Puffins On A Sunny Day

As we arose to our last full day in Iceland, we had rented a car to take us to Heimaey, part of the Westmann Island group. This involved a drive along the south coast for about 1 1/2 hours with a few short stops. For example we stopped to see a river that ran in two parts. One side had water from on the glacier, clear, and one from under the glacier, cloudy.

The volcano Hekla sits waiting to blow his stack. It is calculated that he is about 3 to 4 years overdue. 

With the sun bathing us, we continued on to Landeyjahofn, where the ferry picked us up for the 35 minute crossing to the Island. 

This small island was the location of a rather violent volcanic eruption in 1973. At 2:34 in the morning a large crack appeared in the island just behind a street of houses. In the picture below, a row of houses were located on the green area behind. They were some of the 300ish houses buried by lava and ash. 

The fishing fleet were in port and all of the population were evacuated. Only one person was lost to poisonous gasses. I spoke with a lady who had been 11 at the time and she said that she didn't ever expect to return. But now there is a thriving community of 3000 people living here. 

WITH PUFFINS!!!!!!

Now this chap was a one year old specimen who was rescued and lived in an aquarium. He mistakenly thought that it was winter and his bill had already turned to its winter colour. He had a very pleasant demeanour even if he was date challenged.  They also had a younger puffin scampering around the floor. 

Sheelagh and Von were particularly keen to see puffins as we had been denied in Scotland on our last trip. So this meeting was very sweet for them.

Leaving the aquarium, we wandered on up through the village were we parted ways. John and Von went off to visit volcano museum and we walked across the golf course to see if we could spot any of the birds in the wild. The golf course was beautifully situated along the coast. If you go off the fairway you will need to chip about 60 feet straight up from the rocks along the ocean below. 

We sat quietly along the edge by the water

and sure enough, we were able to watch as several wild puffins came and went to their burrows. Their beaks were much more colourful but they are also fast. There was no way that we could get a picture as they zoomed in and disappeared into the grass and dirt.

There are also other islands in this group, but none are populated. One very dramatic saddle shaped Island called Ellidaey has a house and a few sheep who may have been blown there in a high wind Von thinks. But then Von took us to the other strange place. So sometimes with Von we just nod and smile.

After a pleasant afternoon in the sun we went back to the mainland and visited a nearby waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. This was beautiful and we could walk behind the water and get suitably wet.

We stopped on the way home for a farewell supper and then home to get our stuff crammed into bags for the flight to Ireland tomorrow.