Westfjords / Polar foxes in hornstrandir 2023

Polar foxes in Hornstrandir

In the morning we board a boat in Isafjördur, and spot the first rainbows arching over stupendous mountains as we look forward to Hornstrandir. This enormous nature reserve is home to many Icelandic polar foxes. You can never know if you will see any foxes at all or how close you can get to them if you are lucky enough to spy any. That’s why almost all of us choose a tele lens as we jump off our shuttle dinghy into the icy sand of the docking bay like old fashioned explorers. After a brief trek we spot movement on the slope of the hill so we lie down into the lichen in our semi circle formation like digital mountain hunters to keep from scaring off the shy animals. We are more than rewarded for our patience as three young foxes congregate without paying us much attention. Our almost two-hour long surveillance seems like something straight out of a BBC documentary. Playful young foxes scuff and tumble around together right in front of us. My tele lens, which starts at 200 mm, ends up being too long because of how close the young ruffians get. It is simply out of this world to be able to watch these wild animals play with each other. The three polar foxes have dark fur as 80% of their kind do in Iceland (blue morphs), while only a small minority have lighter fur, an inverse phenomenon as compared to all other arctic regions. When one of the exhausted young foxes falls asleep in front of us, we decide to quietly take our leave, departing from an astonishingly dreamlike scenery.

Back at the bay we recharge in an old doctor’s house where we are served hot soup and an impressive musical performance by our host Hrolfur with his “Langspil” (a traditional Icelandic drone zither with three strings).

By some miracle we are additionally blessed with beautiful weather that day and for the first time on our entire journey there is no rain.