Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.09.2008, Blaðsíða 27

REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 14—2008 | 27
Viking feasts every night
- live entertainment
“You haven't been in Iceland if you haven't been to us“ ' '
For booking and
further information:
Tel.: +354 565-1213
www.vikingvillage.is
vikings@vikingvillage.is
Strandgata 55 Hafnarfjordur
Don’t miss it!
“They put on such a
beautiful meal for us.
We had the most
amazing freshest fish I've
ever had in my life.
It was all so perfectly
cooked too...Beautiful!”
Jamie Oliver’s Diary
Licensing and
registration of travel-
related services
The Icelandic Tourist Board issues licences to tour operators and travel agents,
as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres.
Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved
by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet
website.
Booking services and information centres are entitled to use a Tourist
Board logo on all their material. The logos below are recognised by the
Icelandic Tourist Board.
List of licenced Tour
Operators and Travel
Agencies on:
visiticeland.com
Book hotel, guesthouse,
whale watching, horse riding,
glacier tours etc.
Secure
credit card
payment
and printout
of booking
confirmation.
LOOK
BOOK
and
...free travel services
all around Iceland
With more to come soon www.lookandbook.is
Look and Book kiosks
are located inside
the Information
Centres in these places:
Free travel bookings
for all services
in Iceland
AkureyriBlönduós
Borgarnes Hveragerði
Egilsstaðir
After getting off the plane and heading for the “downtown”
(Heimaey has a population of 4,036), the otherworld feeling
of this place cannot be any starker. A quarter of this island-
hamlet is draped in a hellish post-apocalyptic landscape. In
1973, the island was caked in volcanic ash expulsed from
Mount Eldfell, swallowing up a large segment of the village.
Astonishingly, only one person died from the disaster. More
than three decades later, houses still remain buried in the af-
termath and are an amusing sight to behold. Besides Eldfell’s
vast volcanic residue, the rock formations throughout the
island are especially breathtaking, especially ‘The Elephant’
– a giant crevice shaped like a giant pachyderm head.
Nearby, on the edge of the island, somewhat campily,
is a statue dedicated to emigrant Icelandic Mormons who
travelled to the Promise Land of Utah. My compatriot is ir-
reverently incredulous of the monument, noting its unusual
placement. Also in the vicinity are some remnants (beer cups
and party hats) from a few weeks earlier from Þjóðhátíð, one
of Iceland’s biggest festivals known famously as a youthful
celebration of debauchery.
When it comes to the island’s topography, geologists
will have an igneous-rock field day here. But for others, the
true excitement certainly comes from seeking out and track-
ing down the little native puffins. In late summer, pufflings,
also called pysjur, get lost and local rescue teams of kids and
adults come together to gather them and bring them back to
their homes.
Despite the overwhelming puffin kitsch that perme-
ates Heimaey (including but not limited to trinkets, adver-
tisements, directional signs (!) and wall murals dedicated to
the diminutive sea parrot) the little birds don’t wander the
streets. That would be TOO easy for the puffin-obsessed tour-
ist paparazzi. Their habitats are among the insanely treacher-
ous steep cliffs that line the island. While hunting for puffins
here, TV chef Gordon Ramsay nearly died after careening off
one of the island’s 85-metres high crags, tumbling into to the
sea below.
I vowed not to make the same mistake as Ramsay, al-
though the vertigo from fear of a sharp 90° drop did get to
me. Attempting a peek on a peak requires grace, boots not
sandals (my Crocs were barely keeping tread on the cliff!),
probably a spotter and, for the extra-safety-obsessed, rope
for the most ambitious puffin hunters. Frighteningly feeble
grassy overhangs feel as if they’re ready to collapse at any
minute as you traverse the little birds’ world. You just need
to channel the skills of the high-altitude sheep that wedge
themselves up impossibly vertical ledges . During the puf-
fin’s peak season (July to mid-August), the pointy rocks be-
low hold thousands of the little dudes. Watch your step!
For those lightheaded around cliffs and other travellers curi-
ous about the natural exterior wall of the islands, the Vest-
mannaeyjar boat tour is a charming adventure, as long as
you don’t fall out! (I almost did after a crashing wave nearly
knocked me overboard).
The little boat surprisingly roars, gliding over waves
at an impressively sprightly pace around the rocky periph-
ery as a rabble of seagulls and puffins sashay adjacently. If
you’re lucky, you may spot some whales overboard (trivia
note: Vestmannaeyjar was where the late Keiko of Free Willy
fame used to live). Prepare to be soaked as the island boasts
the worst weather of the country with howling winds and tor-
rential downpours. The drizzle though certainly adds to my
giddy enchantment of this soggy nautical journey. At the end
of the trip, the captain of the tour boat unleashes a surprise
musical tribute to jazzman Perez Prado in a dark cave that
must be witnessed for oneself to be believed.
Overall, the experience is a wonderful excursion for
Iceland completists who love the complete raw outdoorsy
kick that this country can provide.
Vestmannaeyjar (also known as the Westmann Islands to English-folk) is the ideal re-
mote milieu for an exotic off-the-mainland excursion. Replete with an ethereal terrain,
the island is a Mecca for Iceland’s famous quirky little auk birds known as puffins. A
striking off-the-beaten-path archipelago 7.4 km from the southern coast of Iceland; the
largest and only inhabited of these islands is Heimaey.
On the Puffin Trail
in Vestmannaeyjar
BY JAMeS cRugnALe — pHoTo BY gAS
DESTINATION — veSTMAnnAeYJAR
PuffIN fACTS
• There are 40 million puffins in
the North Atlantic.
• The Westman Islands has the
largest puffin colony in the
world with between 5 to 10
million puffins.
• Puffins are approximately 10
inches (18 centimeters) tall
and weigh 500 grams.
• Puffins lay only 1 egg per year.
• Puffins can fly up to 55 miles
(88 kilometers) an hour.
• Puffins typically hunt small
fish like herring or sand eels.