Sunday June 22, At Djupivogur
We discovered late the previous evening that we were not on the morning super Jeep tour but the 1 pm tour. Therefore we did not need a very early breakfast, so we wandered into the restaurant at 8 am to find it completely empty. After a pleasant breakfast, we went down for a 9 am zodiac shuttle into the local town. The weather was overcast with a light rain at times. We walked around for about two hours, away off to the right of the pier until we came to the local collection of egg sculptures and also found that the National Geographic Explorer was berthed there.
The eggs are an artwork by the Icelandic visual artist, Sigurður Guðmundsson, called Eggin í Gleðivík - the Eggs at Merry bay. The artwork consists of 34 huge granite eggs which represent the eggs of each of the nesting birds in this area, many of which are migrating birds, flying over to Iceland from far away to lay their eggs in Iceland. The Eggs are made of Chinese granite and imported from China, where the artist Sigurður lives part of the year with his wife. They also own a home in Djúpivogur village called Himnaríki or Heaven. The granite eggs are all of the same or similar size apart from one, which is much bigger than the others. This distinctive artwork dates from 2009
The plinths that thew eggs sit on are remnants of a construction from the landing of fish at the port. Here fish was landed and transported by a conduit on top of the plinths, and then into the fish-factory . The old fish factory now hosts an exhibition of contemporary art in the summertime. The District Manager of Djúpivogur had been pondering on what could be done with these old plinths, so he consulted the visual artist Sigurður Guðmundsson. Sigurður immediately came up with the idea of the granite eggs and put his idea into action. He said by the inauguration of his artwork that he had never created such a big artwork in such a short time, but the artwork itself is 200 meters long
We tried to get to the Lighthouse but could not find the appropriate route to it. So we continued on up the road for quite some way before returning into the town and then wandering on a bit in the opposite direction. A good healthy walk, we then had a zodiac to ourselves back to the ship at 11:30 a.m.
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So into lunch at 12 noon prompt, out by 12.45, and down for a zodiac for our one p.m. super Jeep excursion. Super Jeeps are an Icelandic specialty in which locals spend large amounts of money in getting their car customised with enormous wheels. We were in a jeep with seven other people, but David had the front seat and was able to enjoy good chats with the informative driver. We wandered up a valley with the eight jeeps stopping several times to look at waterfalls and abandoned farm buildings with a history of the prolific family that lived there from 1922 until 1944. We eventually stopped on the way back for some coffee and very good home baked chocolate cake.
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Once back at the pier there was chaos as there were no zodiacs ready for us but we eventually got back in the first small zodiac to take off from there, only for it to run out of petrol and have to spend some time, floating stationary, while the driver sorted this out
A delightful shower and hair wash , before going up to the Panorama Lounge at 7 pm for our cocktail and canapes. We went to La Terrassa at 8:30 and the restaurant manager put on all charm and gave us a table in the window. A very pleasant risotto and then sea bass for me, tuna for David. Then back to the cabin for a coffee as Verana was occupying the Panorama Lounge with evening trivia. We watched a lot of television, as overnight the Americans had bombed the nuclear locations of Iran. It all looked very dangerous for world peace. Though a few days later it all fizzled out