Iceland 2.4: Grundarfjörður

It was a short drive along the coast from Stykkishólmur to Grundarfjörður, which is where I was staying for the night.  It was the second time I'd been to the Hotel Framnes, in fact, as Harriet and I had stayed there in 2013.  It is small, comfortable and friendly - unless one happens to be the poor German couple who turned up with a confirmed reservation only to find that all the rooms were full.  Oops.

It took a while for the rain to stop; but, when it did, I went out for a walk around the town to see what I could find.  It was still very windy, as the blow-back from the waterfall shows.  It was also dark and gloomy - again, just like last time - as the town appears to exist in a perpetual weather system generated by the nearby Snæfell volcano.

The Láki Café was a new addition since last time we visited, and provided a very warm and comfortable place to obtain a (reasonably priced) bite to eat.

The town is dominated by the Fisk factory.  No prizes for guessing what gets processed there...

The dock side was deserted apart from me, a few birds (gulls, oyster catchers, knots) and a lone seal bobbing about in the harbour.  One of the fields just outside the town was also home to a colony of arctic terns, which took great delight in attacking me as I walked past.  Beautiful birds, but they do seem to enjoy being vindictive.

I think one of those knots is an imposter, as it looks distinctly redshank-ish to me.

 Eventually, the cold temperature and bad light stopped play for the evening, so I headed back to the hotel with my fingers firmly crossed that the weather would improve the following day.

Hebrides 9: Secret Seals (and other animals)

One of the worst kept secrets on the Uists (in nature circles anyway) is the existence of a beach on the island of Flodda, across a short causeway from Benbecula, which houses a colony of seals.  The basic instructions are as follows: park in the bus turning circle (it probably only comes once a week anyway), then walk through a series of fields until you find a rusty old car where there is always a piece of paper, sellotaped to what remains of the driver's window, giving the latest location of the seal colony.  Well, we had to, didn't we?

Just in case you got lost, there was the occasional signpost chalked onto pieces of slate.

We watched the seals for quite a while, but they were in the far distance and pretty well out of photography range.  Here is a single (bad) picture to show that I haven't been making this whole story up!

Yet more abandoned crofts with the rocky hills of North Uist in the background.

Exhausted after our day's travels we headed slowly back down the road (there is only one) to our cottage at the other end of the Uists.  I'll finish with a couple of shots of our nearest neighbours from across the road.

Working on the "good day, bad day" weather principle which seems to operate in the Uists, the tea-leaves were not promising for the following day.  The heavy rain wasn't due to start until lunchtime, though, so we kept our fingers crossed for a (relatively) dry morning.

Blakeney Seals

Much better than visiting a Zoo was a boat trip to see the seals at Blakeney.  They were as adorable as ever, and remain - in my eyes anyway - one of the genuine attractions of North Norfolk.

Just like Labradors with flippers...

Horsey Seals (and friends)

At the beginning of December, a group of us from the club went to see the seal pups at Horsey.  They are just as cute as ever (the seal pups, not the club members).

 

It's a while since I've posted any pictures of Homo photographicus, so it's about time I remedied that...