Unfortunately, the weather is “back to normal” today: Rain. And more unfortunate, P.J came down with a cold and cough and does not feel so good. She felt bad enough to cancel out of her non-refundable shore excursion this morning, so I went by myself.
The excursion went to an abandoned village, across the fjord from Isafjörður. The trip involved a one hour crossing in a fast boat. Even though the weather was dreary and wet, the ocean was rather placid so the crossing was comfortable. I invited myself up front “on the bridge”. There I had a great view while listening to the crew chattering in Icelandic but, interestingly, ship-to-shore communication was in English.
Our trip leader was a young Icelandic girl whose grandparents hailed from these abandoned regions. They lived off the land, no need for money. She explained that almost all the hardy vegetation is edible. I smelled a plant that had a distinct and very pleasant licorice odor. The villagers had sheep and some cattle, but fish, seals and whales were also on the diet. A seal’s flippers were a delicacy because they are very meaty, whereas the rest of animal is very fatty. They ate birds and bird eggs. Her grandmother relished a specific fertilized bird egg at the point where the chick’s beak had just started to form … an acquired taste, I guess. Only the doctor had a horse, which allowed him to travel quickly across his 200 square mile practice area … no roads. The last inhabitants abandoned the village in the early fifties. There never was any electricity, but in the end they did have telephone, courtesy of the US navy during World War II because it also served as a watch outpost. Because of that experience, when the last inhabitants finally left the village some moved to the US navy base at Keflavik, now Reykjavik’s international airport. Currently it is a nature preserve and you can camp there in the summer. A few hardy young campers were there, on a cold (46F, 8C) rainy July day.