Heimeay , Westman Islands, Iceland

We arrived in Heimeay just before lunchtime but not before we had spotted our first whales of our trip…reliably identified by our expedition team experts as a pod of Pilot whales.

HX included a free guided hike to the top of Mt Eldfell so we were keen to join. Mt Eldfell is an active volcano which last erupted in 1973 and older readers may remember it made international news headlines as the local fishing fleet trained their water hoses on the approaching lava which was threatening to engulf both the town itself and the harbour. Although not all houses were saved, the harbour was and thankfully there was no loss of life.

The hike to the summit (600ft) wasn’t too difficult as long as you took care and hiked at a sensible pace. Unfortunately, the higher we climbed the more the visibility reduced so that by the top the town below was just a vague misty blur. The lava rocks contained a lot of iron and parts of the pathway up were quite an intense rusty red colour compared to the more traditional black lava.

We were given a short talk by our resident geologist (who happens to come from Normandy) at the summit before we made a much faster descent.

We had a bit of spare time to have a quick look around Heimeay once back down, but being a Sunday, nearly everything was closed. Some people might have considered that a good thing. But we did have a visit to the local museum and the local supermarket.

All in all it was an extremely interesting few hours.

Then, following dinner, great excitement. We were in the Explorers lounge listening to a presentation about fjord formation and suddenly there was an announcement over the PA saying that orcas had been spotted. The poor lecturer didn’t stand a chance as everyone rushed over to the windows and there indeed, were the orcas. They were both sides of the ship, not close, but not too far away either; about ten in total and we were able to watch them for a good 20-30 minutes.

So, we shall have to wait for another day to learn how fjords form.









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