Goals for kayaking in Iceland
1. Don’t flip over ✅
2. See seals ✅
3. See puffins ❌
Our kayak tour was stunning. We met our tour guide in the town of Ísafjörður and took a van ride over the the fjord of Reykjarfjörður. After a short demonstration of how to kayak we got geared up and were underway. Our guide first showed us some underwater geothermic vents but we had to stay a good distance back because the warm water would make the plastic kayaks soft. Now it was time to venture further in the fjord.
Seal entertainment
The seals on our kayak tour were either cautious of us or wanted to see us tip over. They liked to come up behind you just close enough that you could hear them break the plane of the water causing an instinct to turn around quickly. In a kayak that motion is not preferred to those who want to stay dry and warm. Perhaps if you are experienced with kayaking this is not a problem. We are mere amateurs. The seals won in the end as one of the people of the tour flipped over trying to take a picture of a seal with his phone.
Lunch was served at the halfway point and we all got out and had a lovely lunch in the warm sun. The trip was timed perfectly as we hit the tides with the direction that we were kayaking.
A word of warning about driving the fjords in Iceland: There are very few bridges across them and while distances look close on a map it takes a lot of time to go in and out of the fjords. Our guest house was a good 1.5 – 2 hrs to Ísafjörður.
Someday I’ll see a puffin.
