Latrabjarg

7-20-10    Funny story. Berry and I went to dinner. We decided on a pizza, so I went to the counter and began to order. Understand that the Icelandic girl behind the counter spoke English, but was translating what I said into her language. I asked if we could possibly have a "pizza with everything". I could not read the Icelandic on the menu, so I tried to make it easy. A "pizza with everything", I said. Her eyes got big. She asked carefully, "Everything?" I suddenly realized that she took what I said literally and was truly shocked that I seemed to want "everything" on a pizza. Everything on a pizza... did that mean the pickled herring too, the cloth napkins on a pizza ?... a rusty tire tool ?... Did I mean Everything??? It was very funny. I pointed to the second pizza on her list and we ate.

Latrabjarg is one of three gigantic rookeries in western Iceland. On the map, it is the westernmost point of the largest peninsula in northwest Iceland. The road to it is sometimes a gravel cart path between a mountain and a sheer cliff. It was terrifying. It reminded me of some Bolivian vacation tales I'd heard of where a bus full of campesinos goes off the edge into the stony abyss. The numerous black Ravens (Corvus corax) along the way were ominous. We finally made it to one of the finest birding spots on the planet. A 50 meter tall, 14 kilometer long curtain of closely packed puffins, guillemots and gulls with their young.

There were Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) just standing there, looking up at the gawking human faces going by. We scoped the cliff face to catch the Bruennich's Guillemot (Uria lomvia) which does not breed much in other places, the Common Guillemot (Uria aalge) and even a "bridled variety" of Common Guillemot ( it has a thin white eyering with an added line, which resembles a bridle ).

Bridled Guillimot

We had seen the Black Guillemot on Flatey Island but none were here at Latrabjarg. The Razorbill (Alca torda) though was present and easily identifiable with his oddly shaped and distinctly marked bill.

Razorbill

Gulls included the Glaucous Gull, Kittiwake and the Common Gull, all breeding with young, their nests in crags in the cliff face. The trip in from the little town of Patreksfjordur takes one hour 15 minutes, so we packed a picnic lunch.

Flora we saw and identified just today were :

1. Wild Angelica (Angelica archangelica)
2. Moss Campion (Silene acaulis )
3. Sea Campion (Silene uniflora)
4. Nutka Lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis)
5. Sea Mayweed (Matricaria maritima)

They get golden pears here from South Africa and they are juicier and sweeter than our Anjou pears. Goods are generally more expensive here, because they have to import everything. Remember, the sun does not shine in December. And it is quite cold right now in July. They have to greenhouse anything they want to eat, or else import it.

We're having lamb for dinner. Coffee is free with any entree. They have soup a lot and drink coffee here, to warm up, I think.

-Robert

(photo by andyg)