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.