Tales of Whales Tails from Iceland
Humpback Whales in Iceland
Being on a boat at the mercy of the waves is most definitely not Florinda’s scene. She’s the most land-lubbing landlubber I have ever met. It probably has something to do with her being born and bred in one of the driest parts of inner Catalonia, where the closest thing to a lake that she encountered in her childhood would have been a circular algae-covered irrigation pool of some 3 metres in diameter, where the frogs came back out of hiding after the boisterous, splashing kids had left.
If it’s not that then it must be something to do with the inner ear.
Anyway, Florinda does not bear up at all well in a swell, or even a gentle sway. So I had serious doubts that she would enjoy our first whale-watching experience in Iceland, even though she assured me with her smile that whatever occurred the overall balance of the experience would be in our favour.
The truth is that we both really wanted to see Humpback Whales. I harboured my doubts that we would, despite the skipper’s obvious confidence and cheer, as privately as I could.
Almost as soon as we careened out of the harbour into the fjord we were on the trail of a few Humpback Whales that the first mate had already observed. For the next hour or so our experience with the whales was an unforgettable one, and it wasn’t until after we had left the whales and the skipper stationed the boat for his passengers to try their hand at a spot of cod fishing that Florinda returned to her dryland roots; the regular rock and sway of the boat was starting to make her feel seasick!
Florinda’s expression of delight
Nevertheless, I managed to get this photo of her just before that moment. The look of childish delight on her face as she hopefully and unsuccessfully casts and fishes for an unsuspecting cod still warms my heart and brings gentle tears of tenderness to my eyes.
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