Today’s Daily Program:
So dawns our last full day aboard Le Lyrial – and it does so in familiar fashion:
“Bonjour, chez passengers – there are humpback whales outside, if you wish to go see.”
The humpbacks had the courtesy to wake us after 8 am, but we are still reluctant. It’s hard to get excited about humpback whales when you’ve lived this in Antarctica:
So when the call goes up on our final sea day of the cruise, we groan, and we blink our eyes, and we stretch – then we go outside, because that’s why we’re here.
And we are not disappointed:
Nor is the scenery along the Westfjords anything to sneer at:
We carry on with breakfast, and I finally buckle and order some of the chocolate pancakes:
White chocolate this morning – but still very tasty!
We wrap right around the time we reach the Dynjandi waterfall. Just a ship’s cruise today – for reasons that are still not entirely clear – but we don’t mind having some time onboard to get ourselves sorted before disembarkation tomorrow.
Initially the view is foggy, allowing us little more than a scenic view of the car park and lowest waterfalls:
But eventually the fog starts to lift:
And lift:
A little bit more:
Until finally:
Not bad, all considered
We then continue to cruise our way out of the Westfjords system:
And that’s when the whales make an encore appearance – up close and personal:
One of the guides on our Cape-to-Cape cruise previously joked, “People must hate whales – they always cheer when the whales go away.”
We’ll be uploading the back-of-fluke photos to Happywhale to help with their tracking efforts
Eventually, the captain comes on to apologize – we simply have to move on, or we won’t get anywhere today.
Somewhere in this window we finally manage to check in to our Blue car rental. Rental cars are in extremely short supply in Iceland, so it’s worth booking well in advance. It’s also worth considering whether you might need to pick up from or return to different locations – most cruise ships dock in close to Reykjavik, which is a significant distance away from the Keflavik airport.
But soon it’s time to head downstairs for a teaser of the expedition video – and what a video it is. Even the teaser itself runs to 20 minutes, while the actual video will run more than 40 minutes in total. We have already agreed to purchase said video, as it’s one of our most treasured keepsakes of our first three Silversea expedition cruises. Everytime after we have since highlighted its importance and how much we want Silvesea to reinstate it – even if you have to pay for the video, but without result. Ah, well. We’ll keep trying.
After the video, Luana goes through the pre-departure information – we’ll be arriving in Hafnarfjörður at 7 am, with disembarkation beginning at 7:30 am. Passports will be available prior to 4 pm, and we’ll be getting our invoice sometime after 6 pm. If we agree with the charges – and hopefully there are no issues with the laundry – then we do not need to take any further action, as our credit cards will be billed automatically. Photos and videos – if ordered – will be delivered this evening.
Bags need to go outside prior to 6 am, and we need to leave our cabins by 8 am. Breakfast will end at 8:30 am, and will only be served at the Restaurant. We also go through the various disembarkation groups, including individuals disembarking on their own who should be headed ashore at 8:50 am. We’ve booked a taxi through Hreyfill to pick us up at 9:15 am, which should give us enough to get through the port and immigration.
We’re out in the open water at this stage, and are back to the moderate 2 to 2.5 metre swell we’ve had on most of our sea days:
You feel the swell more in a smaller ship like Lyrial, but it’s nothing we can’t handle
Off to lunch – another delicious round of fish and chips (not pictured). The chips aren’t quite as hot and crisp as they were the first time around, but the fish is excellent. I have a half piece of the chocolate tart for dessert. (No pineapple, sadly, as we appear to have run out.)
Back up to Observation for a spell, just in time for the ship’s cruise to pass by Látrabjarg – the largest seabird cliff in Europe:
It’s tough to see from a distance. Initially we think we see some rare and unusual bird perched on the cliff:
But it’s Tourist tourista:
Not especially rare, but always unusual
Still, we enjoy the cliff scrolling past like some massive mosaic:
It’s hard to spot the birds from this distance – even with my telephoto – but it makes for some interesting composites of landscape and wildlife. (“Wildscape?” Hmm. Sounds better than “Landlife” at least.)
If you can spot more than seven birds in this photo, you’re doing better than me
We then head for the final recap:
“Can you believe it? 10 polar bears!”
David is brief, though he highlights the truly exceptional adventure we’ve had and reminds us that Le Lyrial will be conducting a ship’s cruise for the next four hours or so, and who knows what we might find out here?
We then move on to some do-what-you-want recaps. We start with Roger, who shows us how to pack your parka in case – unlike us – you did not bring a vac-pack system with you. He starts by crossing the sleeves, then folding the parka in thirds lengthwise across the shoulders. You then fold the bottom portion up and tuck it inside the hood. Not only do you have a neatly compressed parka, but it also can double as a pillow!
Alex then delivers a presentation highlighting how gender inequality can affect even natural history studies – he provides a brief introduction to the baculum (penis bone), and we’re interested to learn that it is not attached to the rest of the skeleton and that – in the case of polar bears – it’s particularly affected by pollution.
However, Alex further notes that the scientific literature regarding the baculum is more than 100 times more prevalent that scientific literature regarding baubellum (clitoral bone) – 24,4000 scientific papers regarding the baculum compared to a mere 180 regarding the baubellum. Just one small example of how sexism extends into even natural history.
Christina poses an amusing quiz – my personal favourite is what we should do in the event of a polar bear sighting.
The kids vote that I am most likely to answer D.) approach the polar bear in the hopes of getting a better photo, while my wife is most likely to answer C.) kick someone else before running away so that the polar bear will eat them instead. (The correct answer was B.) Stay calm and listen to your expedition guides.)
Nicolas then present a series of photographs along with a poignant narration, asking how many more generations will be able to witness the king of the Arctic – the polar bear – in his natural habitat?
He encourages us all to take some sort of action – no matter how minor – to help preserve the Arctic.
David finishes by bringing the expedition team on stage to take a well-deserved bow:
Still can’t believe we circumnavigated Spitsbergen and saw 10 polar bears in the process
Back to the room for one last glass of champagne on the balcony, when we get the call – dolphins have been spotted on the starboard side:
Despite the initial confusion, these are white beaked dolphins and not the orcas that were initially announced over the ship’s speaker. (My wife knew that it couldn’t possibly be orcas, as no one ever sees orcas if she’s nearby.)
Still, a remarkable final sighting to end a fantastic cruise – though we stick around for just a little more scenery:
We then dash around a bit to handle the last bit of administration – tipping, to be precise. Ponant’s language around gratuities is extremely confusing, with US dollar fares stating that tips are included and Euro language fares stating that tips are extra.
Accustomed as we are to Silversea’s ‘tips included’ policy, we eventually decide to provide tips to those who have directly provided us with exceptional service as well as donating to the crew fund. I hope this isn’t unduly cutting anyone out – if anyone has more information about the mechanics of how tips are divided, we’re glad to keep that in mind for future trips.
We are supposed to head up to the Captain’s Farewell Gala, but we figure we’ve had enough briefings and presentations at this stage. Instead we go to dinner at the Grill early. (We figure that – having never eaten at the Restaurant for lunch or for dinner, we aren’t about to start on the final Gala night.) However, we miss the updated timing in the Daily Program and so end up about 30 minutes early. Oops. We’ll bear that in mind for next time – though we were not the only guests to make that mistake.
We had a fantastic dinner of veal tenderloin, shrimp tempura, and mashed potato:
One last bad buffet photo for those who thought they were in the clear
We then went back to our room to enjoy one last sunset, and one more beverage before enjoying our final sleep upon Le Lyrial – with the hope that tomorrow’s road trip to Westfjords would prove less painful than our trip to Oban.
Surely they’ll give us a suitable rental car this time – right?