Page 25 - 2000 ICELAND

Turned out we had stumbled on an arctic tern nesting ground. They did not
want us near their nests or babies. We tried to honor their wishes as we

dodged and ducked. Some plovers were also nesting in the area and we saw
many Sarah Bernhardt performances by the adults who limped and

staggered away in front of us trying to entice us to go after them instead of
their helpless chicks. The ruse certainly worked—we didn’t eat a single baby

plover.

As we left the bluff, the terns crowed and boasted of their successes in

routing the “invaders” off their turf. All got quiet again when we reached
the bottom of the hill and exited from their view.

After our foray into bird-watching, we decided we deserved a dessert so we

went back to the pub and had chocolate sundaes (just as good in Iceland as
at home). However, sometime during our village wanderings, picture

takings, or dessert eating, the ship returned to the harbor with all our group
aboard and we didn't see them disembark.

When we left the restaurant, we saw the docked boat but no sign of our

travel companions and the bus was not parked where we had left it. So we

began to wonder what we would do in that tiny village, abandoned by our
tour leader, with no Icelandic language facility, very few Kroners, and no

knowledge about where the group was heading next. While Kay waited on
the harbor-side street to see if the bus would come back for us, I ran up the

very steep hill to the main thoroughfare and looked frantically up and down,
but no bus was in site. But then I spotted a couple members of our group

coming out of a pretty church which we had visited earlier. Thank

goodness, I recognized them. I called Kay up the steps to the main street
and we followed the group members to find the bus. We never did let

anyone know that we had temporarily felt abandoned.

Needless to say, everyday was crammed with many activities because the
light never fails! So you can tour, hike, sight-see, etc., all day and all night if

your body can keep up the pace.