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| Best seat on the boat. |
If somehow you've stumbled across this blog by Googling "the best time to go whale watching in Iceland", you've come to the right place because I can succinctly answer that question in two words: Not February.
You're welcome.
Now back to why I originally wrote this blog...
On the surface my experience of whale watching in Iceland was an abject failure on every level.
In the space of five hours - the majority of which was spent huddling like penguins on the deck of a rickety old boat called Andrea - we saw a grand total of zero whales. Zero. Despite having high hopes of fulfilling childhood dreams that first began upon seeing Free Willy on Channel 5 one Sunday evening in 1999, we didn't even see as much as a fin scratch the surface of the freezing North Atlantic.
BUT,
And this may come as a shock, but it was worth every penny (or 9,900 Icelandic krona if we're being technical about it).
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| The beautiful snowcapped mountains |
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| Reykjavik Harbour |
Before me and Callum even booked whale watching we knew that we were going at completely the wrong time of year if we wanted a good chance of seeing whales. I've tried to find the probability table we discovered online that listed the likelihood of seeing whales in Iceland by each month of the year, but I cannot, for the life of me, find it anywhere. Typical. So, I guess I'll just have to try and describe it for you by memory; in short, February was quite blatantly the worst month of the entire year to go whale watching.
Spring and summer are definitely the time to go if you were wondering and I remember reading somewhere that in June, July and August there is a 98% success rate of seeing whales on operated tours. Lucky bastards. From experience I can probaly say that it'll be a hell of a lot warmer on the deck of a boat that time of year too!!!
So, what I'm getting at is that we weren't expecting to see whales, we just really, really hoped we would.
In all honestly I was expecting the tour boat to be empty. One, as I've just explained, it wasn't the time of year for whale watching - any idiot knew that! And, two, it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. I mean fucking freezing. But hey, what do I know because the boat was packed.
The tour began with the Captain staggering around the boat offering out sea sickness pills and mumbling under his breath that it was going to be a "hell of a rough ride". Good. This was not the news Callum needed to hear. I may have mentioned in other blog posts that Callum has a deep-seated fear of boats; on our last holiday I managed to lure him onto a boat and we all know what a disaster that turned out to be. (You can read that little gem here if you want). Once again, I had finally manage to twist his arm into coming on a boat trip with me and within five seconds of setting foot onboard we were being strongly advised to take pills to make the journey stomachable.
Of course, we took them, but this was not the start I had been hoping for. The colour had completely drained from Callum's face and he refused to talk to me for the first 15 minutes. He was in a deep state of shock. To be fair, it was somewhat understandable. That very morning we had gone on a walk around Reykjavik Harbour and I'm not joking when I say that every single plaque in that place made reference to shipwrecks, sinkings and mass drownings. It was a bit ominous to say the least and definitely not the kind of spiel you want to be reading if you have a fear of boats and are about to spend five hours at the mercy of the cruel North Atlantic.
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| Andrea. |
Before we went to the top deck of Andrea we were advised to wrap up in the luminous yellow overalls provided. We were already quite wrapped up in thermals, and jumpers, and coats, and part of me thought "nah, mate I don't need any more layers, thank you" but THANK GOD I did decide to put them on because I can't describe in words how cold it was on the deck of that boat once that sea breeze kicked in.
As you know, we didn't get to see any whales (waaaaaa) but the scenery we saw from the deck of that boat definitely made up for it. Reykjavik is just as stunning from water as it is from land, and sailing next to the snowcapped mountains is a sight I don't think I will ever forget. We were lucky enough to find a little bench right at the stern of the boat and oh my god, it was the seat of dreams. It was the Nordic equivalent of Rose and Jack's "king of the world" spot in Titanic. (Bold claim, I know, but true). It was so cold from that little bench that my contact lenses felt like they'd been frozen to my eyeballs but even that wasn't going to make me retreat to the warm deck below.
Some people decided to sit indoors for the entirety of the trip, which ya know, each to their own, but REALLY?! What's the point? Where's the fun and sense of adventure if don't allow yourself to feel that Arctic breeze hitting you in the face like a tonne of bricks? And also, if we did get lucky enough to see a whale, why the hell would you want to experience that once in a lifetime sight from behind a window? You may as well just stay at home and watch Attenborough and save yourself 9,900ISK! But as I said, each to their own...
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| Post sea sickness pills. Ballin'. |
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| Closest thing to a whale we saw all day...ha ha...ha (Me. This is me.) |
Although we didn't see any whales on our trip, like I said it was SO worth it. I'm not just saying this to be corny or cringey, or poetic, or whatever but it was just nice just knowing they were out there somewhere. It was nice sailing along just knowing that any whales out there were free and not held in captivity. I couldn't help but think of Blackfish as we were skimming along the waves and just thinking how downright wrong it is to keep animals like that in captivity. They belong in the ocean, not in some man made hell hole where they can be exploited for profit.
If you ever get the chance to go whale watching, do it. Seriously, do it. Even if it isn't the season for it, you never know, you might get lucky. I know for sure I'll be going again one day!
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