Iceland is Green, & Greenland is Ice (Part I)

JUNE 28 - Arrival in Iceland

I’m well aware of how fortunate I am to travel as much as I do. I've been given the opportunity to experience places not just once, but in depth and across different seasons. The last time I was in Iceland was a year and a half ago, when Anil and I spent Christmas and New Year’s exploring the North and West of the country. Seeing the land blanketed in snow felt like a quintessential Icelandic experience, giving me a glimpse of what life here is like in the dark depths of winter.

Now I’m getting to circumnavigate the entire island aboard a Lindblad expedition ship, this time during the height of summer - when we’ll have nearly 24 hours of daylight. Technically, the sun will set just after midnight and rise again around 3:00 am. Nesting seabirds are everywhere, and the landscape is carpeted in lush vegetation and vibrant wildflowers that create a patchwork of purple, white, and yellow across the countryside.

I landed in Keflavik about an hour and a half before Anil, so I got our rental car and picked him up before immediately heading out of town. Our first stop was - you guessed it - the obligatory snack of an Icelandic Gas Station Hot Dog at an abandoned-looking gas station (and I got a 50% discount since I had mine ‘plain’ - with no sauces or toppings!) Apparently this means I haven’t really had an authentic Icelandic Gas Station Hot Dog.

We drove north from Reykjavik to Hvalfjordur, but instead of taking the tunnel under the water, we skirted the edge of the fjord to enjoy the scenery. Outside the cities, Iceland feels pure and untamed. Here and there, small flocks of free-roaming sheep fatten themselves on summer grasses as they wander as they please. They’ll be rounded up in the autumn to be returned to their respective owners, but for now they fend for themselves as they graze. 

One thing the sheep won’t eat is the Nootka (or Alaskan) lupine.

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AN INTERRUPTION BY AN INVADER

Before the Vikings arrived more than a thousand years ago, around 40% of Iceland was covered in forests. Sheep farming and the need for timber caused heavy deforestation of the native birch and willow, and there have also been volcanic eruptions that have left a layer of lava on previously forested areas. Now, less than 2% of the island has forests - it means the land is particularly susceptible to desertification and soil degradation. 

Originally introduced in 1945 to combat soil erosion and fix nitrogen, Nootka lupine, native to Alaska, is remarkably suited to this environment.

Wide open fields and entire hillsides are now blanketed by this invasive plant, covering the landscape in a gorgeous emerald green and vibrant purple. Iceland in the summer is a mecca for Instagrammers, and the lush purple fields have been a boon for tourism. While undeniably beautiful, the tall-growing lupine outcompetes native species by shading them out, causing a vast monoculture of inedible plants. 

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We stopped for a lovely and relaxing soak at the Hvammsvik Hot Springs, which felt amazing after a long international flight. From now on I’ll definitely schedule a hot spring soak immediately after getting off the plane! Hvammsvik is particularly interesting because it sits right on the shoreline, so you can jump into the freezing fjord before warming up in the geothermal pools. I only made it up to my knees before deciding it was WAY too cold for me!

After our soak, we ended our visit by stopping in the cafe for a bowl of fish soup, then continued the long way around Hvalfjordur to soak in the scenery. It was fascinating to see the landscape covered in such lush vegetation, especially since the last time it was completely blanketed in snow. 

Every so often we’d spot different birds sitting on a fence post or nesting in the fields - mostly Eurasian oystercatchers ( black and white birds with striking orange bills and evil red eyes), common snipes (beautifully mottled brown birds with impossibly long straight bills) and whimbrels (similarly brown colored birds but with a curve at the end of their long bills).  At the end of the fjord near the base of a small waterfall, we saw a family of what we think were whooper swans - huge, snowy white birds with bodies so large that their legs can only support them for short periods of time!

Amazingly, it was nearly 9:00 PM when we arrived at Hotel Glymur, even though the sun was still fairly high in the sky. It was drizzling when we went to check in, but had stopped by the time we went out to get our luggage and we were immediately swarmed by mosquitoes - a newer introduction to Iceland, which was first established here in October 2025 (most likely from hitchhiking on freight shipment and aided by global warming). Until then, Iceland was one of the only places on earth with no mosquitoes - the other being Antarctica. What a sad end to an era!!

By 10:00 PM, despite the bright evening sky, exhaustion finally caught up with me, and I happily called it a night.

MONDAY, JUNE 29 - Birds, waterfalls, a good soak, and the world's best lamb chops

It was raining when I woke up this morning, but eased to a slight drizzle by the time we finished our delicious breakfast (including the amazing Icelandic skyr!!). We decided to try our hand at birdwatching and bird photography, so we headed to the Akranes peninsula where the Blautos estuary nature preserve sits along the northern coast. There aren’t any roads out there, but we found a field nearby and asked the farmer - or who we thought was a farmer - maybe he was actually a horse thief?? for permission to park. After getting the OK, we hiked out into the field.

Luckily, it stopped raining and the brisk weather was perfect for our birdwatching walk. A small bluff overlooked the water, with seabirds on one side and nesting birds on the other. Every so often, a marauding gull would wander a little too close for comfort and get chased off by an angry plover. We also said hello to some friendly Icelandic ponies, as well as a family of sheep that had made a cozy nest inside a bale of hay.

After our walk, we headed into Akranes in search of a bakery (one of the best in Iceland, according to the internet!), but it appeared to have closed down! So instead, we visited the old Akranes lighthouse.

This is considered one of the most picturesque lighthouses in the world - so weirdly looking through my camera reel, I took just one boring photo of the lighthouse itself. Hmmm...

There are actually two lighthouses: a smaller, older structure out on the rocks, and a newer, larger concrete construction. It was fun walking along the rocks to get out to the old lighthouse, although the quick tidepooling yielded no interesting creatures among the rocks.

As we headed out of town, we took one last stab at finding the bakery, and hurrah! We found it adjacent to the empty storefront that we originally thought was the bakery! So we stopped for a lovely sandwich lunch (and the biggest caramel-covered bun that Anil demolished). Then we headed up towards the lava fields of the Husafell hinterlands.

The last time we’d been in Iceland, we visited this area while it was completely covered in snow. We liked it then, so we wanted to see the waterfalls in a different season. Hraunfossar Waterfall is one of my personal favorites - a long series of cascades flowing from ledges in the Hallmundarhraun lava field into the Hvita river.

Instead of one instant elevation drop of the river (which is how most waterfalls are engineered), Hraunfossar looks as though a nearly kilometer-long length of the riverbank is feeding more water into the river, with seemingly no source to where the water is coming from (it’s being fed by underground springs flowing through the Hallmundarhraun lava field.)

I also like this area because just a short hike upstream is another interesting waterfall. Barnafoss is the waterfall of legend, said to be either cursed by a grieving mother. Her two children grew bored while waiting for their parents and tried to find them at church. They took a shortcut which led them to a natural stone bridge over the waterfall, but partway across they got dizzy, fell into the water, and drowned. The mother, in her grief, cursed the arch so that anyone trying to cross would also drown.

Needless to say, we didn't attempt the crossing!

After a quick stop for tea, we headed for our afternoon appointment at the Husafell Canyon Baths.

This was a delightful soak in the geothermal pools hidden at the bottom of a private canyon. Although it was billed as a “hike” through the landscape, it would have been just a short walk down what amounted to a driveway, so we skipped that part and drove to the entry gate at the top of the stairs instead. More soaking time!

There were only 6 of us there - Nicholas and Jen from Vancouver, and a funny retired couple from Iowa (the final couple who had signed up didn’t end up going down, since it was too difficult for the woman to navigate the stairs). At around 99°, the pools weren’t quite as hot as the other hot springs we’d visited, but after hopping into the cold stream (and yes, I actually dunked down to my shoulders - more than once!), the pool was wonderfully warm and tingly. 

Since it was already 5:30 when we finished, we decided to go straight to dinner. Bara Borgarnes is one of our favorite restaurants in the world - we’d eaten the best lamb chops EVER on our last visit, and we’ve been talking about it ever since. Since we had talked it up for months before this visit - I was certain it wasn’t going to be as good as we remembered - but I was wrong! Shockingly, it did not disappoint.  I highly recommend the grilled lamb chops. Yum!

Tomorrow, we board the ship!

 JUNE 31 - All Aboard!

The day was spent getting onto the ship. We had a lazy morning, starting with another delicious breakfast at the hotel followed by a drive back the long way around Hvalfjordur to get ourselves checked in. We met up with the group at the Parliament Hotel, and had a short time to wander around Reykjavik, so we had a coffee (Anil and his hipster coffee shops!) and visited a bookstore. We also stopped for a lunch of fish and chips (which, given how fresh all the fish is here in Iceland, was delicious!!)

At around 5, we settled into our stateroom on board the National Geographic Endurance. It’s much larger than any of the other ships I’ve been on - new and modern, with wide hallways and a bathroom that doesn’t feel like you’ll hit your elbows on the walls. There’s even a gym, library, and several lounging areas. We immediately had a muster drill to practice putting on our life vests, and we got to peek inside the tiny 60-person life rafts (that are more like life submarines - that look like they should hold a max 20 people!)

We met several really nice people - the average age must be around 70, but everyone is interesting, adventurous, and most have been on multiple other Lindblad expeditions. Unfortunately the seas got rougher and I started feeling queasy around dinnertime. I skipped eating (although we did sit with Kay and Chuck from (!) Palos Verdes) and went to bed early. It was a rough and rocky night, and I didn’t get to sleep until close to 4:00 am. :(

JULY 1 - Falling water and dive-bombing birds

The next morning, we woke early for our first excursion off the ship. At 6:45 AM, we departed into Arnafjordur in the northwestern part of Iceland. The Westfjords area is the oldest part of the island, (well, relatively speaking since it is only around 10 million years old). Glaciers carved out fjords through the multiple layers of volcanic basalt during the Ice Age.

We boarded Zodiacs for the ride to a desolate beach, then hiked about four miles to Dynjandi, a spectacular series of stepladder-like cascades that together form a 100-meter-tall waterfall. It’s an impressive view as we approached, with the wide waterfall resembling a bridal veil.

In the meadow near the lower falls, bright blooms of yellow meadow buttercups, sunny mountain avens, and the occasional Arctic poppy give color to the rocky coastal environment. I was surprised by how few birds—and bugs!—we encountered along the way, though we did spot a few oystercatchers, whimbrels, Arctic terns, and eider ducks.

We returned to the ship by 10:30, just in time for a shower before the day’s briefings. After lunch, I squeezed in a much-needed nap. I woke up in time for Ella’s presentation Cetaceans of the North Atlantic, which provided an interesting overview of the dolphins and whales that we might see on this voyage. We then had a very early dinner so that we could prepare for our evening excursion.

Vigur, the second largest island in Isafjardardjup, is home to thousands of seabirds, the only wooden windmill in Iceland... and just three humans. (A fun fact: one of them is Felicity Aston - the first person to ski alone across Antarctica purely by muscle power! The other inhabitants are her husband and 9-year old son.) 

The owners of Vigur sustainably harvest eider duck down. Female eiders naturally pluck their own soft down to line and insulate their nests while incubating their eggs. Each June, after the females have begun nesting, the farmers carefully replace the down with hay, which doesn't seem to bother the ducks at all. They simply return to the nest and produce more down, rebuilding their cozy nests while continuing to keep their eggs warm.

The island is also home to thousands of nesting Arctic terns who, as Naturalist Mike described, are just “really pissed off birds”. They nest on the ground and are fierce protectors of their eggs and chicks. As we walked through the colony, they continually dive-bombed us, targeting the highest point - our heads. Thankfully, we were armed with sticks held overhead, giving the terns something else to peck instead. I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed not to leave with an Arctic tern battle scar…

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THE MIGHTY LITTLE ARCTIC TERN

Arctic terns are fun to watch since they are one of the few birds capable of hovering in place while searching for fish (or potential enemies!) before plunging down into the water. They are sleek little birds with long, thin wings, deeply forked tails, a black hood on their heads, and dark red beaks and feet. I found them to be quite elegant!

The Arctic tern is famous for making the longest migration of any animal on earth. Each year, these birds travel from where they breed in the Arctic to their feeding grounds in Antarctica before returning north again. Because of this, it experiences two summers every year and spends more time in the daylight than any other creature. The journey covers roughly 44,000 miles annually and takes about 90 days each way - it’s estimated that in their lifetime, a tern flies a distance equal to three round-trips to the Moon!

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We also spent time photographing the extraordinarily delightful Atlantic puffins that were nesting in burrows around the island. Puffins have backward-facing spines in their mouths that allow them to hold fish while they dive down for more, and some can hold 30 or more at one time. They are also extraordinarily photogenic birds with fun and quirky personalities, so it was fun to sit observing and photographing them.

After returning to the ship, we learned that we were pushing the itinerary ahead a day to try and beat some upcoming bad weather - we’d be heading to Greenland the next day! 

JULY 2 - Crossing the Denmark Strait

The entire day was spent crossing the Denmark Strait, sailing west toward Greenland. The sea was remarkably calm, with only gentle swells. It was surprising because we'd heard so many stories about the Vikings making this same crossing more than a thousand years ago, and how dangerous it could be. Of course, they weren't traveling aboard a comfortable, modern icebreaker. They made the journey in open wooden Viking ships called knarrs—sturdy merchant vessels powered primarily by sail, with no engines, no GPS, and little protection from the North Atlantic's notoriously unpredictable weather.

Around 982, Erik the Red became the first Norseman to establish permanent settlements on the island after being exiled from Iceland. According to the Icelandic sagas, he deliberately named it “Greenland” in order to trick others to come settle, knowing he needed support from many others to help grow crops to support their settlements. An early master of PR, that Erik!

In the early afternoon, we finally caught sight of the fabled Greenland. Tiny ice floes drifted past the ship, and the dark outline of Greenland slowly grew larger on the horizon. Then came an unexpected announcement from the captain requesting that everyone gather in the Ice Lounge.

Unfortunately, a passenger had suffered a medical emergency that required an evacuation. We immediately turned around and sailed three and a half hours back toward Iceland so the helicopter could reach us.

Talk about a Greenland tease…

So right after dinner, we saw a plane begin to circle the ship - it must have been some type of reconnaissance craft scouting conditions, because soon after, the Icelandic Coast Guard Search and Rescue helicopter appeared. We were banned from the top few outside decks since the rescue would be on the roof, but we gathered on the 6th floor aft deck to watch the rescue. 

First, a medic was lowered onto the ship. Once the patient was stabilized, they were carefully hoisted into the helicopter, followed by the medic. It was remarkable to watch the helicopter hover so steadily above the ship despite being hundreds of miles out in the North Atlantic. The precision and coordination of the entire operation were impressive, and witnessing such a complex rescue almost made up for missing out on more time in Greenland.