Island Holidays Blog

Year of the Dolphin

I'm really a bit behind the times - have only just found out that 2007 has been the Year of the Dolphin, so designated by the UN's Environment Programme (Convention on Migratory Species)along with several wildlife organisations including the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society.

The focus of the campaign is on raising awareness of dolphins in the wild, the threats they face to their survival and actions which could help their conservation.   With so much publicity about species such has China's rare river Baiji Dolphin being extinct, the worrying announcement that Bottlenose Dolphins could cease to be found in British waters within a decade seems to have slipped by un-noticed.  This would, indeed, be a sad loss and we wait to see whether some form of protection zone can be introduced.

I'm just back from a super trip to The Azores where dolphins featured on a couple of days, alongside three species of whale.   Our first day  was fantastic:  we'd only been out for about 20 minutes when we were watching our first Sperm Whales - a mother and calf.   After that not five minutes elapsed without a new animal putting on a show.  After a while, we left them to it and headed a bit further out to sea where we were met by a pod of Pilot Whales accompanied by at least a dozen Risso's Dolphins.  It was magical!   

Our second day out wasn't looking too hopeful and some of the group decided to stay behind and explore Horta.   When we got home we made them green with envy as we reported the fantastic experience of watching a feeding frenzy of around 1,000 Cory's Shearwaters, about 200 Atlantic Spotted Dolphins jumping and spinning and three Fin Whales silently emerging in a stately and dignified fashion in the midst of it all.   It was incredible - and that from a person who's done quite a bit of whalewatching in her time.

But now it's back to the desk for a couple of weeks before the next trip.  But those wonderful experiences in the Azores made me remember that the plus side of my job makes all the dreary and stressful bits eminently worthwhile!

Island Hopping

Well, the Faroes trip went fine - except for the weather, and that's something they have a lot of up there!  It seems that when it's good weather in the UK - particularly in Scotland, as was the case last week (I'm reliably informed), the northern isles (and that includes the Faroes as well as Orkney and Shetland) tend to get mist and fog.  Last week, it was low cloud and strong winds, along with torrential rain and brilliant sunshine!   Like I say, they have a lot of weather in the Faroe Islands!

Actually, it didn't matter too much.  We had some lovely days - enough to understand just how spectacular the scenery can be.  The only major disappointment was the day we went to the south of the southern-most island, Suduroy, where the scenery is the best in the islands and where we couldn't see a thing.  Very frustrating.

The Faroese people are very welcoming and the overall experience was enjoyed by everyone.  For me it was good to be back and so meet up with people I hadn't seen for a while.   Now the washing machine is working over time as I need to be packed and ready to go by this time tomorrow.   Azores here I come!  That's another place where they get a lot of weather: comes of sitting slap bang in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, just as the Faroes do in the middle of the North Atlantic (subtle distintion!).  It's been a few years since I was down in the Azores and I'm really looking forward to going back to to discovering what has changed.  I rather suspect it will be not a lot - hope so!

Travel time

It's been a good couple of weeks - we equalled our record number of bookings for August (plus 50% if you count the reservations for November's reunion which I don't) but there's also been time to catch up and even get a little ahead.   Regular readers will know how much I love being at home - a bit odd for someone who works in the travel industry!   

All that is about to come to an end and Monday morning will find me heading off to Edinburgh airport en route for the lovely Stansted where I'll meet my fellow travellers for the onward flight to the Faroe Islands.   It seems utterly crazy to fly south and then have to go all the way back again (albeit without stopping in Scotland) - Atlantic Airways used to fly from Aberdeen and the northern contingent could simply join the rest of the group on the flight, they having joined "down south".   Sadly that has now stopped which adds considerably to the hassle and expense.   But it's worth it - the Faroe Islands are beautiful and I'm really looking forward to going back as it's three years since I was last there.

One of the quirky things up there is that many of the houses have turf roofs - I think one of the funniest things I've ever seen is a sheep grazing on the roof of a house!  Beats cutting the grass I guess!   I love the islands and their people but do have a major problem with their blood lust over whaling.  It's an argument from which I refrain from engagaging with them because my opinion won't change anything but I do wish they wouldn't do it.   I gather there was a pod of unfortunate pilot whales in Torshavn last week - thank goodness it wasn't while we were there.  They talk about subsistence hunting but I really think that is invalid for citizens of the islands' capital city with all its supermarkets and so on.   However, let's not go there now .....