Grimsey, here we come !

In September 20, we couldn’t really go anywhere due to the well known COVID situation. Life in Iceland is great but the need to go somewhere else was getting irresistible. My friends Ragnar, Jay and I decided to travel in Iceland but out of Iceland. Grimsey island…about 40 km off the north coast ! Surrounded by the wide Arctic Ocean and about 5 square kilometers, Grimsey sounded like a great adventure. 20 brave persons live there permanently. They have to be flexible and take care of themselves.

One same lady :

- received us at the dock and took care of the boat’s arrival and safety.

- ran the guesthouse where we stayed

- took care of the souvenir shop and offered waffles and coffee

- was handling the post office

- did the entrance and surveillance at the swimming-pool

We joked that she would probably also be the pilot that would fly us on our way back and it came as a surprise that she was not.

We took the boat from Dalvik on our way to Grimsey. I had planned a lot for the 3 hours 30 that the trip would last. In front of the skeptical crew lady, I took out of my luggage playing cards, novel, computer, sketchbooks and pencils to keep busy. I didn’t expect I would spend the whole trip switching between this 2 bad options : being nauseous inside surrounded by moaning sick people (a boy threw up missing our backpack by few cm) or being outside in the cold freezing weather, getting wet each time a big wave would hit the boat. The trip was long and painful. The crew told us that they would have to change all the boat’s carpet because of all the sick people and didn’t gain anything out of this trip. Aïe.

The arrival was a relief. We were only 3 staying in the little guesthouse perched on the hill in front of the harbor. On the way back, we would fly…