Reykjavík Grapevine - Aug 2019, Page 42

The Reykjavík G
rapevine
Best of Iceland 2019
42
Of Space,
Whales And
Antarctica
An enlightening and adventurous
weekend in Húsavík
Words & Photos: John Rogers
We land at Húsavík’s tiny airport
and step out into a brisk, frosty
morning. 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 Ice-
land are already gleaming, glossy
and white. The line where the
snow ends is so straight it could
have been drawn with a ruler;
every morning of our stay in the
town, it will visibly inch down to-
wards 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 wom-
an standing behind us overhears us
and offers 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 watching—although, she
says, the season is coming to an end.
Giant red suits
After checking into our comfort-
able, minimalist room at the local
Fosshotel, we take a walk around
the quaint seaside town. There’s
an entire little village dedicated to
whale watching on Húsavík’s ma-
rina, with ticket offices, huts, and
various piers and walkways leading
up onto old-school wooden fish-
ing boats and modern inflatable
speed boats bobbing in the rip-
pling ocean.
We’re booked with Gentle Gi-
ants, a firm that started in 2001
when eleven locals banded to-
gether to restore a wooden-hulled
fishing boat for whale watching in
the bay. Today, there are all sorts
of options on offer, from the se-
date 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 seasickness 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 overhead; 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 speak-
ers that we should look out for the
plume of water made when a whale
surfaces to breathe; if one is spot-
ted, 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.
Distance from
Reykjavík:
478 km
How to get there:
Fly from Reykjavík or drive
Route One North then Route 85
Flights: eagleair.is
Accommodation: fosshotel.is
Whale watching: gentlegiants.is North