Grundarfjordur, Iceland






It would have been difficult to have a better day than today in Grundarfjordur. When we left Heimeay last evening the captain obviously forgot to switch on the wave machine and the overnight sail was perfectly smooth. We then had an 8am call to say that orcas had been spotted so it was a quick rush up to the outdoor deck, cameras and binoculars in hand in order to observe. The sea was glassy smooth and so they were easy to spot…just two or three of them swimming lazily past. 

The calm seas, clearing skies and fabulous scenery meant that everyone was back outside after breakfast on nature watch. There were many bird species on view ranging from gannets to arctic terns and not long before we arrived into the port, we saw a small pod of white beaked dolphins…they even obligingly leapt out of the water so that they could not be missed.

Before venturing ashore we were treated to a performance by a local musician, Andri Ivars. Is he on YouTube I hear you ask? The answer is yes. Now, the prospect of an hours worth of Icelandic folk music didn’t sound like the most appealing thing in the world but I was very pleasantly surprised. He was engaging, very amusing, talented and gave a performance, yes, of Icelandic folk, but of other countries folk translated into Icelandic as well as explaining Iceland’s musical history interspersed with jokes and anecdotes. 

After lunch we got the bus for the short journey around the bay to the pretty Kirkjufellfoss waterfall and the mountain of Kirkjufell. This is a 463m high cone shaped mountain also known as church mountain. It appeared in scenes of Game of Thrones so you can’t get a higher accolade than that. As far as climbing it though, it is off limits on safety grounds.

We then took a gentle walk back along a country path, taking in the fabulous views and spotting, amongst other wildlife, Icelandic ponies, oystercatchers, more arctic terns, a curlew and several species of duck. By now the sky had totally cleared and the temperature was up into the high teens. Definitely t shirt weather….I didn’t think I’d ever be writing that particular sentence is this travel blog.





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