Amidst sunshine one moment and rain the next, our wide-ranging group of explorers boarded the National Geographic Endurance in Hafnarfjörður, a snug harbor just south of Reykjavik. We sailed smoothly into the beautiful sunset, on the way towards Arnarstapi at the base of Snæfellsjökull, the glacier and mountain made infamous by Jules Verne as the gateway to the center of the earth!
This morning, we woke early to prepare for an excursion along the spectacular cliffs and sea arches that line the coast. Seabirds and sandpipers from kittiwakes to turnstones perched in the nooks and crannies of the basalt columns, whitewashing the dark rock thus marking their presence. Through midday, we then transited north and east into Breiðafjörður, the broad fjord of Iceland’s west coast. We then had a landing ashore on Flatey (flat island) a tiny bit of idyllic Icelandic insular Eden. Once a bustling trade center, it now is home to only five year-round residents, a few more sheep, and a couple dozen family homes that are used only in the summer. Thousands of birds, including puffins, eiders, and terns take advantage of the isolation for their summer breeding grounds.
