JJ's on Tour - Iceland, The Land of Fire & Ice, Part Three.

In the last post in this series looking at our recent trip to Iceland I finished things with our arrival in Egilsstadir in the Eastern Fjords, following our drive along the south coast of Iceland and our two days stay in Reykjavik, and if you want to retrace those previous posts, I've attached a link below

 

In this post I aim to pick things back up looking at the places we visited on our drive across the north of Iceland but starting back in Egilsstadir, Point 8, where we took some time to visit some particular places in the area and prepare ourselves for a significant change in weather conditions.

After the opening of the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant in 2009, the depth of the river Jökla that runs through the Stuðlagil ravine decreased by 23 to 26 feet, revealing its columnar basalt rock formations, some 98 feet in height, and becoming an unexpected tourist sensation after being shown in a WOW air brochure in 2017.

The path leading up the Stuðlagil ravine was showing the remains of the first drop of snow we had experienced during our stay at Egilsstadir, accompanied by a marked drop in the temperature, following the seemingly balmy days of our drive along he south coast in the previous week.

A petrified frozen waterfall along the path, looking like a scene out of Beauty and the Beast, revealed the recent overnight temperatures in the highlands of east Iceland, and the columns of the cliff gave a hint of what we could expect to see further up the path.

Following the gravel path along the top of the ravine soon revealed the structure of the rock formations in the area together with the recent freeze we had experienced and pearlescent colour of the river Jökla reminded us of the glacial rivers we had experienced in New Zealand.

These basalt rock columns are an extraordinary sight and look manmade rather than a natural phenomena, but I couldn't help but be amazed at the recklessness of some folks as they clambered about on the cliff side over rocks that had become treacherously icy and so easy to loose ones footing and grip on, but I guess the desire to get that oh-so important picture overrides such minor considerations.

The weather continued to get colder during our stay in Egilsstadir which required an adjustment to our itinerary and erring on the side of caution we decided that we would enjoy a later, longer breakfast in the morning to allow the snow ploughs and gritting trucks to do their job and the sun to rise higher in the morning sky to increase the day time temperature by the time we went out on the roads.

Having driven professionally in a previous life I had a fair amount of experience with most types of road conditions, and it was obvious to me that the higher areas posed the greatest challenges in Iceland, with the lower valleys still relatively clear, but of course you can't avoid the high ground for long in Iceland.

The four-by-four certainly came in handy for providing a better grip on the road and we did stop to check on one unfortunate couple who were driving a hired front wheel drive saloon whose back end had obviously lost the grip on a tight turning T junction, leaving their car stranded in a ditch; but they were close to a service station and assured us that help was on the way, so we pressed on.

One such high area entailed us driving out of Egilsstadir to the nearby ferry terminal at Seyðisfjörður, prompted as much as wishing to visit this pretty little town at the head of the fjord but also out of curiosity having been somewhat surprised to pass a large tow truck pulling an even larger caravan with Dutch plates and wondering how the heck that had arrived in Iceland.

Every week the car ferry MS Norröna of Smyril Line comes to Seyðisfjörður from Hirtshals in Denmark and Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands, and it is the only car ferry between Iceland and other countries, taking up to two days sailing in June to August, and three days during the rest of the year on some very rough waters.

Settlement in Seyðisfjörður traces back to the early period of settlement in Iceland, with the ruin of a burned-down stave church at Þórunnarstaðir being excavated in 1998-1999 and carbon-dated to the 11th century.

SS El Grillo badly damaged in Seyðisfjörður before her eventual scuttling.

The town was also used as a base for British/American forces during World War II and remnants of this activity are visible throughout the fjord, including a landing strip no longer in use and a British oil tanker, SS El Grillo, that was bombed and sunk in a German air attack, consisting of three German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors from the I./KG 40, stationed in occupied Norway, on the 10th of February 1944, remaining as a divers' wreck at the bottom of the fjord.

It was while wondering around this picturesque little settlement that I saw a lot of a particular bird only seen in small numbers in Devon and only during the cold months of January and February, they being a migrant visitor all the way from Siberia.

The redwing (Turdus iliacus)

The redwing (Turdus iliacus) is a common thrush in Iceland, especially in areas with trees, such as birch woods and urban areas, and is a small bird with a red bottom on its wings and a red area below the wing when it's on the ground. It also has a white line above its eye.

These Icelandic redwings were certainly more confident than the ones we see at home, happy to pose for the camera close up, but whether intoxication from fermented rowan berries was the cause, I couldn't tell, as their ability to fly seemed unimpaired.

In Iceland, redwings have been known to get intoxicated from eating fermented rowan berries, which can cause them to sing more loudly and aggressively, and have difficulty flying, and we certainly noticed them in large clusters ravenously gorging themselves on said berries.

Our final choice of venue to visit during our stay in Egilsstadir was the Vok Baths.

https://vokbaths.is/en/

Bathing in outdoor hot thermal baths, coupled with a bit of steam room and sauna therapy is about as natural to Icelanders as a visit to the pub after a hard days wargaming is to Brits, and always keen to imbibe the local customs wherever we travel Carolyn and I took up this traditional way of life with great enthusiasm during our stay.

That said the short walk between pools in temperatures of -3 degrees C with a windchill factor off the nearby Lake Urriðavatn, which guests were invited to take a dip in as well as the geothermal pools, made things a bit nippy, and being ever so slightly folically-challenged these days, this was the last time I was seen in an outdoor pool in Iceland without my usual thermal covering up top.

Completely refreshed by the pools in Vok and a particularly good seafood linguine enjoyed in Egilsstadir that same evening, we were off the next morning, facing as it turned out the most challenging part of our journey, with the snow and ice closing in on our route over the mountains as we discovered ever worsening road conditions the higher we climbed reducing speeds from the limit of 90kmph in normal conditions, very often down to 30 or 40 as drivers had to allow for the odd patch of black ice under the dusting of snow that dropped in the wake of the gritting trucks.

 

In conditions like these, journey times go out of the window, and it takes as long as it takes, and thus what you plan to visit in any given day gets similarly adjusted with a certain prioritising around the time left in the day.

 

Fortunately as had been our previous experience, conditions improved with a decrease in altitude, and soon we we were descending into the relatively lower terrain surrounding Lake Mývatn, Point 9, a shallow lake situated in an area of active volcanism in the north of Iceland, near Krafla volcano. 

The Lake Mývatn area around the Krafla volcano is still an area of active volcanism, as evidenced by the clouds of steam seen here billowing from the surrounding foothills of volcanic tuff caused by the geothermic activity.

The lake and the surrounding wetlands provides a habitat for a number of waterbirds, especially ducks, and was created by a large basaltic lava eruption 2300 years ago, leaving the surrounding landscape dominated by volcanic landforms, including lava pillars and rootless vents (pseudocraters). 

Dimmuborgir translated as dimmu meaning "dark", and borgir meaning "cities" or "forts/castles"; is a large area of unusually shaped lava fields just east of Mývatn, with the whole area composed of various volcanic caves and rock formations, reminiscent of an ancient collapsed citadel (hence the name), and so we stopped here as much for a break from the driving as to see this rather remarkable landscape up close.

Walking around this naturally formed lava formations in the dim light of a snowy afternoon, it was easy to imagine this place straight out of Tolkien, as some Morgothian fortress such as the Fortress of Angband and the wastes around it, a perfect setting for the battle of Nírnaeth Arnoediad (Unnumbered Tears), and we even had a pair of Ravens overhead, cawing away as if to reinforce my imagination

A raven, or should that be crebain, accompanied our tour of Dimmuborgir, only adding to the Tolkienian ambiance. 

The Dimmuborgir area actually consists of massive collapsed lava tubes formed by a lava lake flowing in from a large eruption in the Þrengslaborgir and Lúdentsborgir crater row to the East, about 2300 years ago.

It was hard to imagine that features like this were entirely natural creations caused by collapsed lava tubes.

The lava pooled over a small lake, and as the lava flowed across the wet sod, the water of the marsh started to boil, with the vapour rising through the lava forming lava pillars from drainpipe size up to several meters in diameter.

As the lava continued flowing towards lower ground in the Mývatn area, the top crust collapsed, leaving the hollow pillars of solidified lava, and it is estimated that the lava lake must have been at least 33 feet deep, as estimated by the tallest structures still standing.

Around 1940, Dimmuborgir was silting up with wind blown sand, with some parts almost totally submerged and to counteract this a conservation program was initiated that saw the farmers of Geiteyjarströnd who owned the land handing over ownership to the Soil Conservation Service in 1942, who as well as protecting the area from further erosion, also created the walking paths in the area, and their assumption of this role is commemorated on the entrance gates.

With the daylight reducing and fatigue from a long challenging drive we decided to head for our billet for the next couple of days, the Sel Hotel at Mývatn which as well as having very comfortable rooms right next door to the lake, was also very close to some pseudocraters, observable from our room window, and so with a snow drop setting in and the light fading fast we decided to take a quick look before retreating back to the hotel for a marvellous dinner of Icelandic lamb shank.

A rootless cone, also called a pseudocrater,is a volcanic landform which resembles a true volcanic crater, but differs in that it is not an actual vent from which lava has erupted, and they are characterised by the absence of any magma conduit which connects below ground level.

These rootless cones were formed by steam explosions as flowing hot lava crossed over the wet surface of the nearby swamp, or indeed the lake, and the explosive gases broke through the lava surface, with the tephra built up crater-like forms, seen here, appearing very similar to real volcanic craters.

As mentioned Lake Mývatn is a favourite haunt of many waterside bird species, with the name of the lake referring to the large numbers of midges present in the summer, with 'Mý' meaning midge and 'vatn' meaning lake, thus "the lake of midges" and thus providing a rich food source together with other creatures, for the birds.

The merlin (Falco columbarius) is a small species of falcon from the Northern Hemisphere, with numerous subspecies throughout North America and Eurasia. A bird of prey once known colloquially as a pigeon hawk in North America, the merlin breeds in the northern Holarctic; some migrate to subtropical and northern tropical regions in winter.

I had a feeling that I might not see much of that rich bird life at this time of year and so decided to content myself with some pictures of stuffed examples of birds that had thankfully died of natural causes and had been recovered for preservation and display in the hotel foyer.

The red-throated loon (North America) or red-throated diver (Britain and Ireland) (Gavia stellata) is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere. The most widely distributed member of the loon or diver family, it breeds primarily in Arctic regions, and winters in northern coastal waters.

The long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis) or coween, formerly known as the oldsquaw, is a medium-sized sea duck that breeds in the tundra and taiga regions of the arctic and winters along the northern coastlines of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The next morning following another night of nocturnal lights, not as good as those seen at the The Potato Storage as shown in the previous post, we set off to explore the pseudocraters now that the weather was much improved and then on to the lakeside to see what wildlife was still out and about as the winter months closed in.

A reassuring sight to see with another day of driving ahead.

There was another overnight drop of snow which explained the poor night-time visibility, and it was good to see the gritting lorries out and about getting the roads ready for general use.

After a good breakfast we set out as soon as the sun started to break through and brighten things up.

This part of the lake was entirely frozen over looking like a giant ice ring, but with plenty of signs warning not to venture out on seemingly thick ice.

As I suspected the frozen shallows of the lakeside would not be popular with birds that like to frequent those areas to feed and so drew a blank until my attention was caught by a sound that is unmistakeable once recognised.

Ahead was a group of Ravens, Corvus corax, seemingly frolicking about together, practicing their aerobatics around a nearby hill and emitting a throaty cawing, quite distinct from other types of crow, with a small piece of food providing the entertainment as the group chased the incumbent, tryinging their best to get him or her to drop it in mid-air.

The raven, is the emblem of the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, and is a prominent bird in Icelandic nature and traditional beliefs, being by far the country’s largest passerine, it is a resident bird, common throughout Iceland. 

 

Note the raven in the centre of this group, flying on his back, beak and claws ready to fend of the one above. I have seen buzzards at home doing something similar when being mobbed by crows, presenting their talons to fend off an encounter in mid-air.

The autumn population is estimated at 12-15,000 individuals. A monogamous bird, the raven remains loyal to its mate for the whole of its life, using the same nesting site year after year. The oldest known wild raven reached the age of 20.

The raven is omnivorous and pernicious, robbing eggs and hatchlings, and can cause disturbance and sometimes losses at eider nesting grounds. Some people therefore shoot ravens or tear down their nests, even without cause. In certain places this has led to a drop in raven numbers, and they now rank as a vulnerable (VU) species on the Icelandic Red List of Birds.

The raven is a common iconic figure in Norse mythology, and the highest god Odin had two ravens named Huginn and Muninn ("thought" and "memory" respectively) who flew around the world bringing back tidings to their master.

With their tendency to scavenge for carrion, Norse poetry identify the raven as the bird of blood, corpses and battle;

'he is the gull of the wave of the heap of corpses, who screams dashed with hail and craves morning steak as he arrives at the sea of corpses.'

However despite the violent imagery associated with them, early Scandinavians regarded the raven as a largely positive figure, with battle and harsh justice viewed favourably in Norse culture.

Tenth century Vikings with their raven banner

The raven banner was used by a number of Viking warlords regarded in Norse tradition as the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok, and the first mention of a Viking force carrying a raven banner is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with Devonshire taking prominence, being a favourite battleground of Norse raiders. For the year 878, the Chronicle relates:

'In the winter of the same year, the brother of Ivar and Halfdan landed in Devonshire, Wessex, with 23 ships, and he was killed there along with 800 other people and 40 of his soldiers. The war banner (guþfana) which they called "Raven" was also taken.'

So it was with more than just an interest in birds that I enjoyed watching these Icelandic ravens with all the cultural significance that they conjured up as I marvelled at the spectacle they made.

The tufted duck, Aythya fuligula, breeds throughout temperate and northern Eurasia, and occasionally can be found as a winter visitor along both coasts of the United States and Canada. They are migratory in most of their range, and overwinter in the milder south and west of Europe, southern Asia and all year in the British Isles, with one obviously confused individual ending up as far south as Melbourne, Australia.

As we walked further along the lake, I was finally gifted with the sight of a lakeside bird, namely a solitary Icelandic female tufted duck. Tufted ducks are small diving ducks that breed all over Iceland near richly vegetated waters, and stay in Iceland during winter on ice-free lakes.

The 'waterfall of the gods' better known as Goðafoss, for me was a close second to Gullfoss visited right at the start of our road trip.

The walk around the lake allowed the sun to do its job in helping to de-ice the roads and so in the afternoon we headed off to the 'waterfall of the gods' better known as Goðafoss.

Located on the river Skjálfandafljót the Goðafoss falls from a height of forty feet over a width of just under 100 feet and has a 1.8-mile hiking trail that loops around the waterfall area, treacherously covered in thick ice the day we visited, which made us glad to have had the walking poles on hand.

Law Speaker, Thorgeir Ljosvetningagodi Thorkelsson, considering the choice to lead Iceland into a new Christian era, as depicted at the Saga Museum in Reykjavik.
  JJ's on Tour, Iceland, Land of Fire and Ice

Legend has it that on returning from the Althing, the Law Speaker, Thorgeir Ljosvetningagodi Thorkelsson, having just made Christianity the official religion of Iceland, threw his statues of the Norse Gods into the waterfall.

Following a chilly day exploring the local area we decided another visit to the baths was called for and with the Lake Mývatn area abounding in natural geothermic activity with steam venting off at the base of the mountains, we headed out to the Mývatn Nature Baths.

There is steam venting all over this area and it was not surprising to find the Mývatn Nature Baths close by.

The steam baths here are wonderful, with views to match as you contemplate the surrounding scenery, but I can't begin to describe how cold it is to emerge from one pool, dripping wet, to begin the short walk to the next.

At the time we arrived, we practically had the place to ourselves, and the pleasure of wallowing in those fantastically warm baths, overlooking the amazing landscape beyond is a memory to treasure, and the experience was made even better by adopting the local custom of donning some appropriate head gear to make the most of all that hot water.

We had a fantastic time staying at Lake Mývatn but it was soon time to be on our way, heading the furthest north either Carolyn or myself had been in our travels, to the town on Húsavík, Point 10, about 36 miles from the arctic circle at 66º2´North and famous for its wonderful wooden church, built in 1907, a place to see whales winter feeding in the bay and the whale museum in town; but of course not forgetting, its starring role in the 2020 Netflix film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, a comedic story of two Húsavík natives representing Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest, a film I have yet to enjoy, but I gather is an exceedingly good 'P..S- Take' on a competition I do my best to avoid each year.

Húsavík Church Húsavíkurkirkja a wooden church built
in 1907 by Icelandic architect Rögnvaldur Ólafsson.

Húsavík is on the northeast coast of Iceland on the shores of Skjálfandi bay and the Greenland Sea, and is a town of about 2,500 inhabitants, which according to the Landnámabók ("Book of Settlement"), was the first place in Iceland to be settled in by a Norseman; the Swedish Viking Garðar Svavarsson staying there for one winter around 870 A.D, and the name of the town means "bay of houses", probably referring to Garðar's homestead, which in the late ninth-century was probably the only houses in Iceland.

With whale watching and scenic sailing big business these days, the boats come in all shapes and sizes

Húsavík has become a centre of whale watching in Iceland due to whales of different species that frequently enter the bay, with the Húsavík Whale Museum located in the town centre by the harbour, and so picking up where we left off in New Zealand after our abortive mission to see sperm whales off Kaikoura, although we did catch a site of a humpback whale from the booking office carpark, we ventured over to the North Sailing booking office on arrival to see what our prospects were for sailing the next day given the recent windy conditions and boisterous seas.

Our boat, the 1965 vintage oak hull trawler, Náttfari, converted for whale watching trips, and with the highest crows nest in the fleet which boded well, pulls alongside the the left side of the jetty.

The news was a bit uncertain with the skipper not sure if they would go due to strong winds and a heavy swell making the boats uncomfortable, but the following morning they decided to have a go, but warning everyone that the conditions would not suit those particularly affected by seasickness.

The black guillemot, Cepphus grylle is a medium-sized seabird of the Alcidae family, native throughout northern Atlantic coasts and eastern North American coasts.

We decided to go for it, as getting to see the whales as planned would help to claw back some of the journey time lost on our itinerary due to the weather encountered in the previous few days and whilst waiting to board our 1965 vintage trawler, Náttfari,  I took some time to enjoy watching the black guillemot's patroilling the inner harbour, sporting their winter plumage which was new to me, only ever having seen these birds in summer in the UK in their glossy summer black with white wing covers.

As well as the guillemots we had a large gathering of ducks with the ubiquitous eiders making an appearance and what I took to be both sexes with the black and white ducks mistakenly identified as male eiders until closer inspection revealed long-tailed ducks of which up until then I had only seen a stuffed pair in the foyer of the Sel Hotel at Mývatn.

The long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis) paddling behind the brown female eiders in front and referred to in my look at the stuffed ones at the Sel Hotel in Mývatn.

The common eider, Somateria mollissima, also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia, and breeds in Arctic and some northern temperate regions, but winters somewhat farther south in temperate zones, when it can form large flocks on coastal waters.

The common eider duck, Somateria mollissima, this one being the brown female.

The eider's nest is built close to the sea and is lined with eiderdown, plucked from the female's breast and this soft warm lining has long been harvested for filling pillows and quilts, but in more recent years has been largely replaced by down from domestic farm-geese and synthetic alternatives, but eiderdown harvesting continues and is sustainable, as it can be done after the ducklings leave the nest with no harm to the birds.

Once on board we were given the usual safety briefings and required to don the obligatory immersion suits for travelling on water in this climate and off we went, not taking much sailing time clearing the harbour to enter the Greenland Sea before the first spout of a whale was hailed by our skipper and our morning of fun began.

The first spout appeared on the starboard bow as our skipper along with others in accompanying boats circled an area where a lone humpback whale had been seen earlier feeding close to the harbour, and the familiar sound accompanied by the haze of whale breath and water vapour caught everyone's attention.

'Thar she blows!' - The first spout appeared on the starboard bow.

As we got closer the detail of the back of the whale breaking surface became much clearer and of course everyone was waiting with great anticipation for the hoped for tail flip as the mighty creature nosed down on another food gathering dive.

The boats were careful to stand well off to allow for pictures without stressing the animals and it was great to see our skipper decide to head out further into open water, leaving the one we had seen to other arriving boats as we set off to look for other whales which soon appeared, with five observed that day which was apparently regarded by our crew as a more than a usual showing with plenty of photo opportunities for us happy tourists.

It was quite fun and engrossing keeping a look out for the next tell-tail spout as well as enjoying the spectacular scenery.

The humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, is a species of baleen whale, that is a toothless whale that uses baleen plates in their mouths to sieve plankton from the sea and are found in oceans and seas around the world, typically migrating up to 9,900 miles each year, to feed in polar waters and to migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth. 

Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish, and they can use bubbles to create a 'bubble net' to catch prey. They are promiscuous breeders, and both sexes can have multiple partners, which has served them well considering humans hunted the species to the brink of extinction, with the global population thought to have fallen to around 5,000 by the 1960s until controls on hunting allowed numbers to partially recover to some 135,000 animals worldwide, and thankfully, especially for humpbacks, watching them is proving to be a more pleasurable experience than butchering them.

Today their main natural predators are Orcas or killer whales, while entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution continue to be other hazards for the species.

The white under colour pattern of the tail flukes are, like human finger prints, unique to each whale and are a way for conservationists to identify one creature from another.

 

The decision to head out to more open water however took its toll on some of the passengers as the ten foot swell started to move our boat in ever increasing motions, creating ever increasing motions in those not able to hold onto their breakfasts; and so with some of our group feeling decidedly queer and not a little chilled by the -8 degree C air temperatures, only made worse by the wind chill factor together with painfully cold feet from standing on a night-frozen wooden deck, we headed for shore and, for those who could keep it down, some well earned hot sustenance.

North Sailing's fleet of historic boats in Húsavík harbour.

While we took time to warm up, I was rather interested in the fleet of boats in the harbour, one of which was the one we had just come back on, all operated by the company North Sailing, and was intrigued by a memorial to two men, father and son Sigurbjörn Sörensson and Hörður Sigurbjarnarson, founders of the business along with four generations aimed to preserve old oak boats and the coastal culture they represent together with a business developing their new role in whale watching and sailing tours.

https://www.northsailing.is/

The North Sailing story started with the restoration of the wooden fishing boat Knörrinn built in Akureyri in 1963 and from its very first voyage was considered a “Lucky Boat”, having survived the infamous “April Weather” in 1963 on its maiden voyage, north of Iceland, that saw several boats sunk with the loss of sixteen fishermen; and later in 1968, when it sailed into an iceberg at full speed. Questions were inevitably asked about the gold coin put under the boat’s mast and the good fortune it had apparently brought!

Knörrinn came to Húsavík in 1994 and was restored during the winter months, and since 1995 it has sailed over 2,000 voyages with nearly 40,000 whale- and nature watchers.

Memorial to father and son, Sigurbjörn Sörensson and Hörður Sigurbjarnarson, founders of North Sailing.

All of North Sailing’s boats are traditional wooden fishing boats, which have been carefully restored and adapted to their new role without compromising their original character, and they now operate eleven, nine Icelandic, one Danish and one German, oak boats that have been specially converted to carry passengers, with three of them, Opal, Hildur and Haukur having been transformed into two mast schooners, the only three of this type in Iceland.

The skeleton of a Minke whale calf, and animal weighing in at 1 ton and was about 6-8 months old when it died.

Our next port of call was the Húsavík Whale Museum where we got to know more about the various species of whales that can be found in the seas near the town, together with the history of man's often bloody relationship with these extraordinary creatures and the more civilised one enjoyed today.

Carolyn next to the jaw of a sperm whale. These lower jaws can have up to fifty cone shaped teeth, 
and are thought to be important for catching their prey, giant squid and even for aggressive encounters between male sperm whales.

The skeleton of a massive 82-foot blue whale that washed up on the shore near Asbúðir Farm at Skagi in late summer 2010, displayed here on its back, as it would have been after its natural stranding.

That night in Húsavík we enjoyed some fresh caught fish and chips, together with the town seen all lit up with a show of Northern Lights to add to the end to a perfect day, and a delightful stay.

The next morning we were back on the road heading to Blönduós via the historic town of Akureyri, the Capital of North Iceland and in the next post I'll pick up that part of our journey as we headed out towards West Iceland.

In addition, now having returned home, the work continues in JJ's shipyard and I'm looking forward to showing some new models for my War of 1812 collection together with first steps in my next project going into 2025.

It's so nice to have a paint brush back in hand after our break, which has been a great refresh for projects to come.

As always, more anon.

JJ