He had a puffin, dolphin, minke and humpback whale of a birthday

Húsavik is really just round the corner, well headland, from Akureyri and was our shortest scheduled drive. However, why drive 33 miles when you can drive 139? Yes we deliberately decided to drive the 80% rather than the 20% of the “Diamond circle” from Akureyri to Húsavík. This took us past Godafoss, where I managed to catch a rainbow and through Mývatn again. This time as we drove through Mývatn we could understand and appreciate what we were looking at, particularly the Hverfjall volcano, which looks majestic from so far away and imposes its presence on the landscape. As we left Mývatn and drove through pastures new the landscape became more bleak with volcanic rocks, snow and ice and random thawed pools, streams and rivers. The sky had patches of a vibrant blue, but a much lighter blue than we see in the UK, a Man City blue. I can’t believe I wrote that! So no my photos are not touched up, that is the real colour of the sky.

The reason for going the long way round was that it took us to Dettifoss, Europe’s most powerful waterfall. The walk to the waterfall was almost as exciting as seeing and feeling the force of the falls. They have only completed the viewing platform and the last third of the walkway so we really felt like explorers as we walked over the rocks, snow and ice navigating our way to avoid the softer, thawed slushy mud and concealed water pools. Whilst the staff were busy trying to make it safer by laying palettes for us to walk over (see photos), in some places it was hard to work out which side of the pole markers they wanted us to walk on as it looked equally treacherous on both sides. We just followed everyone else as they seemed to survive. If you thought we were mad then what do you think of those who were in flip flops or had walking sticks or babies in papooses? The viewing platforms give great views and you can really feel the force of the waterfall up close as it is impossible to come away dry. Thankfully we came well prepared, and by that I mean raincoats for all three of us and a towel for our most precious one of the three, my camera.

Dried off we made our way to Húsavik. We continued through our bleak lava strewn landscape noticing multiple man made rock piles every so often, like markers. Apparently that’s exactly what they are – originally created thousands of years ago to be used as navigation. Many are original but some have been rebuilt more recently.

As Húsavik is the whaling capital of Iceland it is on the coast and as we got closer the lava disappeared and the horses, sheep and arable land re-appeared with the coastline. As did the smell of fish with the sea air! Húsavik is small with only 2000 – 3000 inhabitants so our hotel is within easy reach of everything we need, including the coast and whaling centre.

Steven was praying for a calm birthday meaning a calm sea with no wind, as that would guarantee a calm wife! He got his wish. The trip was everything he i.e we could have hoped for. The guides were excellent teaching us the “4 Bs of whale watching” – “black” – the shadow created by the whale, “body” – obvious, “blow” – the CO2 that the whale blows as its breath which condenses to form a spray and finally “birds” as they tend to congregate where the whales are as it signifies that food is plentiful there. However, the biggest help is other whaling ships. Whilst they may be rivals on land they are comrades at sea and they communicate with each by radio other to direct each other to sightings. Sonar is not used as it interferes with the whales and the ships stick to rigid rules about how close they can get, killing their engines to respect the marine life. That doesn’t stop the whales or dolphins swimming close to the ship though and we were fortunate enough to experience this, catching us all by surprise. The humpback whale is as large as 10 African elephants and can stay under water for up to 40 minutes. Thankfully the ones we saw were exhibitionists and surfaced more frequently than that. The pattern on their tail flukes are unique to each whale and photos of them are used as identification. We were fortunate to see the tail flukes in all their glory as they don’t always display them. Despite their size they are so graceful. I should be so graceful🤣. We did see minke whales but they were so swift I didn’t manage to capture them and white beaked dolphins were plentiful. Technically we did see quite a few puffins but as they were quite a way off they could have been any bird, although these were flying somewhat ungracefully before plopping exhausted after 60 seconds into the sea. A great way to round off the trip was the hot chocolate and cinnamon buns, plural for those who tend to sea sickness as they are a great cure!

We head south east tomorrow to our next stop, Egilsstadir. This is where we start our puffin cuteness appreciation search