Husavik

Day 61 to 62. 28th to 29th August. Husavic, Iceland (North).

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

This is Husavik.  I don’t show anything of the town itself.  What caught my attention were the boats moored at the dock.

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

I arrived at Husavik in the late afternoon, coming from Dettifoss, Selfoss, Verterdalur and Ásbyrgi earlier in the day.

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

Husavik was the first Scandinavian settlement in Iceland.  The Swedish Viking Garðar Svavarsson sailed round Iceland and wintered here in 870.  He built a house on shore and hence Husavik means Bay of Houses.

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

The Landnámabók or Book of Settlements relates early settlement events between about 870 and 930 and the first version probably dates back to the 12th century.   It is the source of information for Garðar Svavarsson’s adventures.  It records that when he sailed away the next spring, a man called Náttfari escaped from the party in a boat with a young servant woman.  They settled on the other side of the bay from Husavik and thus became the first permanent settlers in Iceland, apart from a few Irish monks.

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

For the next thousand years there was not much at Husavik.  It only became a town in the late nineteenth century when it became a port for exporting sulphur to Europe to make gunpowder (sulphur being plentiful in volcanic Iceland).

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

There is a Whale Museum here and I remember visiting it but little more.  I presume that Husavik was a centre of whaling at the turn of the nineteenth century though I can find no explicit reference to this on the web.

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

It was certainly a fishing port and in the early 1960s the viability of the fishing industry began to recede so the town reinvented itself as a centre for whale watching and tourism.

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

Here is one of the whale watching boats coming in…

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

…and the passengers disembarking.

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts

Next morning now, around dawn.

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

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Husavik, Iceland, Landscape, Photography, Reflections, seascape, Travel, Yachts .

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6 thoughts on “Husavik

  1. Pingback: Journey to North Atlantic – Itinerary and Index of Posts « Murray Foote

  2. Pingback: Journey to North Atlantic – Itinerary and Index of Posts « Murray Foote

  3. Pingback: Monochromes – North East Iceland « Murray Foote

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