This morning we visited the very picturesque island of Flatey. Yes, it is flat. Plenty of birds: in the water, in the air, on the land… chirping, cheeping, and sometimes screaming… more amusing than annoying.
Flatey Island is one of the largest of the hundreds and hundreds of islands in Breidafjord. And large is a relative term. You could walk the length of the island in a half an hour and some change, but it is charming.
Flatey was quite the important place. Today there are less than 20 winter residences, but over 200 years ago there were several hundred people living here year-round. In 1172 an Augustinian monastery was built. In 1569 the Hanseatic League began trading here. Plenty of fish, led to plenty of money, led to plenty of wealth, led to great importance.
Well, much quieter today, except for some of the birds. Yes, there are colorful old houses, a small church, and gorgeous wildflowers.
In the afternoon, on our way to Reykjavik, we stopped at the Latrabjarg Cliffs, the site of the largest razorbill colony in the world. There are plenty of other bird species here as well, virtually all the members of the auk family in the North Atlantic, as well as ravens and some gannets… my bird-o-phile friends were quite excited about the gannets in this out-of-the-way place. The cliffs are perfect for nesting, like a giant layer cake, with ledges at every layer.
For our afternoon, this visit is a very pleasant segue, an on-deck experience between bouts of photo editing and packing, as it is the last day of our expedition. During the farewell cocktails our Captain Leif Skog, reminded us of how far we have traveled, both physically and I might say, metaphysically… from the wilderness of Svalbard to near Arctic civilization, both ancient and new, a remarkably broad diversity in a shrinking world.
