Iceland welcomed us back with a barrage of visuality after crossing the Denmark Straits from Greenland. Dozens of humpback and fin whales crowded the 90km fjord to Akureyri – the 2nd largest Icelandic city – lobtailing and fluke-waving against a backdrop of sheer, snowcapped peaks spearing up from the water’s edge.

We docked next to a bombastic French frigate in the harbour for an uneventful night, with a full day of terra firma play for Robs and I while the ship was readied for the next group. Our mission was to head into the local mountains and find a wild geothermal spring: (a) this saves at least Euro100, and (b) it is just so much more satisfying connecting with nature without hundreds of other humans indulging in selfies all round.

There are ‘hot-pots’ all over the country, but to find them, you have to explore (which we obviously don’t mind). Step 1 is to look for steam rising up from the low ridges, and we were lucky to spot a waterfall cascading into the fjord, with a telltale cloud of hot vapour hovering in close attendance. Locals don’t like sharing info on these, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to find your way using any electronic mapping software of choice.

After a couple of weeks on the ship, we revelled in the long trek, and then found our personal pool higher up from a few other ‘naturalists’ further downstream. Outside temperature had dropped to -3 Degrees Celsius, so the 30-odd Degree water wasn’t super warm. We decided to explore further upstream to the source and found a much hotter outlet, around 65 Degrees, I would guess. We topped off a fantastic morning with samlokka sandwiches, a great coffee and a snudur (a sort of cinnamon roll dipped in melted chocolate).