Tuesday, June 24. Hofsos & Dragney
After an early breakfast, we went to shore at 8:30 a.m and had a leisurely walk around the town with a local guide, whose family had lived in the village for many past generations although he now lived in Reykjavík.
The town had a population of just 100 today, but did support a school with about 17 children and a good supermarket and the population was said to be stable. There was a much larger town 50 minutes drive away. We saw some old houses but the majority had been built in the 1950s and 60s and nowadays there was very little new build as this was so expensive with the price of imported building materials.
There was a stop to try an Icelandic specialty, fermented shark. Hákarl, Iceland's fermented shark dish, is a national specialty made from Greenland shark or other sleeper shark that has been cured through a fermentation process and then dried. It has a strong ammonia-rich smell and a fishy taste, making it an acquired taste. The traditional preparation involves burying the shark in the ground for several weeks to ferment and then drying it. It was sort of chewy and ammonia tasting and is, as they sat=y, an acquired taste.
We ended up at the museum which had some interesting facts about migration of past generations to Canada to Brazil and then we stopped at the library where they were serving coffee and biscuits. We got back to the ship about 11:15 am.
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After an early lunch we disembarked again about 1:45 pm to tackle the island of Dragney . This was a home of thousands of sea birds including puffins but we have been told it was exceptionally difficult to climb up to see them, the climb being about 200 m via steep steps with a rope handrail and vertical ladders . When this visit was described by Werner, I had told David to do it by himself as I did not think I was capable of it: but he decided otherwise and signed me up for it and, being a very good, smooth, sunny day, I decided to give it a try. But was very frightened in climbing up to the top and even there the ground was very uneven with many holes in the long grass, so all in all I was a little out of my depth. I saw not a single bird on the climb up as I was so concentrated on keeping hold of the rope but did see many puffins in the binoculars once at the top.
There was a house on the flat land at the top which used to sleep people when the villagers came here for periods of 2 to 4 nights to gather eggs. The island was now owned by the community, but the same family of father aged 65 and son, around 40 and one daughter now did tours of the island between mid May and mid August after which the puffins flew away . For the descent the daughter took me in her charge and managed to get me down with zero anxiety, really commendable.
The next photos are the climb up, and the climb down.
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At the "flat" top of the island.
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Drangey Island is located in the bay of the Skagafjörður fjord in North Iceland and is a remnant of a 700,000-year-old extinct volcano. It lies about 7 km off the coast and actually consists of just one rock of 180m high The island of Drangey plays an important role in many legends about giants and outlaws, but is best known as bird paradise. There are thousands of seabird families including… puffins! With its multicolored beak, short wings and cute beak it is such a lovely animal to see. There are an estimated 350,000 puffins.
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And a lot of "other" birds too
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We enjoyed a coffee in the room on our return and then canapes and a cocktail in the panorama lounge between 7 and 8 pm. Then dinner in La Terrazza and back to the room for coffee, given that Verana was occupying the panorama lounge with a loud voice and some game show at 9:30. The ship also cruised round Malmey Island, but there was little of interest in this, just another stretch of coast.