Day 4 - Wednesday July 27

You can really sense an aura of excitement today. After four days of touring beautiful Iceland by bus and foot, the morning broke over Sauõárkrókur with the anticipation of reaching our ship, the Clipper Adventurer, today. Our expedition leader, Geoff Green had some news that due to some change in the schedule for the Adventurer, we would have to meet her at a different port later this afternoon. Change in the schedule is not unusual for Students On Ice – “flexibility is the key” is Geoff’s mantra, and after three expeditions, I’ve gotten pretty used to it.

So we started the day with a bit of mystery in our future plans. But once again, we resolutely loaded the buses with all the luggage and said goodbye to our brief home in Sauõárkrókur. It took a brief 90 minutes before we were in the scenic town of Akureyri. Considered to be a vacation destination for many Icelanders, Akereyri is a bustling town with lots of tourist-y things to do and see.

We settled into our base location at the town’s Cultural Centre (with fascinating architecture) and were given some free time to explore the town on our own. With no definite schedule, the students scattered throughout the tourist district like ants on a kicked-in anthill. The only two students with a plan were our two Tennessee youth, Shaquille and Derrick. Both had quite the journey to get to us here in

Iceland, and although they arrived safely, their luggage did not.

Thanks to generosity of their fellow expeditioners, they already had some replacement clothes, but the search was on for some cold-weather gear. Luckily, it’s Iceland, and before long, the two of them were ambling back, arms loaded with bags.

After a couple of presentations and lunch at the Cultural Centre, it was back on the buses for our final journey to the town of Siglifjordur. This was the unplanned destination of today’s itinerary, as our ship couldn’t meet us in our original embarkation point. As we drove through the Icelandic countryside, excitement built as the miles slid past.

I couldn’t help notice how beautiful each town was. Our guide did a great job of giving us some background on each place we drove through, and I couldn't help but wish I could return here and rent a car to travel to some of the places again. There were countless museums, heritage sites, quaint cafes and craft houses, but most of all there were friendly people. Almost everyone speaks English, and although they had the usual European quirks that comes with being from a foreign country, I felt totally comfortable here. Well, except for the one tunnel…

Yes, a tunnel. In a country with towering mountains, and long fjords, it makes sense to build tunnels. And it doesn’t make sense to spend more money than you have to on them. But when we drove through our first one-lane tunnel, you couldn’t help wondering if they couldn’t have spent a liiiiiittle more on another lane. Instead, there are little “lanes” that one can pull into to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. A bit unusual, but we navigated it superbly.

And then we arrived at Siglifjordur. This week is their annual Herring Festival, although that’s a bit ironic since there wasn’t a herring to be found. Nevertheless, we were treated to a great tour of their museum, their town centre and an informal game of volleyball with some of the locals.

But all eyes became glues to the port, when our ship arrived. With a majestic swoop into the fjord, our vessel pulled up to the dock and all of our expedition giddily clamoured to line up and get on board.

The Clipper Adventurer is a much nicer vessel than the one I’d gone on twice before. Similar layout, but having been refurbished a few years ago, it was much more elegant. The main lounge was roomier with a panoramic view of the path ahead. Dining was a 5-course meal, with servers catering to our every need. And the cabins were also outfitted nicely with TVs/DVD players (disconnected for this voyage) and chocolates on the pillows!

With everyone and everything settled in, we raised the SOI flag and set sail for our first destination – the Arctic Circle. Again, regular readers may recall that this was a feat I couldn’t accomplish on my previous two expeditions. In ’09, ice prevented us from traveling far enough north to cross it. And in 2010, the only people crossing the Circle were those who hiked 25 km. to reach it by foot – a journey my body was not up to completing.

So imagine my pleasure when we actually sailed up to latitude 67.33 degrees and official became visitors to the geographical Arctic. Pictures were taken, cheers were done and we all basked in the glory of reaching this destination.

To make matters even more exciting, numerous whales decided to make themselves known to us. In previous year, I haven’t been too impressed with our whale sightings, as most of them looked quite literally like black dots on the ocean. But tonight as we sailed across the seas, they came out in droves, some coming up for air a few metres off our bow. For creatures that are normally afraid of sea-faring vessels, we were getting a rare show for our first few hours at sea. As you can imagine, everyone was quite excited about the welcome, and what the future holds for us.

And then the waves hit…

Photos by Lee Narraway