Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.11.2018, Síða 46

We land at Húsavík’s tiny airport
and step out into a brisk, frosty morn-
ing. In contrast with the short, grey
autumn of Reykjavík, where the peak
of Esja sits under a first icing-sugar
dusting of light snow, the mountains
of north Iceland are already gleaming,
glossy and white. The line where the
snow ends is so straight it could have
been drawn with a ruler; every morn-
ing of our stay in the town, it will vis-
ibly inch down towards ground level.
The airport is 11 kilometres from
the town, in the crook of the wide,
windblown Skjálfandi bay. We wait
for the short luggage belt to grind into
action, looking up taxi numbers for a
ride into town. As suitcases start to
appear, a young local woman stand-
ing behind us overhears us and of-
fers a ride. Before we know it, we’ve
hopped into her car and we’re on the
way. She’s training to be a nurse and is
based in Húsavík with her family. She
recommends that we go whale watch-
ing—although, she says, the season is
coming to an end.
Giant red suits
After checking into our comfortable,
minimalist room at the local Fossho-
tel, we take a walk around the quaint
seaside town. There’s an entire little
village dedicated to whale watch-
ing on Húsavík’s marina, with ticket
offices, huts, and various piers and
walkways leading up onto old-school
wooden fishing boats and modern in-
flatable speed boats bobbing in the
rippling ocean.
We’re booked with Gentle Giants, a
firm that started in 2001 when eleven
locals banded together to restore a
wooden-hulled fishing boat for whale
watching in the bay. Today, there are
all sorts of options on offer, from the
sedate fishing boat tours, to a RIB
speed boat tour. We’re booked on the
latter, and we pull on huge red boiler
suits to protect us from the cold, our
host and guide offers around seasick-
ness medicine. “It’s been very choppy
for the last few days,” he says. “It was
so windy, we couldn’t even go out. But
we were out this morning, and we had
some luck.”
Eleven o’clock!
We load onto the boat and each person
gets a saddle-like standing seat, with
handlebars to hang onto. We soon see
why: the RIB boat bounces over the
waves as we speed out to sea. People
squeal as spray and seafoam fly over-
head; Húsavík vanishes behind us
over the rolling waves, and the rough,
snow-capped mountains loom ever
closer.
Whale watching, it turns out, is
something of a group effort. As we bob
around in the bay, our host explains
over the crackling speakers that we
should look out for the plume of wa-
ter made when a whale surfaces to
breathe; if one is spotted, we should
shout out where, by the hands of the
clock. Soon, a Belgian couple sitting at
the prow scream out “Eleven o’clock!”
The engine revs, and we zoom towards
the sighting.
Graceful bulk
At this point, I’ll admit that I’m a
whale-watching sceptic. I’ve lived in
Iceland for almost six years, and have
never once been tempted to go. The
appeal of floating around on the cold
ocean to catch a glimpse of a dorsal
fin, and maybe a tail, eluded me.
But suddenly, as we’re speed-
ing along right above a humpback
whale, I break out into a wide grin.
The whale’s huge bulk glides just un-
der the surface; we can make out the
immense fins and the texture of its
skin as it speeds gracefully through
the water. It surfaces again, sending a
huge spout of water over the boat, and
arches its back; its giant grey tail rears
up out of the water, metres high, and
then it’s gone, plunging deep into the
ocean.
Over the course of the next hour,
we stalk this whale, and see several
others, with various boats buzz-
ing around trying not to crowd each
other. The whales, we’re told, aren’t
Travel
Distance from
Reykjavík:
478km

Flights provided by:
eagleair.is
Accommodation
provided by:
fosshotel.is
Whale watching
trip provided by:
gentlegiants.is
How to get there:
Fly from Reykjavík
Airport or drive
Route One North
then Route 85
46The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 20— 2018
Of Space, Whales
And Antarctica
An enlightening and adventurous weekend in Húsavík
Words & Photos: John Rogers
gpv.is/travel
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