It's hard to describe how it feels to be so close to a wild creature that you can hear it breathing. Hopefully these pictures will portray at least a hint of the exhilaration Spencer and I felt on this magical day. It began with Simmi, the captain of Viking tours, inviting us out onto the boat (for free) and saying there were Orca in them there waters.
One way to find them is to see where the gulls are feeding. Orcas will feed in the same place.
This was the first day Simmi had seen them while out on the boat. Spencer had seen one while out jogging on his very first day on the island (what can I say, he's a whale magnet - the tour that went out after us didn't see any). Even Simmi was surprised at how many we saw. And we were amazed at how close they came to the boat. It's as if they wanted to play.
Sonja showed up just in time to join us and she too confirmed it was a "special day for whales."
Our boat was loaded with adolescent school boys from England (gee what could go wrong?) They were great though, naming all of the whales, Killy and Milly and Billy. (Keko of free Willy fame is originally from these waters and retired here after much travel - he actually found a pod who accepted him back into the wild, but was found dead a couple of years ago. No one is sure what happened.) At one point all the boys rushed to one side of the boat (which is relatively small) for a better view, and we were concerned we would go over. We did not.
There were two "families" we saw in two different locations. Each family was made up of a male (you can tell by the longer dorsal fin) a female and two to three babies and or adolescents.
This whale
with the crinkled dorsal fin is an old man of the sea, who has been around these parts for some years (this is according to Sonja).
An of course the fabulous bird apartments
After whale watching we retired to the Kró for pints of Viking (beer) and conversation with Simmi, the owner of Cafe Kró and captain of Viking Tours; Alfred the Viking Tours bus driver; Sigor a Cafe Kró waitress; and Sonja, our volcanologist friend, where Spencer sampled a raw kittiwake (seagull) egg, at the suggestion of Simmi. The eggs are large and blue with lovely brown, black and yellow square shaped speckles and specially shaped with pointed ends to keep them from falling off the ledges. These are the kittiwakes at home.
Don't you wish your apartment was this roomy?
This one came so close to the boat we could hear him breath. At one point he and his wife were swimming and breathing in unison and coming straight at us. (no picture I was too busy being stunned) They took my breath away.
Back at the Kró, the subject went to whaling, a taboo subject here in Iceland. Many Vikings still believe it their right to whale, and many restaurants in Iceland still feature whale meat on the menu. In any case, the orcas are never hunted, it is usually the Minke whale. Following our conversation, Sonja (who is avidly against whaling) posted a link on her website with information on the subject. I will post Sonja's web address on my blog as soon as I can confirm it. She leads tours of the island with her tour business, 'Island Time Travel'. Her website is in German, but there are some great photos she has taken over the years of this beautiful place posted there.
