Yesterday we made our way out of the unsettled fjord we had anchored in and proceeded to Pingeyri, a town of 230 souls nestled on the shore of beautiful fjord, part of the western fjords along the north portion of the west coast of Iceland.
This begins the south bound part of our voyage and will be our last port of call until we reach Canada. The sailing yesterday was in glorious sunshine, which has continued today. We were told by a local that there have been 3 sunny days in June as far.
We started the day with a bus tour to a magnificent 300 meter high waterfall. The bus took us out of the fjord valley and over a pass to the adjoining fjord valley to the south, where the waterfall is at the head of that fjord. The trip brought into focus how this part of Iceland and, for that matter, most of the Icelandic coast is likely a series of mountainous fingers separated by long, deep flooded valleys. The mountains are very steep, made of soft volcanic stone and gravel and quite prone to avalanches in the winter and rock falls in the spring and summer months. The roads are narrow and twisty and look like pieces of string that were tossed down randomly across the barron or grass covered black slopes with the occasional white patch of snow.
Our tour guide told us several very interesting things including how important elves , yes elves , are in Iceland. For example, when building a road there is an elf consultant, paid for by the government, who's job it is to advise the road builders if they are going to build the road in a place that is important to the elves. If there is a conflict the course of the road is changed to go around that place. This, we were told, is why one occasionally will see odd turns in an otherwise fairly straight road.
Tonight, we are hosting a BBQ for the entire town and have opened the ship for tours.
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