Faroe Islands

What? Where's that? A tiny speck in the North Atlantic ocean halfway between Scotland, Iceland and Norway. A small cluster of islands populated by hardy Faroese fisherman and farmers who share their rocky outcrop with woolly sheep and millions of birds. How does one describe this place? Heaven on earth maybe or the next best thing at least. How about National Geographic Traveler rating the Faroe Islands as their number 1 destination among 111 island communities around the world in 2007 and I doubt anywhere else has stolen that mantle since. We’ve used an abundance of superlatives before in describing some of the places we’ve been lucky to visit, but this is like nowhere we’ve been before: unsurpassed natural beauty combined with an ancient cultural heritage dating back to the earliest Viking period. The sheep graze on grass so thick it's like walking on foam rubber and the puffins are impossibly cute. We couldn't stop photographing them

Foroyar (Faroe Islands). It's not so far from Iceland, Scotland and Norway.

Flying into Vagar from Copenhagen we sat next to a young girl who happened to be studying medicine in Denmark. Turns out she knew half the folks on the plane. The Faroes is a bit like that. Anyway she was full of suggestions about where to go and what to see. We have a car and so it’s easy to get about and the distances are tiny. One end of Vagar to the other is maybe twenty minutes if you don’t stop for photos and about 3 hours if you do. Did I say it’s incredibly beautiful? The typical turf covered stone cottages are especially photogenic.

Sorvagur harbour, where we stayed two nights. A Sea Shepherd vessel was in the harbour causing consternation among the locals (who traditionally eat whale meat)

Bour village on Vagar Is. with Tindholmur in the middle background

Sorvagur harbour

Yesterday we managed to take a helicopter flight over to Mykines (meech-ee-ness). Lucky we booked in April because it was full and the next flight wasn’t until Wednesday. Mykines, said to be the most beautiful of all the islands (we’ll let you know later) is home to just 10 people and vast numbers of puffins, gannets and sheep. Although proud of their knitting industry the sheep don't appear to be shorn regularly and many of them have scraggly bits hanging off and looking like they are having a bad hair day! Our guide on Mykines, Harald (note the Viking spelling) took us on a walk of some 5 hours where we scrambled up and down some slippery slopes to get a closer look at the birds, us in our hiking boots and him in his wellies. We took 466 photos on that outing alone. Those damn puffins are sooooo cute!

Looking back toward Vagar on the way to Mykines with Tindholmur in the foreground.

Touchdown in Mykines and can't wait to get started

Didn't have to wait long

Another one of those WOW moments. The tiny village of Mykines is so beautiful - more homes than people (some are summer houses only)

Puffins : they can be quite approachable...

...or not. Hard to get close

Setting out for our walk on Mykines 

A walk to the tip of Mykines and back takes about 5 hours

The North Atlantic was surprisingly calm. Iceland is that way a few hundred kilometres.

Time for lunch with our Danish friends and Harald (second from the right). The Luftwaffe tried unsuccessfullyto bomb the lighthouse during WWII

Incredibly steep. Ideal for gannet breeding. Even the sheep go over the edge in search of greener grass.

Heading back to Mykines after lunch

So many of them and so cute.

Back to Sorveygur by ferry, passing beneath Tindholmur.

Gasadalur - another tiny village at the western end of Vagar. This was the last town to be connected by road via a tunnel to the rest of the island. Before that the postie used to hike across the mountains to deliver the mail and anything bigger had to come by boat (when the weather allowed)

Where's the shearer when you need him? Is this a bad hair day or what?

Today we drove from Vagar (where the airport is situated) to Torshavn, the world’s smallest capital apparently, on the main island of Stremoy. Getting there involved driving through a seven kilometre undersea tunnel. Along the way we passed more delightful little villages, many of them are tucked into giant, lush green, grassy amphitheatres. After wandering around Torshavn for an hour or so we came 2 hours south on a car ferry to the island of Suduroy for two nights.

Midvagur

Sandavagur

The 'fanciful' 1917 church at Sandavagur is certainly picturesque

Trollkonufingur: ugly sounding name but beautiful place

Oyrargjogv: just three homes here and a disused boat ramp. A sunken ship offshore probably doesn't help.

OK, there's coffee but goodness knows what else.

From our B&B in Tvoroyri (Tver-oi-ri) where we are staying with a delightful old lady, herself an artist, we will be doing a guided tour of Suduroy Island No doubt lots more photos, so will post a separate blog for that. Until then...