Iceland - Day 4 (Westman Islands tour)

Tuesday, 30 August 2011


On a freezing cold Tuesday, we headed south east for a tour of the Westman Islands.


The tour was called "Vestmannaeyjar - Pompei of the North", and was operated by a local family who are passionate about the history of the islands.


We were taken to the pier at Bakkafjara, a major fishing hub.  Fishing remains one of Iceland's major industries.  The stench of rotting fish eminating from the boats brought back Sarah's memories of her dad's boat and bait freezer from fishing career days, except this was about 10 times worse.  We then took a ferry to reach the one inhabited island.  We were greeted by our first guide (the father) who welcomed us aboard his boat.


As the boat cruised around the various islands, we saw colonies of sea birds and puffins...

...amazing rock formations (some much like in Thailand)...

 

..and an ancient carving of an elephant into a cliff face.

Apparently, it is not uncommon to see pods of whales in the summer time, but our chances were slim with it being the second last day of the Icelandic summer.


The guide also took us into some of the caves.  The hilight of this part of the trip was when we stopped for a moment in one of the caves which was called Klettshellir.  There were baby sea birds and amazing colours on the rock that surrounded us.  Our multitalented captain then leapt out of the cabin to serenade us with his saxophone which echoed from the cave walls.  Amazing sights and sounds!Unfortunately, due to the fog and the rain coming sideways for most of the tour, we did not get many good photos.

We warmed up over a lunch of traditional soup and some crusty bread in a local cafe whilst watching a short documentary on the 1973 eruption of Eldfell on Heimaey Island.


There is volcanic activity all over Iceland.  In fact, it is estimated that a third of all the basaltic lava erupted in the world in recorded history has been produced by Icelandic eruptions.  Heimaey Island is no exception.


When the eruption began, the population of 5,000 were evacuated in one night.  But desperate to save their island home (and particularly their harbour which was their livelihood), the inhabitants tried in a desperate attempt to cool and slow the flow of lava by spraying it with gallons upon gallons of seawater.  After persisting with this for six months, the lava flow finally stopped and they were able to begin rebuilding.


The next part of our journey was a bus tour around Heimaey island.  This second guide was the son of the boat captain.  He was witty, passionate and full of knowledge of his home island.


The funniest story our guide told was about a foreign Prime Minister visiting the then Mayor of this island.  The visitor was very keen to try a type of Icelandic bread that is baked in milk cartons in the hot volcanic ground, and the Mayor was eager to please his visitor.  The person who was responsible for baking this bread forgot, and advised the Mayor who began to panic.  The baker then said he would fix the situation and would put a marked milk carton in the soil where the PM and Mayor were to arrive later that day.  When they arrived, the Mayor pulled the bread out of the carton and his visitor began to laugh hysterically.  The bread was sliced.


On our way to see a puffin colony, we saw some traditional ancient stone homes built into a hill and covered with grass.  These were evidence of the early Viking settlers, although more recent archaelogical findings points to Irish monks inhabiting this island 100 years earlier.  (This is known to be the case with the mainland).

Another interesting aspect of this island's history was an invasion of pirates which occurred in 1634.  The pirates killed many people and took others back to Algeria where they were sold into slavery.  (Our guide informed us that this is why Algerian people are so good looking today).  One woman managed to escape and buy her way back home.


But by this stage, the Vikings were no strangers to slavery themselves.  This island was named after the Irish slaves captured by the Nordic Gaels, having had Irish slaves known as "the Westmen".  (At that time, Ireland was understood to be the westernmost point in Europe).


Our next stop, Storhofdi, was home to a puffin colony.  Again, it was foggy and raining sideways so Sarah only saw this for a few minutes, leaving Jason to get up close and personal, snapping them within a range of about five metres.  (Sarah prefers to see puffin on a plate in a warm Icelandic restaurant).

Although Sarah wore several layers and woollen socks, she was still super cold so she didn't get out to see the next two items on the itinerary.


Jason went on to walk into the crater of the Eldfell volcano.


"Giant steps are what you take..."

Jason also explored a site where an excavation of the pre-eruption town is currently taking place.  In these pictures, you can see the tops of homes that were covered in the volcanic rocks during the eruption.

This concluded our tour of the Westman Islands.