Hello again, Blogonauts!

Wednesday was devoted to visiting Grimsey Island, which can be reached via a 42-mile ferry ride north of the fjord-side town of Dalvik.

Why, you may ask, venture 42 miles north of Dalvik? Two primary reasons: First, Grimsey is crossed by the Arctic Circle and so it gave me a chance to walk over that semi-geographical boundary. Second, puffins…Atlantic Puffins.

In no way do I qualify as an avid birder, but colorful birds can make my heart flutter. And with the Atlantic Puffins, rather than audacious plumage, it's their multi-colored beaks that gain the most attention. Plus, puffin have the endearing habit of nesting in large colonies…and now is nesting season.

So I rose early and drove around the luscious Tröllaskagi peninsula. The roadway sails high above the Greenland Sea portion of the Arctic Ocean, then sinks again to the shores of one fjord or another. Very dramatic, if momentarily nerve racking.

(And speaking of nerve racking, the route passes through four long tunnels, two of which were SINGLE-LANE thoroughfares. Although they were the shortest ones in the collection of tunnels, they nonetheless were each half-a-mile or longer. The protocol is for cars who meet oncoming traffic to use too-infrequent pull-outs. I was glad to leave each of them in my rear-view mirror.)

Once in Dalvik, I boarded the not-too-crowded ferry, which left about 9:15 on a crossing to Grimsey Island. It took about 4 hours. I will spare you the details, but it was for journeys like these that motion sickness pills were invented. Dry land felt medicinal.

The island is Iceland scenic, walkably small, and it has a small settlement and fishing fleet. So, to find puffins, I set out on foot, thinking they would be outside the village.

Au contraire! Within 50 yards of leaving the harbor, I found the cliffsides filled with the little parrot-like seabirds.

Puffins seem nearly fearless. They convene in such numbers that it looks like spring break in Fort Lauderdale, but only if Fort Lauderdale sat 100 feet above the ocean. I assume that they are standing guard over their nests. But it is challenging to distinguish between standing guard and just standing around with your chums, looking prett

As I snapped photos of puffins, other birds, and the landscape (see today's photo album), there was always the implied-but-maybe-real threat that an Arctic Tern would leave a talon-shaped gash in my noggin. They, too, are nesting here, but rather than quietly standing guard, they scream ferociously while dive bombing any critter that even walks nearby. The "ignore it and it will go away" strategy worked for me…today.

After spending 4 hours on the island, the ferry brought most of us back to Dalvik. This leg of the trip was blessedly less stomach churning. I was even able to write much of this blog on in the passenger cabin.

Tomorrow is Iceland's national day, the equivalent of the US's July 4th. I'll let you know later how the local Icelanders mark the occasion.

Blog to you later!