Nothing can keep us from whales, nothing! Unless the car breaks down again! And then I’ll give up!
We set out Tuesday morning for the redo of our whale trip since Chocolate Zombie had been well-behaved on Monday after its incident. And today, it did not disappoint. We made sure to wave cheerfully as we passed our breakdown spot on the 85. Chocolate Zombie bore us faithfully to Husavik and whales.
My other fear was that the whale watching company would have forgotten that our reservation had been moved ahead a day, but they were good for their word – our Monday reservation indeed worked. Yes! We scooted aboard our boat and pulled on our very attractive green and black jumpsuits.
I got separated from my herd and an Italian family sat on me and my stuff. This is the only time outside of Asia I have been sat on, and by a non-grandma, to boot. Maybe I’m very sit-on-able.
We were off – circling the fjord in search of whales, dolphins, and seabirds. We puttered out of the harbor, many whale-watching boats moored at the docks, and a large Icelandic cruise ship that was registered in the Bahamas. I decided it was called the HMS Tax Evasion.
We ended up finding several humpback whales, a minke whale, a harbor dolphin, and lots of puffins. We even saw two humpbacks at once – they usually do not feed in groups, so this was somewhat uncommon. Neat! And as a plus, the Fates of the Trip chose not to sink our boat. Very kind of them.
A humpback! 
Before deep dive 
Two humpbacks! 
Different fluke pattern 
Who watches the whale watchers?! 
Harbor duck!
We wandered around ashore near the whale watching office and I found my very favorite “green and gorgeous” Shrek face board thing (What are these called?!) that I also found in 2017. I also resisted purchasing a very expensive sweater. Amazing.
Just south of town, we made a little detour to see Æðarfossar, a waterfall that empties into the fjord. It’s on private land, set back a few km off the road. There was absolutely nobody there – it was all ours.
We had lunch on a small overlook by the car and followed a small path to the base of the falls. There was a little picnic table beneath the rocks and some nice benches.
Some intrepid person (or idiot) had created a few bridges to some rocks for a better view of the falls. One was a tiny wooden bridge with a somewhat feeble rope railing that was solidly (maybe?) attached to the bottom of the river. I crossed it and lived.
The other “bridge” was a chicken coop ramp that we swear was not anchored to ANYTHING on the bank nor the rock. It just sat there. Somehow people used this little bridge. We have no idea why. The water was very fast in this area, maybe it was a natural selection thing. Goodbye stupid tourists, you get swept out to sea.
The falls were lovely, spilling over some old columnar basalt as they tumbled down from the river into the fjord.
We all took naps on the way back in the car, so we decided to keep it low-key and capped our evening off with a drink at one of the pubs in downtown Akureyri that featured many local beers on tap.
Wednesday, we had no really set plans other than a visit to Myvatn nature baths over near the lake (with a reservation, this time). We grabbed lunch at rooftop Strikið in downtown Akureyri, offering delicious food and a great view of the harbor. The rain stayed at bay long enough for us to enjoy a quick lunch.
The rain did NOT stay at bay for our afternoon hike near Myvatn though, where we walked around some of the volcanic cones at the southern end of the lake. It was relatively aggressive rain, but we stuck it out, and were rewarded with relative quiet and the company of ducks, swans, and loons on a small pond.
Baa! 
View of the lake 
An old steam crater
As the rain calmed down, we returned to the nature baths, with their light blue silica-laden water that smelled strongly of sulphur. I would call them “butthole adjacent,” if pressed (who is pressing?). The sun came out and we enjoyed our view over the valley and lake as we soaked in the chilly Icelandic air. In my heart of hearts, I loved the hot spring best in the gentle rain.
Tomorrow, we head back to Reykjavik for the remainder of our stay.
