Backdate: Iceland June 2024 Day 8

5/6/24 Weds: We had to extend for one more day of stay in Husavik due to the orange bad weather alert in Iceland. *Luckily, Fosshotel Husavik has room for us and Hotel Hallormsstaour could cancel for us FOC, so the agency used the payment for the stay here instead.* The breakfast hall was huge in this hotel! We ate at 9am and halfway through, there was a power trip for 10 minutes or so.

It was still snowing and raining now and then outside. We took a walk and ended up for lunch at Lokal café at 1.30pm. Tried their hot wrap (2190 ISK, S$21.42) which was okay. Potato felt cold as he walked towards Husavik Whale Museum because he did not wear his down jacket lol~ so he went back to the car to take it.

It costed 2250 ISK each to go into the whale museum and it was money well-spent. We were in there for a good two and a half hours till 4.45pm. Learned about the evolution of whales since 50 million years ago… they actually went from land-roaming to sea!

As you can see from the photo I took with the heart of a Blue whale… they are literally “big-hearted” haha. Anyway, researchers estimated some of the lowest-frequency sounds can travel through the ocean for as long as 16,000 km without losing power. It's the distance between Reykjavik and Brisbane! Wheels usually sleep with an eye open to stay aware of threats. They also have poor visions measuring only about a few metres and each eye sees a different projected image.

Humpback whales have been known to rescue divers from sharks by swimming under the diver and bringing it up to the surface on its back. Dolphins are known to help their sick pod mates and other injured animals by swimming under them and pushing them to the surface to breathe. Humpback whales are also known to interfere with attacking Orcas to help their prey escape... so they are brave creatures! And the reason whales and dolphins are clever is because they have specialised brain cells called spindle neurons that are associated with advanced abilities like recognising, remembering, reasoning, communicating, perceiving, adapting to change, problem-solving and understanding. These neurons are only found in large-brained mammals like humans, great apes and elephants.

Saw a sample penis of a harbour purpoise lol. Blue whale calves drink 250 litres of milk daily for the first seven months of their lives omg~

Came to a part of the exhibition where we saw one skeleton of a 25m blue whale washed ashore at Skagi in the late summer of 2010. The baleens (furry part) in their mouth helps them push out water and trap food.

Went up to level two where we saw many other skeletons of different species of whales. Very interesting.

Also watched "Bloody Tradition: Agree to Disagree", a 20-minute film about the grind in Faroe Islands. So on September 12, 2021, 1500 white-sided dolphins were slaughtered in Skálabotnur and the fjord in the Faroe Islands turned red, and that made many people abroad furious about the slaughtering. During the Grindadráp, normally pilot whales are driven to the coast by boats to be slaughtered for their meat.

In the film, it showed a father and son arguing their whole life about this “Grind” and still have different opinions. There were people for it and against it being interviewed. We saw who the people behind the Grind are, heard their views on the “traditional” pilot whale hunt and how they look to the future of the Grind.

Controversial. As an outsider, we would want to stop all unnecessary killings, but it’s also hard to comprehend from the angle of someone who’d been practicing a certain tradition for a long time.

Went to another corner and saw a drawing accompanied by a fact: if all the ice caps in Greenland were to melt, global sea levels would rise by about 7m.

After that, we went back to the hotel to have dinner at their restaurant at 7.30pm. The soya chili chicken wings was salty but the pulled pork pizza with spicy mayo and mustard tasted not bad. Bill came up to 7090 ISK, S$69.37.

Again because of the bad weather and road conditions, all my planned visits to the Dettifoss, the biggest waterfall in Europe, Stuolagil canyon, Egilsstaoir and Borgarfjorour eystri had to be cancelled because the roads are either closed or in icy/slippery conditions. I also had to come up with plan B in case the main road towards the East is not opened the next morning and we’d probably have to drive anticlockwise back to the West and down to the South from there. Definitely impacted my stays and a few of the activities already planned for.

Was diligently checking the road map and weather conditions often and even asking in Reddit and I was lucky to have a helpful reply. It was PotaTOH’s first time encountering such sticky weather overseas, but the inflexible planner in me has learned to play by ear with a lot of things. Bad mood used to take over me in the past when my “fixed plans” were derailed, but as I have more experience now, I managed to discuss with Potato and come up with my plan B well without letting bad emotion take hold of me.

The most challenging part was the fact that we’re driving a small car and doing a round-road trip in Iceland to get back to Keflavik ultimately, so the main road really had to be opened for us to travel around and get to our different accommodations and activities in different towns almost everyday. But, I must still say the Iceland road map website was very useful because road conditions were updated every 10 to 15 minutes. Again, the snowstorm was very unexpected in summer, which caught me off guard while planning. Iceland Road Trip was helpful sometimes, but not always prompt, so as travellers, I think we should take the initiative when it comes to plan change. *I guess the worst that could happen was if the bad weather goes on for weeks, we miss the flights home and we both cannot report to work on time lor lol.*