yummy chocolate chip somewhat cake like cookie, which was flavored with orange with 1\/2 of it covered in chocolate, to go with our drinks.\u00a0 We also got a nice fresh loaf of bread for being on the road in the RV.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

By this time it was well after noon, so we hit the road for our next destination, Asbyrgi,\u00a0 which is also our stop for the night.\u00a0 Asbyrgi is in Vatnajokull, a national park and is a unique environment. Asbyrgi is a large horseshoe-shaped canyon with a forest growing in the bottom of it. There are nature walks on the top and at the bottom of the canyon. The top offers you a birds eye view of the area, the bottom offers hikes though a birch forest, to a small pond and a nature trail that describes the flora found in the canyon.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"A<\/a>\r\n
We took a little nature path through the forest. There were information plaques along the way telling us all about the flowers, trees, berries, shrubbery and birds we were seeing and hearing along the way.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The unique horseshoe shape is said to have been created when Orin\u00e2\u20ac™s horse Sleipnir touched one of his feet to the ground.\u00a0 But, the scientists try to tell us it was actually once a river bed, which over time had dried up and collapsed.\u00a0 I am not so sure about that.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Pond<\/a>\r\n
Our hike brought us to this little pond at the base of the cliff walls. It was very much alive with fishes, birds and LOTS of little flies. And, the sound of music in the air created by the wind in the leaves of trees and bird song.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"Little<\/a>\r\n
We\u00e2\u20ac™ve seen this little bird all along the way. I haven\u00e2\u20ac™t seen what it\u00e2\u20ac™s called yet and no clue if it is a chick or a fully grown bird. It is very cute what ever it is. You can see a fish in the pond near it. There were a good number of fish in there.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\"\"<\/a>\r\n
We think we found the entry to the Hidden Folk\u00e2\u20ac™s music hall. We could heard the sound of music around us as we peered inside. Maybe it was the wind in the trees or maybe is was music from the music all.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The stone walls of this canyon are full of chiseled faces hidden within them. Caved by what I can not say for sure. The hoof of the 8 winged flying horse or some long ago waterfall that dried up. But, I am sure no matter what created them they were the source of may stories told to children.
I’l add a photo later on.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We woke up nice and early this morning and headed out at about 9:00 am to go on our Puffin-Whale watching excursion with Gentle Giants, Husavik.\u00a0 The morning started out very sunny and a bit on the warm side for Iceland.\u00a0 But as the morning progressed the clouds and wind started to roll in from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[193,7,115],"tags":[130,132,131,129,117,128],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-193","category-iceland","category-iceland-2021","tag-asbyrgi","tag-canyon","tag-forest","tag-husavik","tag-ring-road","tag-whale-watching","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2052,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/2052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}