Grimsey: Our journey in to the Arctic

The north of Iceland comes very close to the arctic circle, but fails to reach it by a few miles.  So to go into the arctic, you have to go to Grimsey Island.

Our boat left from Dalvik, which is a few miles down the fjord from Akureyri.

It was no surprise that the boat ride up the fjord was beautiful, but there were a couple surprising things about our cruise. 

First of all, the weather was amazing.  In fact our journey to the arctic was definitely the day we had the best weather all trip.  The sky was blue and the high temp was easily over 70 degrees. 

Secondly, I did NOT get seasick.  Before we left America, I invested in these bracelets that press against pressure points on the inside of the wrist.  I did not think they would work, but they did.  The ride got pretty rough near the end too, and I could feel my stomach churn, but I never crossed the nausea threshold.  It was awesome.

Thirdly, there was no safety drill.  Imagine a boat ride in America.  The long safety drill where they explain the life vests and stuff.  All they had on this boat was a brief video in Icelandic without subtitles.  This is so Icelandic.  They are a fiercely independent and expect you to be the same.  It is fantastic. 

The final surprise of the boat ride?  The movies. They showed Bridget Jones, and two Adam Sandler movies.  hm.

The picture above is the port "town" in Grimsey.  The island is home to about 100 people, a dozen sheep and horses, and at least ten million birds.  When you land on the island, you are still south of the arctic, but if you hike north, you soon cross over the circle on foot.  This is exactly what we planned to do.

Walking along the coast, it was not long before we found some puffins.

They let us get pretty close before they jumped off the cliffs, beating their wings furiously to gain altitude.  They were better fliers than I expected, but they certainly cannot glide.  They are like hummingbirds how fast they flap those little black wings. 

As you can see, the coast of Grimsey is mostly dramatic basalt cliffs, and there are puffins on the lip of every cliff on the island. We saw so many puffins that after walking a while I had to remind myself to cherish every chance I had to watch them.  

In addition to puffins, there are rare arctic terns up there.  We did not get a good picture of them though, mostly because they were whirling over our heads and mock-attacking us. 
Terns lay their eggs on the ground and are very territorial.  And part of the nesting area is right by the road, so we had to run the gauntlet of terns a couple times.  They swoop up behind you and make a loud, angry clicking sound.  It felt like they were about to peck out my brains, but thankfully they never did.

There were so many pretty wild flowers everywhere.

The island is two square kilometers, so it can easy be walked in a few hours.

There is an airport for small planes and a golf course (?!).

Here you can see the cliffs, and if you look close you can see what are probably the most northerly sheep in the world nestled in a nook right there.  We took this picture about a quarter-mile from the northern tip of the island.

Those cliffs where aflutter with thousands upon thousands of birds.

And you can really see Iceland on the horizon in this shot.

After four hours on the island we boarded the boat again and headed back.  It was Friday, July 29 in 2011.  One of the best days of my life.