Whales, Whales, Whales….

Húsavík, whale watching in the whale capital

Day 13 started early as we had to drive from Mývatn to Húsavík for a whale watching cruise. The town was known as the Whale capital of Iceland, so we were hoping to see a lot of these big fish during our excursion. It was a good 40 minute drive and we were extremely lucky since the sun was already shining. We kept our fingers crossed that it would stay that way. 

We decided to make the trip with North Sailing. They offered multiple time slots in the morning and as we did not pre-book our tickets, we thought we would probably stand a better chance with them… and indeed we did !!!

Then we went looking for coffee because we had still some time to kill. We found a coffeeshop next to the harbour and enjoyed our drink on the terrace until it was time to board. The boat was not overcrowded and that was a good thing. We saw a few minke whales, mainly their bodies and dorsal fins, but unfortunately no clean tails. Oh such a pity because we had hoped for a humpback whale to jump in front of our boat but unfortunately it did not 😂😂😂.

Goðafoss, Waterfall of the Gods

Our next destination of the day was Goðafoss, one of the most beautiful waterfalls of our trip. We immediately saw that it was a popular spot for tourists from the number of buses that stopped here. We wanted to take a photo as close as possible to the falls. Therefore we had to scramble over some boulders after taking a trail down. Except for one other couple that was standing in front of us, we had the view all to ourselves. For anyone interested in shopping, the site has a nice large shop for souvenirs and winter clothing.

Akureyri, Gateway to the North

Then it was time to leave for Akureyri, the second largest city of Iceland. We had booked Hrimland Apartments, close to the water and not that far from the city center. The location was perfect as were the amenities. We had a washing machine and dryer, so we were finally able to do some laundry. 

We decided to eat in the apartment and did some grocery shopping at Netto. I have to say that we did not really look for it (except maybe in Reykjavik), but during our road trip, we did not come across many bakeries or butchers compared to what we were used to back home. In the supermarkets, the portions of meat and fish were always quite large. It seemed that they focussed more on families rather than individuals or couples. Fortunately we were always very hungry in the evening because of the many activities during the day. We bought steaks and were surprised that they were sold marinated. In any case, they were very tasty !

Before dinner we had still some time for a quick city tour. The old houses were so picturesque… Really beautiful ! We decided to return the next day to explore more of the place and to do some ‘souvenir’ shopping.

Whale watching, third time’s the charm…

Day 14 was supposed to be a calm day but then we found another whale watching tour with a RIB boat (zodiac)… hmmm… should or shouldn’t we consider another trip? We already had pictures with bodies and tails of the whales but not both at the same time. Maybe we would get lucky this time ? And a RIB boat is a bit of an adventure in itself…

At 9.30 AM we arrived at the Elding office, located just across the street where we had to put on a special floating suit. The life jacket would inflate itself when necessary and the diving mask would help against the wind. OMG, this was such a weird sight 😂😂😂.

There were ten of us, we chose to sit at the head of the boat. Not the best place when the boat lands on the water. But hopefully this will be compensated by the view. It was a good thing that we had those suits on because we got wet now and then.

The whale encounter was truly magical and so much better than the first one that we did in Reykjavík at the beginning of our trip. Two for the price of one and really close… we were extremely happy! We made lots of video’s and photos! The ride on the way back was more bumpy so we had to stand up in the boat to absorb the shocks with our legs instead of our back. Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous, especially since there’s also an iron bar to hold on to if necessary!

In the afternoon, we continued our exploration of the town. We visited the botanical garden, had one of the famous Icelandic hotdogs, went for coffee and cake, ending with dinner at Rub23… It was a fantastic day.

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