Remembering another local news related to animals, a sudden incident was reported that day, and the hearts of the residents of Reykjavik were tugged. Two stranded whales appeared in the waters off the old pier. The old marina is not far from the city center, only ten minutes walk. After the news was broadcast, the residents spontaneously went after work, and in order not to let the whales die, they brought large and small buckets of water and kept pouring water on the whales. Sadly, one of them died the next day.
Stranded whales
I have had two whale watching trips to sea, the one I saw sperm whales in Olavvik on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland. After boarding the boat, the tour guide turned on the microphone to explain the classification of marine animals, and then agreed with everyone to observe the sea in front of them, and once there was movement, shout the direction in the form of a clock. On this day, the Greenland Sea, the breeze is gentle, the water is not happy, and there are more than thirty tourists on board. The tour guide said that the sea is vast, whale watching boats can not guarantee that they will be able to see whales, there is a trick about finding whales, if you see seabirds gathering, then there must be a school of fish underneath, and there is a high probability that there will be whales. As soon as the words fell, a shout came: The direction of 2 p.m.!
In an instant, the boat was quiet, and the children who were crying because of seasickness also stopped at this time. Turning his head to glance, without warning, for the first time in his life, he saw a free sperm whale in the sea. In order not to disturb the whales, our ship always kept a distance, the captain also turned off the engine, except for the wind next to his ears, the whole world only heard the breathing sound of sperm whales, each eruption, like a fountain on the sea. Looking at the scene in front of them, everyone froze, and after a while, someone pressed the camera to make a shutter sound, and people remembered to take some photos as a souvenir. I took the SLR out of my bag, the camera was aimed, and the moment I pressed it, the sperm whale suddenly dived head down into the deep sea, hit it by mistake, and I caught a beautiful whale tail. The engine restarted, and the tour guide introduced on the radio that every time he saw the sperm whale, he had to keep his eyes peeled, because he never knew at what moment it would jump out.
Mistakenly hit and hit a beautiful whale tail
Another whale watching experience, from the old pier in Reykjavik, is not a good memory. Even if you look at the weather forecast and choose a perfect windless sunny day, you didn't expect the weather at sea to change suddenly, the wind and clouds, like a pirate ship in an amusement park, three hundred and sixty degrees of all-round swing. Fleeing the deck, hiding in the cabin, taking seasickness medicine, vomiting strongly, but stuck in the throat, but more uncomfortable, want to get off the ship and can not do. For four hours, there were no whales along the way, only two dolphins, jumping less than five meters from the boat. Since then, when I see the tourist brochure recommending whale watching in Reykjavik, I always frown unconsciously.
Compared to whales, it is much more convenient to see seals. Walking around the residence, there were two teenagers fishing at the pier, brotherly, both with thick blond hair and aquamarine eyes. I walked over to join in the fun and see what fish I could catch. At this time, I did not want to look at the harbor, and a seal poked out its black round head, and the big dark eyes and I looked at each other for three seconds. The seals then dived into the water and disappeared. I shook my head at the teenager, but the teenager nodded at me with a smile on his lips.
A black, round-headed seal protruding
Another time, I went to an isolated farm for the night. The farmer, a mathematician and a director whose wife was a director, retired tired of reykjavik city life, bought a piece of land in the West Fjord, built a spire hut, raised more than a dozen sheep, a dancing parrot, and an arctic fox that escaped death under a shotgun. Every winter, the mountain road is closed, and the two are stranded on the farm, with occasional boats sailing by to buy coffee and eggs from the crew. Their fridge was the largest size I'd ever seen, and the freezer was filled with toast bread stocked for the winter.
At breakfast, the mathematician stood by the window, holding a telescope to look at the sea in front of his house. He told me that in Icelandic villages, every house had a telescope by the window, mostly out of gossip, to see what the neighbors were doing, but he lived in a remote area, and he had no neighbors to look at seals on the reef. With that, he handed me the telescope and asked me to look in the direction he was pointing. "On the other side of the coast, the three seals basking in the sun, see it, like bananas." I have never seen a banana basking in the sun, and after watching it for half a day, it is naturally white.
Seals basking in the sun
When I finished eating the bread, the mathematician picked up the car keys and drove me to the black beach, and saw the "bananas" basking in the sun at close range, more than three, simply the county life festival tight sea pets, the little seals restless, chasing each other in the sea. An old seal lying on a rock squinting and enjoying itself did not panic when it saw me, yawned a long time, and slowly turned around so that the rest of the part could be exposed to the sun. Seals have no natural predators in Iceland, the sea is rich in resources, do not worry about eating and drinking, and live a leisurely life.