Monday 15th June
Last week in Tolne – well it’s not even a full week because we leave late Thursday night. Interesting daily brief today – I was updating FB with the weekly blog whilst listening to points pertaining to me in the daily run down of necessary chores when Greg ‘saw his arse’ and told me to put my Notebook away ( apparently whilst I can multi task, Greg can’t!!) But of course this isn’t the first time he’s ‘lost his rag’ – certainly working for him has been the least rewarding workaway experience to date. It’s like being caught between a rock and a hard place; either (a) ensure you’ve had his express permission to carry out a job in a certain way or (b) act on common sense and initiative and previous discussions to get a job done. Understandably after our military experiences (a) is insulting and unpalatable but (b) regularly leads to a ‘Greg tantrum’ especially as something that was acceptable to him one day, isn’t the next. We’ve never been so poorly managed for so little return. Today’s chores – this’ll probably come as no surprise but more wood chopping. Our favourite chore as it keeps us busy and ‘out of the line of fire!’
Tuesday 16th June
Our last day off and we go to Bangsbo Manor and gardens just outside Frederikshavn and go geocaching. 16 caches sought and found and a beautiful walk with fantastic weather.
Wednesday 17th June
Today the good weather comes to an end so we return to the guest bedroom that we’ve papered and painted. We empty it of furniture and sand down the skirting board and paint it and put another coat on the ceiling.
Tomorrow we’ll put a third coat of paint on the walls. Then we have a go throwing a clay pot with mixed results – we’ve been messing around for sometime when Janne comes in and gives us a demonstration. Of course she makes it look effortless. Daz manages to produce 3 pots but I’m not successful and my pots keep collapsing or flying off the wheel.
Thursday 18th June
Our final day and Alejandro has a day off today. It’s a busy day for Greg and Janne today. There’s a meeting about qualifying for grants which is really important as they need to generate as much supplementary income as possible since the B&B is only busy for the summer months. And this afternoon they have been booked by Hamilton’s (Greg’s oldest son) school to come in and demonstrate how to make Japanese kites. This is surprisingly lucrative and they leave shortly after lunch taking Alejandro so he can see Hjørring. Meanwhile we paint the walls in the guest bedroom and then we need to touch up the skirting board once the masking tape is removed. Once it’s done we return the furniture.
Daz puts the final layer of chalk/sand on Greg’s pizza oven whilst I tidy and hoover downstairs. And then we’re done and packed. We take Lucy for a ‘last walk’ and come home and cook our dinner. The house is empty – Janne’s parents were there when we went out but Iben was crying uncontrollably, and now they’ve gone out. Our train from Tolne to Copenhagen Airport is at 2308hrs. We spend the time watching Brooklyn 99, Daz’s new favourite show and saying farewell to Janne, Greg and Janne’s parents. Alejandro keeps us company and walks us over to the train platform. He’s such a sweetheart – a laid back, good-looking, qualified vintner, guitar playing musician from the mountains in Mendoza, Argentina. We will miss him – he’s a very entertaining lad.
Friday 19th June
We arrive at Copenhagen airport at 6am for a 1305hrs flight. We could have taken the 0430 train but this was scheduled to arrive only 2 hours before our flight, insufficient contingency for Mr Broadhurst who still gets into a ‘bit of a tizz’ on travel days. It would be sweet if it wasn’t so annoying!!! We’re not allowed to book in until 11am so we just try and nap until then.
Once we book in we find a replacement for Daz’s Kindle. We land at 1425hrs in Iceland, having gained 2 hours, and there’s problems with the baggage and everyone’s waiting for their luggage. Finally we’re out and we collect our hire car. It would have cost £70 each in bus and ferry fares to get to Bildudalur but they only run early in the day so we’d also need a hotel for the night. I’m driving because Daz has barely slept – it’s the first time I’ve driven in 5 months. It’s 440 km, much of it on dirt roads and Daz is completely breathtaken by the landscape and takes 100’s of photos.
There’s still snow on many of the hills and we later discover that a late spring combined with unusual winter snow fall from the south, instead of the north, has left all the snowed unthawed. Usually by mid June the snow would be gone. We finally arrive at Bildudalur at 9pm and Ása and Maggi (our hosts) are up with the 2 volunteers Tyler and Chantrelle, from Ohio who have been here 6 weeks. We have dinner, fresh Halibut caught by Maggi, which is very tasty. Maggi is a fisherman and owns a boat with his son. It seems he mostly fishes for cod, haddock and halibut. Apparently he catches mackerel but it’s not a popular fish out here so he wouldn’t eat it, just use it for bait.
Saturday 20th June
It’s the summer solstice and it didn’t get dark last night. We slept so well – the bed was soo comfortable. Last night Ása put us in Stiklur, the B&B. It’s got the most amazing power shower and for breakfast a great muesli. We’re in heaven. Ása has kindly agreed that we don’t need to start work until Monday and so she gives us directions to the bird cliff. It’s Látrabjarg Cliffs, the cliffs of all cliffs. They are 14 km long and 441m high, with a vertical drop into the ocean. This Is Iceland’s westernmost point and Europe’s biggest bird cliff with a bird population counted in millions including puffins, Northern Gannets, Guillemots and Razorbills.

Safe from foxes, the birds are fearless, and provide stunning photographic opportunities. The puffins are particularly tame and frequent the grassy, higher part of the cliffs. We spend ages getting up close and personal with many puffins and then we walk along the cliff for a couple of kms admiring the cliffs and ocean views and watching the birds fly on and off the cliffs.
Not so admirable is the smell!! It reminds me of penguin watching in the Falklands.
From Látrabjarg we drive to Rauõasandur (Red Sand), a beach of endless red sand – well not endless because it’s only 10km long and it’s not red either. We walk out towards the beach, the Arctic Terns are nesting in the fields along the footpath and they become aggressive when Daz wanders towards their nests and start swooping down on his head.
Even when he walks away they don’t relent and continue to attack him. At the end of the footpath there’s a channel about 30m wide separating us from the beach. We paddle through and it’s not too cold and then we walk into the Atlantic Ocean which is so cold that it’s agony for our feet and legs. It’s pretty rough too.
We walk back once again braving the attacks of the Arctic Terns and admiring the red-necked Phalarope swimming on the stream with their partners. We also see a curlew. There is so much bird life here and much of it oblivious to humans. There’s a seal colony here too and we can just make it out through the binos – we could walk out at low tide but Daz thinks we might meet the same fate as the Morecambe Bay cockle pickers. There is a tractor and trailer the farmer uses to take tourists out to the seals and hopefully we’ll get a chance to do that during our visit.
We drive back to Patreksfjordur to drop off the hire car. Tyler and Chantrelle have recommended a restaurant there, End of the World, and we go and check it out. It’s not open for usual service but instead are having an all you can eat barbecue’. So that’s our plan and we’re just having a beer and checking if Ása can pick us up later (she’s 25km away) when she phones to say she’s just realised she needs our room in the B&B for guests. So we come back and move into Àsa’s house. There’s a ‘steam punk’ festival on today and Ása is taking us all to the Royal feast of roasted lamb and vegetables.
Sunday 21st June.
Maggi has gone fishing today at 6am and we don’t expect him back until Thursday. The B&B has a complete turnover of guests so Ása is locked in the laundry room dealing with the mountain of dirty laundry. Daz and I wander through the village. Bildudalur enjoys some of the best summer weather in the Westfjords. It’s on the coast of Arnarfjörõur and is sheltered from the sea breeze. Arnarfjörõur is one of the largest and most spectacular fjords in Iceland. It’s surrounded by steep mountains and valleys and is famous for its beautiful landscape. The largest industry in Bildudalur is a sea mineral plant that processes calcified red seaweed harvested from the seabed and mainly used in animal feed and fertiliser.
From the village we walk north west along the fjord coast to a beautiful beach.
We’re walking outwards over the sand when we spot a brown mound – we walk towards it and finally realise it’s a young chick. It’s brown with black spots and is brilliantly camouflaged against the browny/black sand.
It doesn’t run away or take any notice of us. We look round expecting a defensive mother to come running to protect her young but don’t see anything. We walk away and find another 2 chicks. We walk along the beach and back to the chicks but they are no longer there. We later find out they’re the young of the Arctic Tern.
Monday 22nd June
Our first day of work. We go to the B&B for breakfast. Our chores today: to do the laundry, clear cellar of the B&B, put a lock on the cellar door and put the Barbecue together.
After our chores we take the car – yes there’s a little Vauxhall Corsa at the disposal of the volunteers which we take along the shore of the fjord, to Selárdalur to view the artwork of Samúel Jónsson. As Daz put it, it’s completely underwhelming!!
The guy was never trained in art and it shows!!!