I wanted to have the headline of this post say something catchy about exciting whale watching adventures (or any wildlife adventure at all) however; since this excursion did not yield any whale or other wildlife sighting results WHATSOEVER, I figured I’d highlight the progress made on one of my EPIC TRAVEL QUESTS to sail the “seven seas”. I can now place a checkmark beside the North Atlantic! I hopped aboard one of Elding’s whale watching tour ships and set sail. The blue dot on the map indicates roughly how far out we went, kinda hard to tell the distance without a legend, but it was an hour and a half out and then an hour and a half back. A three hour tour! Where have we heard that before, good thing we didn’t get shipwrecked, it would have been real COLD. Also I’d say I LOVE how this GPS thing works on my phone without data, but there actually was wifi on board, so something was helping keep my location pin pointed.
Elding tours start in Old Harbour (do I see harbour spelled the Canadian way? Everything is so normal in Iceland!) which is on the north side of the Reykjavik city centre. Had a macchiato espresso at the RÖST coffee house & bar. I forgot when you order an actual espresso that it comes literally as a shot with some foam in a tiny cup. It was good though, and strong.
Below is the ship I was on, from afar before the tour started. There was room for a lot of humans, including an inside area that was warm and had seats and a cafe. I found a good spot outside front and centre above the bow. Yes it was cold once we got going but I was dressed for it, unlike some people. There were optional warm suits available that were opted for by some.
A random picture of a Coast Guard ship, docked not too far away:
Here are the views I had from the bow and stern. I really should have taken photos of all the people getting pictures of themselves trying to be Jack and Rose on the Titanic. And I have always loved seeing flags flying at the back of a ship, not used to seeing one that isn’t Canadian!
And here we have it, the North Atlantic! The blue sky picture was taken near the beginning of the voyage and the rest later on, but the sky changes so quickly in Iceland that these could have easily been taken within minutes of each other.
So aside from not seeing any whales or dolphins or any wildlife on this tour (I don’t think I even saw a bird!), I still call this excursion a success because hey, I was ON A BOAT!!
