Steve and Cathy's Blog

We are back to the Faroe Islands again, the last time being on August 26^th. At that time, the sea conditions did not allow us to dock in Torshavn, the capital. And last time, our excursion to the Vestmanna Cliffs had been canceled, presumably for the same reason.

This time we will make it to this popular destination, although, when we board the bus, the weather looks very unfavorable for going to the tops of mountains or viewing cliffs. There is a very low thick cloud cover hovering about 400 feet above us. The tour is on, however, and we meet our guide Sunnva, who doesn’t seem the bit concerned about the “see” conditions. 

As we take off from the pier, however, Sunnva tells us that there are two routes to reach Vestmanna, which is on the island of Stremoy, the same as Torshavn. (It is near the number 8 on the map at the beginning of this post). One is over the mountains; the old route, if you will. There is also a shore route, available after a couple of long tunnels were built in the 1990s. She says that normally the mountain route is preferred because of the beautiful scenery, but the low clouds make that a poor choice, so we will take the shore road. 

Sunnva’s narration s full of interesting information. Here are some details:

• Faroe Islands’ parliament opened on St. Olav’s Day, July 29^th. Here is some info from officeholidays.com: “St. Olav’s Day is a public holiday in the Faroe Islands on July 29^th. Known as Ólavsøka, it is the National Day of the Faroe Islands and commemorates King Olav the Second who brought Christianity to the Islands.
• Trees are uncommon on the Faroes because of the 62-degree latitude. The only trees we will see are those planted by people in their gardens.
• The ocean temperature of 6 degrees Celsius is consistent all year.
• The Faroes are made up on 18 islands, 17 of which are inhabited.
• There is an underwater tunnel that opened two years ago connecting the two largest islands, and it is the only underwater one in the world that has a roundabout in the middle of it, giving it three entrances/exits.
• Presently, 50% of the island’s electric power is produced with hydro and wind.
• In winter, the hills are all brown. You can tell that fall is coming because we are beginning to see yellow in those hills.
• We pass a large farm operation. It is run by the government. It is difficult to grow most crops here because of the short growing season. The islands will never be self-sufficient, but this farm is to hopefully develop strains that will prosper here to close that gap.
• Faroe Islands means ‘Sheep Islands.” Most believe that they were originally brought here by the Celts.
• Torshavn, the capital, is reputed to be the national capital with the least amount of annual sunshine.
• Faroe sheep are bred to be hardy – and they spend all twelve months out of doors. Only about 50% of the wool sheared each year is sold; the rest is destroyed, but the thick coats meant to protect the animals during the winter rain is coarse and not as saleable.

We have gone into such detail about the low clouds and cold, damp weather because, to our utter astonishment, as soon as we emerge from the second tunnel of the shore road, we see that the weather has entirely changed. No clouds, clear skies and at least 10 degrees warmer. Are we still in the Faroe Islands? Sunnva says yes, such completely different weather conditions happen frequently due to the mountains between Torshavn and Vestmanna. 

We are also learning things about the excursion we are on that we had already forgotten since we signed up for it. This isn’t a bus excursion. The highlight of it all is a two-hour boat ride to view the Vestmanna Cliffs. Both of us are ashamed at our forgetfulness, but our enthusiasm has been given a huge boost by the turn in the weather. Our guide explains: we will drive to the dock in the town of Vestmanna and wait at the handy souvenir shop/café until our tour boat returns with its previous load of passengers (maybe twenty minutes or so). Then we will board the boat, take a two-hour tour of the fjord, then return to Torshavn.

Ahhh, now we’ve got it. The drive from the tunnels to the town is spectacular in itself. 

We arrive at around 11:15, peruse the souvenir offerings (which are pretty darn good), chat with others and wait for the boat.

We see it coming back to the dock, along with a smaller boat of tourists.

It takes a few minutes to unload, because it’s packed. We then board. Cathy opts for the main deck; Steve must join the throng up on the open top deck to enable him to take photos.

We have a separate guide on the tour boat, and he gives us some interesting information on the salmon farm(s) we pass on our way out and back:

• Three companies produce all the salmon in the Faroe Islands.
• Each company is allowed to have 1.5 million fish on their farms, which equates to $100 million in value.
• It takes two and a half years for a fish to grow into maturity, at which point the fish averages 5 kilograms in weight (11 pounds).
• There are nets over the sea pens, as they are called, to keep the gulls from snatching the small fish.
• Each sea pen or sea cage holds 50,000 fish. (Steve counted 25 pens in Vestmanna harbor)

Here is a brief description of the tour from guidetofaroeislands.fo: “All boats depart from the village Vestmanna located on Streymoy island. It takes less than half an hour to sail to the sheer cliffs. Sea stacks rise sky-high from the ocean and there are several impressive dark basalt grottos.

“Vestmanna Bird Cliffs are known as Vestmannabjørgini by the locals. These cliffs make up 5 kilometres of the coastline on Streymoy island north of Vestmanna. There is a fantastic wildlife in the area. Birds are nesting on the cliffs during the summer months and thrive flying in the untouched surroundings. Boat tours to the Vestmanna Sea Cliffs take just under two hours. Weather permitting, you will sail into natural grottos and caves formed by the waves crashing into the rock walls.”

We reach the cliffs and the views are nothing short of amazing. The cliffs themselves, of course, but the mountains (up to 2,096 feet high), the steep, 45-degree hills on which there are sheep grazing, thousands of seabirds (so many that these cliffs are often referred to as the Bird Cliffs), natural rock bridges, and all sorts of interesting rock formations. 

Cathy of course makes friends. The person she chats with the most is named Wendy, and she is some kind of “travel professional.”  Steve is packed in with about 40 others, all madly taking photos. The best way to describe the rest of our boat tour – which does include several trips into the grottos and caves mentioned above – can best be described with photos.

We get back to the dock around 2pm and hop on our bus. Sunnva has one extra stop for us, so we pull over for ten minutes for a photo op overlooking the village of Kvivik. The scenery is stunning and the weather is some of the best we have had on the entire trip. 

Just for a change, our guide suggests the mountain road in the hope that the clouds have dispersed. In about five minutes as we climb, we get the answer: No. We’re in thick fog, but Sunnva keeps us entertained with more information about her country:

• The mountain road we are on was the only overland way to get to get to Vestmanna from Torshavn until the 1990s. In the early part of the 20^th century, to go between these two places was either by boat or by horse. That’s when the Faroe horse was developed. They were bred to climb these hills, with short and strong legs to pull wagons full of freight.
• There has been an attempt to grow barley as a feed crop. The season to grow it is so short that it all too often has to be harvested when it’s wet, which won’t work.
• In these mountainous areas that are fogged over so much of the time, the road (trail) was marked using cairns, small piles of rocks. They were spaced very closely together to that, even in the dense fog, you could spot the next one from the one you were at.
• We pass by a building that used to be part of a Danish military radar installation. This was decommissioned after the Cold War, and turned over to the Faroese government, who turned it into the island prison. As mentioned by another guide on our previous Faroes excursion, the Danish military is expressing interest in building a new one, thanks to Russia’s belligerence in Ukraine.
• Denmark is responsible for three important functions in the Faroes: defense, the court system, and foreign affairs.
• There is one exception to the Danes handling foreign affairs – the Faroe Islands fishing industry and economy. Denmark is part of the European Union. The Faroes wanted nothing to do with having Brussels (the ‘capital’ of the EU) control their fishing grounds, so did not and will not become part of the EU.
• Unemployment almost nonexistent here, and the population is growing through immigration.
• Housing is expensive here. It cost 4 million Danish Krone to buy a house here (around $560,000), so most of the new housing is apartments so many of the young people and immigrants can afford to live here.
• Faroese comes from Old Norse. It had almost died out with Danish replacing it, but it is now being taught in school, so it’s making a comeback.
• Potatoes grow well here – even though the growing season only runs from May planting to September harvesting. [maybe that’s why so many are grown in Maine and Idaho]
• Tor stands for Thor, the Norse god. The word “shavn” means harbor. So Torshavn is Harbor of Thor.

We are arriving in Torshavn now, right on the road that we took in the other tour to the National Museum. We stop at the same photo spot, and Steve takes a photo like the last one – except it’s pretty foggy … and our ship can be seen this time (top center). 

We are delivered to Sirena right around 3:00pm. At sail away, Steve goes up to the fitness track to take photos. He is determined to snap a photo of the building where the Faroes Parliament meets. It takes some searching, but he finds it. 

The rest of the day is routine. It has been a very fun learning experience. We still can’t get over the instant change in the weather, which truly made our excursion to the Vestmanna Cliffs something we will always remember.