Gleðileg jól

December 23, 8am

Howling rain -
followed by
howling snow -
followed by
damp, howling wind
was Iceland at Christmas.

No streambed safe shelter.
Silly scientist
tossed about like paper.
Out of reach,
Out of touch,
Out in Kolgrafafjörður.

In the shaking headlights of my quavering truck
debris flies past.
Maybe an airborne mink
(or two?)
- who knows.



Well, it was all a bit crazy attempting telemetry this morning - the SW wind roared as it gusted down the valley from over the local 800-1000m peaks. It was pretty dramatic and flattened me a good few times. I am trying - desperately now! - to 'finish' this last mink before Christmas.... She has been a wiley one and seems to like playing hide and seek in the dark with me. Not good for data-collection!

Of course, that was this morning and tonight it is dead-calm. Phew! - it´s nice to be able to walk the streets upright once more.

Had a big thaw and heavy weather recently, which has drowned out the snow and made any unvegetated ground into sloppy Christmas puddin´consistency. That´s exactly what it is like! And makes me feel very festive in the early hours of the morning.

As for what´s next weather-wise, here´s the Christmas forecast.




Handy to be able to check both news in English and weather at the same time. Hmmm...I wonder what 'manly dry' might be?

(explanation: my TV has funny reception)

Anyhow, I sent an email round to most folk - here´s to a very happy Christmas!

Gleðileg jól og heillaríkt komadi ár

I brave Reykjavik

After discussion with others and perusing a few blogs more sophisticated than my own I have attempted to get with the times. So, this post introduces 'The Flickr' (Flicka, Flick-... whatever the hell it is). I´m struggling to get it to look fancy but we shall see! Of course, those new to this blog will discover it in this most modern and dynamic form anyway...

There are some beautiful blogs out in cyberspace. In contrast, my blog is not very artful, or even very up-to-date, but hey, I’m not too concerned. It started as a source of pics to share with the folk back home whilst I was on my overseas trips. It will likely not evolve much past this! I haven’t any fancy laptop, and don’t enthuse about being in the office out of hours: I'm afraid this is as good as it is gonna get.

Excuses/defence over, I was in Reykjavik last weekend, for a pre-xmas, present-driven trip to the concrete jungle. T'was my first urban adventure since I´ve been here, and the contrast with rural Iceland is a big slap in the face. But it was great, as I needed a bit of a break from the mink (....the darkness, the cold, etc.). I stayed with Annie Rhiannon, who is a blog-maestro in my opinion, and a friendly Welsh lass to-boot, who gave me a lift when I was hitching here on first arrival... As I staggered into her house she immediately handed me a beer and got a bath of Icelandic dimensions going for me. This was followed by a (very unIcelandic) curry, (very Icelandic) Glögg (spiced/mulled wine) and a party til 5am with some sort of clubbing experience at around 3am. Not sure about my 'country mouse' stamina for northern latitude night clubs heaving in the wee hours, but the trip out of the country was a great escape for me. It was all good. I didn’t get any decent photos as the light is pretty dim these days (and weather not great this w'end).

















Lastly... but not at all leastly....I was also - finally - ice climbing last weekend (before the partying, I should add). After a while of looking for like-minded enthusiasts in Iceland since I’ve been here, I reveled in sharing the great and glorious Icelandic outdoors with a German called Bernd (who had responded to my ad. in the city bouldering wall). Though I made a roooight royal mess of this exquisitely beautiful waterfall, and I’ve slightly knackered up my knee, it was worth the pain! This day out was at a spot called Hvalfjörður, which is where the 198m Glymur waterfall is found: Iceland’s highest.

....and then there was snow

We´ve been experiencing a cold-snap since I got back from the UK last week. Here's a few photos to make you shiver!






















Here´s how I get to spend the cold nights if Mr. Mink is napping close to the highway (the book is by a certain E Shackleton - makes my complaints of frosty toes pale...). The telemetry antenna balanced delicately on the steering wheel can make driving slightly hazardous if the mink decides to up and go. I´m sat in swathes of clothes, which restricts my movement - if you can imagine it, I move rather like a robot. I often sit over on the passenger side to stretch out the old leg-bones (is this starting to sound cushy? I think so. Hmmm). Then, it´s all action stations if the mink takes off, and I leap over to the drivers side in one balletic move (er, perhaps more like Michelin Man....).




















And in minus conditions, there is always the open air pool to enjoy... esp the 42 C 'hot pot' - ahhhh

Sheep mustering

For my S Hemisphere friends out there! There may not be the thousands of sheep that there are Down South, but last weekend I volunteered my flapping arms and voice to help bring a few Icelandic woollies down from the hills.

Weekend on the peninsula

I am working nights presently - monitoring one minks´ activity and recording its´ location every 15mins during a 6 hour period. The particular mink I follow has a tendency to be very active at night and inactive during the daylight hours. This means on a lovely, calm, sunny day I can relax in one spot and enjoy the autumn sun (or in bad weather, freeze in the rain!).... but he makes me dash around like crazy at night!

The weather recently has been glorious. I had the weekend off and camped near Búðir, comprising an extinct volcano and lava field of several square kilometres (apparently the lava is riddled with leprechans....). I then hiked up in hills towards the mighty Snæfellsjökull glacier. This glacier is the setting for the famous 'Journey To The Centre Of The Earth', written in 1864 by Jules Verne. I have yet to read the book, but apparently there's a route from Iceland to Italy via this glacier - funky.

my feet, fish in the harbour and an unexpected glacier

My feet at the top of Drápuhlíðarfall (527m), the local hill. I hitched out there on a beautiful, warm day. You can see Stykkishölmur in the very far distance (about 5 k away), and island-riddled Breðafjörður (the bay) beyond.




Me at Hellnar harbour, on the S coast of the peninsula, where I ate a bowl of fish soup with my new boss and family on a drive round the peninsula the Sunday I arrived. Seems fish soup is always on the menu... odd that...





After a day of rain on our drive round the coast, the clouds cleared to reveal the Snæfellsjökull glacier, 1446m.

....and the minxy mink

Here are a few shots of mink signs, traps, and mink in surgery. The mink have radio-transmitters implanted inter-peritonially (in the abdominal cavity). This is because as they have such small, slender necks collars are - apparently - hard to fit comfortably. We release the mink where we found them after their surgery and I am tracking the movements of the mink in relation to the new causeway that has been built a few years back. There is public interest to ascertain how mink are using the area since the road was built. This work follows a study done 3 yrs ago, before the building of the bridge.

Where I work, about 20 mins from town

Maybe you would like to see my workplace that I commute to each day. This is the supposed 'landfill' that I was wondering/slightly worrying/mildly panicking about working at. Seems the word was lost in translation - in Icelandic 'landfill' is a built-up area. In this case, a causeway, which bridges Kolgrafafjörður (the bay in the pics). It seems OK to me. Shown here are some photos of my commute to work, the causeway, area in general and also first snow we had last week (the truck is parked at my lunchspot!)

Life in Stykkishólmur, Skülagata, 9

Well, this is my new pad, 2 h.v., Skülagata 9, Stykkishölmur. It´s a great flat, on the 3rd floor, with a tremendous view over a local harbour and this very unusual-looking church.

hello everyone

Hi everyone

Just to let you know that I arrived safely in Iceland. I will let you know my progress throughout the following year as it happens! I have been trying to create a web-site for news and pics... here goes!

this blogging is all very new to me - apologies if I ramble and rant and get images and news posted upside-down at times! It´s all work in progress to me!

ps. no mink yet! 24.08.06