Yesterday, April 30, 2014, I went on two excursions. A whale watching tour and what is called the Golden Circle Evening tour. Here are my notes on part one...
I've always liked going out on boats. The fresh air of the sea is both invigorating and relaxing at the same time. It was a bit chilly but it was manageable most of the time. Every once and a while that north wind would come in though and GODDAMN!! :)
The lobby of Elding Whale Watching is in that red boat in the middle of the pick. It has a neat whale skeleton in it (see next picture). The boat to the right of it is the ship we did the whale watching on.
Here are some pics of the water from the boat, a set of mountains, the horizon, Reykjavik.
Here is a view from POV the boat.
A funny thing happened on the boat. From time to time, we would catch the swell and maneuvering was challenging. On a few occasions, I wondered if I would go man overboard. I had to hold on tight to, well, whatever was available. Shortly after I sat down, there was a little old lady who was holding on the back of the seating and looked very unsteady. It looked like she was trying to get to the other side but wasn't quite sure if it was worth the trip. I offered to take her and steady here on the way (mind you I didn't feel all that steady myself). Well, we both fell off the boat..... Just Kidding!!!. I brought her over to her husband...this gained me some much needed karma which came back around for me during the Golden Circle trip.
Close up of the mountains from the boat.
For those freezing their asses off above, this is the below deck. Quite comfortable and much warmer...
...and complete with barista.
Here I am sitting smug and warm on the lower deck. This was as we were heading out to sea. I spent 95% of the time outside.
Here is another whale watching boat in the area. The different boats, even from different companies, alert each other when their is a sighting so they tagged along with us once we saw a humpback whale and several minke whales.
We did see a humpback whale and several minke whales. Mainly we saw their blows (when the come up for air and blow out air/water). The humpback whale breached (jumped out of the water and splashed down and the minkes came up for a few moments. So where are the pics? They were much to fast for me to get on camera. The most I got was these pics of some sea birds.
The trip was great though, even without the whales. I really enjoyed being on the boat and breathing the cold sea air.
Here are some pics of the harbor:
An odd end to my Whale Watching post but I found this odd trash can at the harbor. It seems especially in the harbors they outfit their trash bins with a "cigarette" drop so you don't throw your butts in the water and the wild life doesn't eat them, choke to death, etc. Pretty Smart! Ok, next post will be on the Golden Circle Tour. Hope you've enjoyed my blog so far.
