Day 4 - Whale Watching at Husavik - By Anna

We had a bit of a lay in today which was lovely. Our mission today was to find some whales and we planned to do this in the nearby town of Husavik. We booked our slot for 3.30pm and headed out on the hour drive through the mountains to the little harbour in the north about 1pm. The weather was terrible. Very wet and windy but we decided we would go anyway as it was going to be wet and windy at sea regardless of the weather inland.

(I took some photos of some typical Icelandic sheep that were very close to the road -L):

We arrived in Husavik to be told the weather was too bad to go out on the 3.30 trip but they would be going at 5pm on a larger boat. They were very apologetic and offered us some sea sickness tablets (should have realised then it wasn’t going to be a smooth trip!) and advised to visit the local Whale museum while we waited. This was a fantastic place to find out lots about all the different types of whales, and had skeletons of various animals that had been found beached or donated to the museum.

(This is a Narwhal and has an incredible horn. Apparently the Icelandic's used to sell them to the wealthy English aristocracy as unicorn horns! -L)

(A humpback whale with Anna underneath! -L):

Standing next to some of the bones just showed you how massive some of these animals are.

(Im stood in front of a Blue whale jaw and Anna a Sperm whale's -L):


At 5pm we boarded our boat the "Nattfari" and were given some full length waterproofs for the journey. (The boat is an old converted fishing boat and is made primarily of oak -L)

Our system to spotting whales was if you see a spray from a blow hole or a whale, shout the time (straight ahead 12 o’clock, behind you 6 o’clock etc..) and then the boat turn in the search for it. We headed out across the bay to an area they last seen a whale. Our first o’clock was for a couple of puffins (there is the largest puffin colony on an island very close by) which i mistook for a whale so was very confused why i couldn’t see anything! Then after a few more minutes one of the guides saw some spray and we started our search. We were up above the deck to get a better view (not good for sea-sickness – this bit of the boat sways much more than the decks!)





We heard shouts of 1 o’clock, then 3o’clock and so on but couldn’t see anything. After beginning to wonder if this was a bit of a hoax, we had our our first sighting of a magnificent humpack whale - breaking the water with its back then diving down again. We waited with anticipation for it to surface again and then it appeared again but not near where it was before. Over and over it appeared, breaking the water a couple of time, then making a deep dive for a few minutes. On a couple of occasions, when it appeared from a deep dive, its head would break the surface which was pretty amazing. The characteristic tail disappearing into the water was the sign it was making a deep dive and was beautiful. This is called fluking.

(These are the best photos I could get, considering the boat was REALLY swaying, I had a contstant rainy drizzle into the lens and I had no idea where the bloody thing was going to pop up next im quite pleased with what I got! Although a shot of the head would have been a cherry on top -L)

(I guess this is why its called a humpback -L):


(You can see it's long fins in these next two pictures -L):

(Look how close it came to the boat! -L):

(And here it is waving goodbye! -L):


We followed the whale around for quite a while before heading back to land. It was at this point, after all the excitement was over that I realised I was actually very cold and very sea-sick. We headed down to the more stable (but still very wobbly deck) and took a seat near the back. We were given a hot chocolate and cinnamon bun which helped a little.

(Whilst Anna was dying at the back I went to the front were it was even colder and took this photo and video -L):





Concentrating harder than ever not to be sick we endured the journey back to the harbour by which time I could barely function. We raced back to the warm of the car (managing to lose the key to our hotel room at this point) where Leigh poured me a hot drink from the flask. Much to his amusement though, I was shivering too much to hold the cup and I didn’t really get properly warm again until we were back in our hotel. However as we lost the key we had to move rooms which was the last thing we needed after our long day. Finally at 10pm and after the move, Leigh managed to cook us some pasta with the use of a kettle and metal pot only (good work) and we collapsed ready for the next day!

Weather: Not very nice

Distance Travelled: 186KM + I guess 20KM on the old oak boat.