From the itinerary: Today will be fully dedicated to visit the southernmost town of the country: Vestmannaeyjabær on the island of Heimaey, nestled against the Eldfell volcano, and known for it's impressive coastal rock formations and volcanic activity. With its high mountain tops, porous lava, steep bird cliffs, rocky and sandy beaches, the Westman Islands are truly a magical destination for bird watchers since they have the largest puffin colony of Europe. The most interesting hike on the island is surely on top of the signature mountain, Heimaklettur, which overlooks the harbour and offers you sp Be sure not to miss Eldheimar Museum; the exhibition focuses on the 1973 volcanic eruption in Vestmannaeyjar, without a doubt one of Iceland's biggest natural disaster. Visitors get a glimpse into peoples lives on Heimaey before the eruption that would change their lives forever. The people of Heimaey had to leave their homes in the middle of the night and evacuate the island, many of them never saw their homes or any of their belongings ever again.
The good news is that I'm staying 2 nights in the same hotel, so nice not to have to pack/unpack. The hotel boasts a "spa" which is totally underwhelming - a dark area with a small jacuzzi. I have a look during the day and decide to forego that pleasure.
The weather deteriorated and was very foggy and damp. I did want to explore the island and understood there was a wonderful place to see a huge puffin colony within a mile away. The town is a small, quaint fishing town and the direction signs have puffins on them. As mentioned in the itinerary, there was a volcanic eruption on the island where the volcano presented itself and grew from a rent in the ground to a large hill, which, of course, I had to climb.
The puffin area is through town, by the wharf and over to a mill that more closely resembles a sea stack. To get up the sea stack you have to climb wooden ladders. I was all alone, no one else was around, and the weather is rainy. My ankle isn't feeling great. Today I decided not to tempt fate and didn't go. This was a very hard decision because I really wanted to see the birds.
So off I go to find the volcano. The weather gets really rainy and windy and foggy as I walked up the volcano. By the time I got to the top I was totally drenched including my electronic car key. Why did I bring the car key I have no idea, but I did find out that dry sacks aren't really dry. More on that later.
Walking up the volcano was fine, but I couldn't see anything, so here are a bunch of pictures of fog. The grass was very green which made for a wonderful contrast.
I came down and walked over to a small church on the water. The church had been on that site for hundreds of years, but was wiped out by the eruption and rebuilt. By this time the rain was coming in torrents and I sat in the church for a bit until it let up. Nearby you could see where the lava came down to some water tanks and partially consumed them.
Eventually I walked over along the rocky shore by the sea stack to see if I could see any puffins coming off the rock. They were so small that all you could see were specks, so not very interesting. At least the weather cleared.
Back over to the hotel via the car where I found out the car key didn't work on an island where it would be hard to get anyone to bring any sort of replacement. Up to the room where I frantically called Chris and looked at internet to find out what to do. Amazingly I got the key dried out to a place where it would work, but the locking/unlocking mechanism wasn't consistent, so from that point on I didn't lock the car....
After the weather cleared I had some lunch near the wharf and ice cream for dessert - with sprinkles. Dinner at the hotel again.
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