There...

I cannot believe it but I am finally here!! In Iceland! Ready to start a new chapter in my life...
I first was driven to an absolutely lovely (even if slightly small) flat that will be our home for the landbased work for the next 3 months.

Ok, quick explanation. There are two places, where our little Minke whale group (I think from now on I might refer to us as the WISP - whale in sight project) is mainly on the look-out for whales. There is boat-based, meaning we will spend our life on 2 boats in the harbour of Reykjavik. The first boat is the whale-watching boat, on which we will be from 9am (first tour starts) until...not actually quite sure until when. I am guessing, as there are 3 tours per day, each lasting about 3 hours and always 1 hour being between the tours, I will probably finish at 8pm. So eleven hours of joy! (Mathematical genius as you might have noticed! Good that you don’t know how long that took me to calculate though!). After which we will move to the second boat, which apparently is moored right next to the whale-watching boat, basically acting as our little sleeping vessel. Well I say little, but currently there are 4 people (each having their own cabin) and apparently 6 people in total can sleep on it. And on top of that there is a kitchen, a lounge, an ‘office’, a museum! So not so small after all I am guessing!

The second WISP hangout is land-based; near Keflavik to be exact. We are sleeping in an old American Army base that was turned into student apartments for the studious people at the University of Reykjavik. The apartment has 2 walk-in closets, is en-suite, has a little TV and is wireless! So really, it’s not the hard life! And before you ask, yes there is a kitchen - its communal, but to be honest, currently I think there will be very little communal get togethers, as the place seems pretty deserted. We will drive out in our own little car to the nearby lighthouse, on which, right at the top, we will be waiting, watching, and hoping that a black/white strip will appear on the horizon…
It is now nearly 7.30am and it its looking slightly overcast outside, so hopefully there won’t be torrents of rain on my first trip out on the whale-watching boat! And even if, we apparently have some really fashionable red and black full body suits on the whale-watching boat that we wear if its too cold/windy/rainy/going to fall of the boat type of weather! Ok, others are up, it is time to rock and roll (quite literally in a boat-kind of way)!

Cheers until I have felt the splash of the water on my face!