6/8
Today is World Ocean Day. Fitting to be on this trip for today. This morning we did a zodiac cruise around the Shiant Islands. Bumpy zodiac and some rain. Lots of the same birds from yesterday, but interesting seeing them from the water. There were curious seals in the water.
This afternoon we went into Loch Ewe and the Inverewe Garden at Poolewe. We were greeted by the sound of bagpipes.
Gray herons in nests
Graylag goose
Mallards
Common chiffchaff
European robin with bugs
6/9
Another bird walk, castle and gardens today. Today was Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, the ancestral home of the Chiefs of clan MacLeod for 800 years. The current chief is a filmmaker and his father was an opera singer.
A nice view of the Wind on our zodiac ride to shore.
We were greeted by a bagpiper on our arrival.
What a better way to start a bird walk than to find our leader, Andy, with a baby Great Tit on his cap. Not planned, but fantastic. Then we met Archie, the local Hooded crow.
More Eurasian blackbirds
More European goldfinch
Spotted flycatcher
Dunnock
Eurasian bullfinch
Common chaffinch
Lovely gardens and even got some sunshine.
The castle was well preserved and the chief does live here some of the year.
And the bagpiper played us off also.
This afternoon we were supposed to take a zodiac tour, but it was too rough so a quiet afternoon. This evening was the Venetian Society cocktail party and I found out who our onboard bagpipe player was. When we were in the zodiac a few days ago and there was the double rainbow we could here bagpipe music but weren't sure where it was coming from.
3/10
I do not even know how to best describe the history of St. Kilda. Let's start with a map. See that little, teeny, tiny white dot I have circled? That's the islands that make up St. Kilda.
We are lucky we got to go ashore today. The weather here prevents landings a lot. The hardest part was getting on an off the zodiac at the ship. Lots of up and down. St. Kilda village is on Hirta. They were very isolated and many things led to the downfall of the community. Illness, poor leadership, imports. If you can read the signs in the photos it's pretty fascinating.
The sheep run free on the island. They are tagged, but not cared for. They just naturally shed their coat. They are from the island of Soay.
The rounded structures and what the sheep were in are called cleits. They were used as larders or storage, and seabird, eggs and turf were all kept in them. Alex was our history guide.
Northern fulmar
Starling
Oystercatchers
This afternoon we sailed by the sea stacks with huge colonies of fulmars, puffins, and gannets. The fulmars and gannets followed the ship for hours. Little white dots are all birds.
Great skuas. They lost many skuas and gannets with the avian flu, but it seems better.
Fulmars
Gannet
Coming back today my suite attendant, Patel, was on a balcony.
My trivia team. Hillary, Christine, Renee, John, Laura and David. Renee and John are staying on, but the others will leave in Reykjavik. We have laughed a lot!
We were the only ones eating at The Grill tonight. Laura, who got on in London and is Manu's girlfriend. Manu and David are the geologists, both from Columbia. I have only met four people from Columbia, these 3 and Zaid and I love them all! They are all wonderful people and I've really enjoyed getting to know them. Margaret, my fellow solo Pole to Pole traveler has also been wonderful. We were all hugging goodbye tonight and I realized in not too long I will be hugging Margaret goodbye after spending 125 days together. That sure made me sad.
Looks like we are going to have some rough seas. Sea day tomorrow and then Iceland!
6/12
We have arrived in Iceland. First to Vestmannaeyjar, an archipelago. I did a boat tour this morning. It was cold and rainy, but the tour was great. Lots of birds nesting on the cliffs like in Scotland. Puffins flying around. We pulled into a couple of caves. We did see a Minke whale. No pictures, but it surfaced a couple of times fairly close to the boat.
In the afternoon I did an ATV ride to the volcano, Eldfell. It erupted in 1973. It was so much fun! I drove up and Sue drove down.
We took a short hike to a cave, a lava tube, where they had snacks for us! Very special.
We stood in the middle of the volcano.
On the way back to the ship I stopped at SeaLife Trust, Beluga Whale Sanctuary.
6/13
This morning we were supposed to stop at Thorklakshofn and take zodiacs to shore. The seas are not cooperating so we will be having a sea day and still arriving in Reykjavik tomorrow morning. (just announced they are trying to get permission to arrive at 9 tonight) That will begin my last leg of the Pole to Pole. Today I missed out on touching the European Plate and the North American Plate at the Silfra Fissure where I was going to snorkel. There were lots of great choices for tours today so everyone will be disappointed, but Mother Nature can't be controlled and she is not happy today.
I did forget to post about Surtsey Island, Iceland. We did a drive by last night. Surtsey is known as the World's youngest island. It started being formed in 1963 from an underwater volcano. There are other newer islands, but Surtsey is expected to survive, where most of the others are not.
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