Some time ago I wrote about our failed trip to Noss. We didn't make it to the island but some days later we took a boat trip around it.
The other side of Noss, the side that faces the open North Sea, is quite a spectacular seabird colony. I'm not so much into birds but when I saw pictures of the massive cliffs we had to book a boat trip to see them for ourselves. On our way to the colony we also met other fellows of the sea - e.g. this gull, which followed our boat until it got some cookie crumbs (I think it knew this coming...). We also passed this little holm where seals were sleeping (or rather digesting as Captain Tom told us).
And *drumroll*: a shark. Actually a basking shark, as we were told, the second largest fish in the world. And not dangerous, I think, because it is a vegetarian and not interested in boats full of potential food. But yes, I am a media victim, I immediately had the "Jaws" melody stuck in my head. And it really was like in the film, it swam from left to right, drawing nearer and nearer. It triggers a bit of an unpleasant feeling in the stomach. But since we were in the boat and it was not very interested in us, I decided to like it.
Can you see its snout? It must be huuuuuuge... we assumed it had at least 7 metres...
And then our boat went around a corner and we could see the amazing cliffs and the thousands of birds. The cliffs rise up to more than 150 metres and we were told there are sometimes more than 150.000 birds living or rather breeding in this colony.
These below are gannets. I think they are rather unpleasant fellows especially to each other... I would keep a distance...
I cannot say that I would go there again, it is nothing for a light stomach. The smell of thousands of birds is overwhelming and together with the hopping boat... I got seasick for the first time in my life.
But I'm not sorry for going there since it was an outstanding, incredible, almost surreal experience of nature.
Thank you so much for these wonderful hours, Dunter III crew!