Fjords, Fish and Family in the Faroe Islands

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Dont worry people... we are not travelling again (we wish!) but our holidays this year in the Faroe Islands were unusual and photogenic enough to warrant a little write up and a few photos. So here we go mini-blog!

For any (most) people who have no idea where the Faroes are; they are a small group of islands north of scotland in the north sea midway between Iceland and Norway. I have a lot of family on my fathers side who live there and so I have been lucky enough to visit a few times as a child but having not visited in 12 years, marc reluctantly joining the family holiday (what do you mean there arent any nightclubs?) and with Sar onboard as a Scancinavian first timer everybody was genuinely excited about this trip as it felt new and exciting.

Historically the journey has been a marathon 1 or 2 day journey to aberdeen followed by a 26hour north sea ferry crossing followed by a short bus then another smaller boat and then a final drive. Thanks to the modern world though the journey is now pretty slick with direct (though not cheap) flights out of standstead. Being penny pinchers we made the British leg of the journey cheap and complicated! All five of us crammed into our 306 DTurbo to birmingham, left the car with grandparents, took a train into birmingham then took a £1 mega bus into london and then a budget terravision coach back out of london to the airport! All went pretty slickly though and I can highly recommend both companies for great service. Well excluding the fragrant onboard loo with megabus!

Flying to the faroes is great though. I love flying and will miss it in these "only fly when totally necessary" green/eco times we are now in. The flight was slightly delayed taking off but in return we got a ridiculous amount of vouchers which we used fr a slap up meal for everyone in Frankie and Bennys. Shame we couldnt use them to buy duty free, was worth a go though! The plane you get is like the ferrari of the plane world though; four huge engines (there only 2 on a jumbo!) and only 85 seats. Its a short take of short landing affair so travelling in one is still similar to a normal plane but when the pilot wants to it can get a bit fighter jet-ish! Despite the windups the landing was one of the best in memory and we sweetly glided in over the south islands and touched down without a bump. Some way from the screams, tears and praying passengers that can be seen on this route occasionally (I kid you not!). Oh and there is truly unlimited free alcohol on the plane, awesome!

We stayed with my aunty valerie and 5 of her seven kids in the town of Leirvik (pronounced lurr-vik). The house is a postcard in itself, perched on the edge of town backed by dramatic mountains and looking out over the fjord and northern islands. Faroeese people keep the heating on full all year round (a good summers day is 12c) this combined with endless vistas means you just loose hour after hour unsociably staring out the window in a day dream. Its quite entertaining when your sitting around in the evening and you realised that nobody has said anything for an hour!!

When we visited the faroes as kids we deliberately did very little apart from walk and fish, which was brilliant. But this time we decided to get out and see a bit more, Valerie threw together a suprisingly busy schedule for the 2 weeks so here goes! First mention must go to the trip out to Mykines (pronounced me-chuh-nez) the 'bird island'. What made the trip extra special was the journey. I can safely say that me and Sar have travelled by most modes of transport but helicopter is new on us! From the airport a 9 seater helicopter whisked us out to the westernmost island of Mykines. Its the most surreal feeling; like being in a small really noisy place that feels totally wrong because its not racing forward! Great fun and I am now ultra jealous of all chopper pilots! The island is relatively small with a quaint little village of 8 families at its heart, no cars, no roads, no mc donalds and no... well nothing really. Except millions upon millions of birds! We spent several hours walking to the lighthouse at the tip of the islands with my cousing sharon as a guide. Its difficult to describe but in places its like something off planet earth! You just want to zoom out and see just how many puffins etc your surrounded by, plus the whole time there is this swirling cloud of birds above you threating to drop birdpoo bombs on you! Im no bird watcher but it was enough to impress even the least nature minded person. Plus it gave me a chance to do some serious wildlife photography on the new camera Sar got me, enjoy the shots! After the walk we enjoyed a few local beers and frankfurters in the village before catching the boat back to the mainland. Recommended!

Next day we decided to go for a relatively gentle walk up to the dip in the mouintains around Leirvik. The walk takes about an hour up and the same down at most and gives great views over Gøtu (pronounced Gurt-uh). Whats amazing is that when my grandmother was a child the kids used to do this mountain walk to and from school everyday and again if they needed to collect peat, madness!

After getting the walking bug we had a proper walk up Sigatindur the main peak behind the house. This walk is much stiffer and despite copious advice before we left and Valerie making countless calls on her mobile we still managed to get a bit lost on the way up which made it pretty steep going in one section for a casual walk. The view from the top are breath taking though. Its a shame we cant add the 360 degree panoramic photo to the blog as that at at least does it some justice. The top is great, my favourite kind of summit your walking up the backside of the mountain with virtually no views and then you get the the top which is straight down on 3 sides for over a thousand feet. Not one for a windy day! Needless to say susans nerves didnt last long with marc standing on various edges pretending to fall off so we headed back down before the weather closed in.

We were so lucky with the weather while we visited as it was pretty much sunny the whole time we were there with only a couple of days being overcast. Talking of sun its so strange visiting somewhere near the artic circle as in the summer it doesnt get dark! The sun was slowly setting in a blaze of orange everynight at about midnight and it stayed at that blue-ish twilight for a few hours before rising again around 3am! Not easy for sleeping but great for late night beers on the veranda (just dont forget the hat and gloves!)

Over the next few days we mostly just ate! Having pretty open minds when it comes to food me and Sar where super keen to try as much traditional fare as possible. During our stay we ate shedloads of traditional rye bread open sandwiches with toppings ranging from raw herring and pinneapple in whipped cream to rolled lamb breast and some of the best liver pate ive had. For the main meals though we really got treated (although Clare and Si might disagree!) to all of the following traditional dishes and we loved everyone one: boiled sheeps heads, dried cod, air dried raw lamb and whale meat, rotten fish, whale blubber, fish balls (balls of fish not...well you know!), melted mystery bits of lamb and mountains of potatoes! All washed down with more great local Faroeese beer. Did I mention how good the beer is? 😊

We were also in the Faroes to visit my grandfathers grave as unfortunately he passed away this spring and it was nice to get a chance to see his picture perfect final resting place. Thanks again to valerie for arranging all of that, it meant a lot.

In the evenings we went on plenty of trips out in the car to truly ridiculous viewpoints that just blow your mind. Including the furthest north Sar has ever been (until we go to the ice hotel one day, dream!) The scenery really is so dramatic that it makes wales look kind of flat and dull in comparison. Nice to see that National Geographic agree with us two as they have just rated it the number one island destination in the world which is great news. Go now!

Over our final days we did a fair bit of fishing too. Fishing makes up pretty much all of the Faroeese economy as exporting their cod to us fish n chip loving brits is a profitable game. Although we caught very little out on Adleberts boat we had a lovely time chugging up and down the fjord fishing with the traditional longlines. The fishing of the shore is way better than britain though with red cod and pollack all over the place and relatively easy to catch. We also went flatfish fishing for dabs and plaice one day and filled a carrier bag full of about 10 them in about 20min! Panfried for lunch the next day M-mmmmm tasty!

I missed loads out as most people arent going to be that intrest in the finer detail. We spent hours playing board games at like 1am, Sar and Glenda in particular. Stuart and Marc went to a local derby footy match which was great and me and Sar topped up on romantic sunsets weve missed which arent as common in wales as they were in india! The journey home was just as slick as the outbound one. The changeover even allowed just enough time for some traditional london cooked breakfasts and real ale.

Man my job must be dull if I can write that much dribble while Im meant to be working!

So thanks guys for putting us up while we ate you out of house and home and hopefully this blog will convince some people to put the Faroes onto their 'somewhere I would like to go' lists! Thanks to Furik and Ruth for inviting us over to Klaksvik for dinnner. Thanks also go out to Colin for paying for the helicopter flight, it was unforgetable!

Much love to you all,

Dean and Sar.

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