May 26 – Seyðisfjӧrður and Hengifoss

Today we are docked in the little town of Seyðisfjӧrður located in a very pretty fjord.

and out on the fjord to the remote nature reserve, Skálanes.  Most of the route was on gravel roads and we also had to ford three streams, one that was pretty deep.

We made a short stop at the Þhorarinsstaðir Archaeological Site.  This is an ancient site that was originally a temple to the old Norse gods and was eventually converted to a Christian church when Iceland converted to Christianity.  The site is marked by wooden posts.  It looked to be about 8 feet wide and 15 feet or so long with one end being a bit narrower, probably this was for the altar. 

Along the drive to the reserve we saw a small herd of reindeer.

The Skálanes Nature Reserve is an old farm house that is still used by the family of the owners.  We were greeted by the family dog and got a tour of the surrounding area, including the vegetable garden that is not yet planted. 

The farm and reserve was along another beautiful fjord.

The area is carpeted with lupine plants that weren’t quite blooming.  The lupine was introduced from Alaska and is taking over much of the areas and killing off native vegetation.  It does help enrich the soil but for now they don’t know its long term effects on the environment.

The family had built a few small ponds next to the house and installed small shelters.  The ponds are used for nesting by eider ducks.  

The area “farms” eider down.  This is an extremely fine down with superb insulating properties.  Here at this farm there is one woman who “harvests” small bits of the down from the duck nests during the nesting season.  The ducks are so used to her that they let her harvest the down while they are sitting on their eggs.  This down is so prized and of such limited quantity that a pillow can cost up to $2000.

From the house we hiked up to a bird cliff where we saw many black-legged kittiwakes on the cliffs…

and few puffins in the water below.  They are not yet nesting.

There were a lot of arctic terns in the areas along the hiking trail. 

We also saw grey geese…

and any number of other birds.  The guide said that there are over 300 species of birds in Iceland and almost 40 in the Skálanes Reserve.

When we got back to the house we were served hot drinks and a local pastry.  They had a lovely roaring fire in the fireplace so that we could all thaw out. 

We were back to the ship in time for lunch.  After lunch we headed out for our second tour of the day, a drive over the mountains to Hengifoss Waterfall.  The drive took us over a fairly high pass.

We saw a number of waterfalls…

and lots of patches of snow.

At Hengifoss we had quite a hike up the side of the mountain, almost 45 minutes.  The views of the surrounding area were great.

We eventually made it to the viewpoint.  The falls was still fairly far in the distance but it is a pretty huge falls (120 meters/393 feet high, second tallest in Iceland) so we had good views.  

Unfortunately, we then had to trek all the way back down.  Then it was back over the mountains to port.

Tara and Jessica went out for a short walk around the town before coming back for dinner.  

Tara had made arrangements for an Indian dinner for us.  As it turned out, the ship held a big BBQ dinner on the outer deck.  It was pretty cold but Paul got us seats under the heat lamps so it wasn’t too bad.  The Indian food was very good although one of the two dishes was fish, which neither of us eat.  Oh well, we finished off with dessert from the buffet.