When you think of Iceland and animals, do you think of seals? Well you should because on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland lives one of Iceland’s permanent seal colonies: Ytri Tunga.

Located near Guesthouse Hof (our accommodation), Ytri Tunga is a sandy stony beach that is known for one thing and one thing only: seals. There are two main types that call Ytri Tunga home. They are the grey seal and the harbour seal and they live here all year.

I am told that the best time to see them is in the spring when the seals are having pups. The pups stay on the shore for the first few months of their lives, basking on the rocks and making them easy to spot.

Unfortunately when we went, the winds were gusting up to 42 mph / 68 kph, so both we and the seals were being blasted by sand in the wind. While we had to simply turn away from the wind and endure, the seals decided that the best place to weather out the weather would be underwater, so while we could see the snouts of seals sticking up, we rarely saw the seals as they had settled in more comfortably just below the surface of the water. However we were able to get some pictures of them (fortunately – or else I could not write this post)!

And here is a very short video of a seal during a successful devouring a fish:

To get to Ytri Tunga from Reykjavik, take Route 1 north and then turn onto Route 54 at Borgarnes and follow it until you get to Route 574, which is the road that tours the Snæfellsjökull National Park. The beach is located about halfway down the peninsula at this location (Google Maps).

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