The Faroe Islands

By [ E ]

December 7^th, 2016

The Faroe Islands?

A year ago, I had no idea where the Faroe Islands were located. I probably didn't even know the islands existed. I'm trying to remember when and where I first heard of it and I want to say it was either a travel magazine or a blog post. Even now, when I tell people we went to the Faroe Islands their response is, "The Faroe Islands?"

The travel motto touted on the Faroe Islands website is: "Unspoiled, Unexplored, Unbelievable."

The islands themselves are situated between Iceland and Norway. While planning our trip to Iceland, I was happy to see that the islands were just a short one hour flight away. Seeing pictures of the extreme and stunning landscapes, I knew we had to see it for ourselves.

Getting there

When originally searching for flights to the Faroe Islands, I thought I could just punch it into Kayak.com and get some different flight options. Turns out there's really only one option to flying into Vagar Airport, it's on Atlantic Airways. A round trip flight from Reykjavík costs us around $200 per person which was quite reasonable. Booking this months in advanced, I had no idea that we'd run into one of my childhood friends from Dallas, Nathan. He had been on a months long adventure across half the globe and happened to be flying in from the Faroe Islands on the same flight we were flying out on. We knew ahead of time we'd run into each other so it was nice that we go to spend some time catching up with him and getting some great tips from him on some of the hikes we were planning on doing.

The town of Bøur at sunrise. If you look closely right in the middle of the photo along the shore is our cabin.

AirBNB

After exploring the hotel options on the islands, we decided to go the Airbnb route and we definitely made the right choice. We found a cabin near the town of Bøur (population 75) which ended up being a perfect place to rest and recharge from our hikes. When we first got in from the airport, the sun had already set which made finding the cabin a bit tricky. Luckily, Yvonne was able to creep around a bit and find it. It was a short 5 minute walk from the town's parking lot right down towards the water.

Gásadalur

Just north of Bøur is the town of Gásadalur. We wanted to catch the amazing waterfall at first light so we headed out from our cabin early. What we learned while driving there is that the many small towns and islands are connected by multiple tunnels through mountains and also subsea tunnels between the islands. It was only in 2004 that Gásadalur finally was connected to the rest of the island by car when they blasted a one lane tunnel through the mountain.

When we reached the viewpoint for the waterfall, other than a few sheep, we were the only ones around. This became a bit of a theme through out the rest of our trip. Tourism is growing but unlike Iceland, you don't see that many tourists around.

Sørvágsvatn

This was the view that initially put Faroe Islands on the map for me. My mind was blown away by what looked like an optical illusion. How can that body of water be above sea level so close to the sea?

The lake is located very close to the ocean, but its surface is about 40 meters above the level of sea. It is surrounded by a higher cliff which prevents it from emptying fully into the ocean, the waterfall Bøsdalafossur being the outlet. -wikipedia

We parked our car on the outskirts of the town of Sandavágur and began our trek along the lake and eventually, up the cliff to the viewpoint.

In the distance, you can see the location we were trying to reach.

The hike starts off benignly through a gate and into a sheep pasture. I likened the rest of the hike as chose your own adventure. There isn't really an official trail or path, just worn down grass and mud where others have made their way through. We mostly followed the shoreline of the lake, making sure to avoid the muddiest parts. Water proof boots are really a must as the landscape is bisected by small streams that flow right below the grass.

It took us about an hour to navigate our way up to the top. Once we got up there though, the view was breath taking. Birds were flying below us near the cliffs and the waves were crashing against the rocks. In the distance, you could see the faint outlines of the other islands and the wind was incredibly strong.

I offered to take a picture for two guys that reached the top after us. Throughout the whole 2 hour hike, we only encountered maybe 6 other people. This was pretty amazing to me, especially coming from Iceland where there would be tourists by the bus load at the more famous locations.

Saksun

While the weather was absolutely perfect for our morning hike at Sørvágsvatn, the clouds and rain moved in during our hour long drive to the town of Saksun. The chapel that overlooked the lagoon was one of the highlights of the town. The grassy roof and the rustic stone walls were a perfect compliment to the rugged terrain surrounding it.

Saksun lies in the bottom of what used to be an inlet of the sea, surrounded by high mountains. The inlet formed a good deep natural harbour, until a storm blocked it with sand. The old harbour become an unaccessible seawater lagoon, only accessible by small boats on high tide. -wikipedia

Even with the rain, we managed to make our way down to the sandy lagoon. The amount of waterfalls that cascaded down the hills was incredible. On a nicer day, we could've spend a few more hours exploring the area and enjoying the natural beauty.

The Lighthouse

If seeing a photo of the view from Sørvágsvatn put the Faroe Islands on the maps for us, seeing a photo from the Kalsoy Lighthouse sealed the deal. I can't really explain why I was so drawn to this place just by looking at a photo but being there in person did not disappoint.

While planning for this hike, I found a really good guide online on how to get to the lighthouse. Using this guide as the basis, we knew we had to start our day pretty early in order to make the trek. It took about 75 minutes to drive from our place in Bøur to the second largest town on the islands, Klaksvík. The drive itself is quiet scenic but we knew we had to make the 10 AM ferry to the island of Kalsoy. We made it into town with about 30 minutes to spare so we grabbed a quick snack and packed it away to eat when we reached the lighthouse.

The ferry ride itself was uneventful. It took about 15 minutes and we unloaded at the southern part of the island. There's only one road running north and south so we knew we couldn't really get lost at this point. Our goal now was to reach the town of Trøllanes at the northern most part of the island.

My friend Nathan had done this hike a few days before us and he had a few additional tips for us which helped a lot. The first tip was use the public restroom by the town parking lot. Check.

The hike started out the same as our hike the previous day, through a small gate in a sheep pasture. This lead us to a steep grassy hill. The hill had small terraces that seemed to have been carved out over many years by the grazing sheep. This helped us out a lot as we made our way up.

The rest of the hike consisted of slowly moving up the side of a mountain. The same grassy terrain we encountered on our first hike was also present for this one. It took another 45 minutes of hiking but when we finally caught our first glimpse of the lighthouse, our spirits were lifted.

When we finally reached our destination, the view was everything that we had hoped for and more. We took this time to have a little picnic with the food we had brought up. We soaked up every angle of the view before we started trying to figure out where else we could go.

There are two ridges that extend out from the lighthouse. The ridge on the right is more manageable and easier to hike. One side falls off towards the cliffs and into the ocean while the other side is a big grassy hill. Reaching the top of that first ridge gave us a great view but not the view that we wanted. The second ridge extends out further north from the lighthouse and is a bit more treacherous. Both sides fall off towards the ocean and for someone that has a mild case of vertigo, it was not easy getting through it. At the end of the ridge is a safe cocoon of a spot which I felt a lot more comfortable. That's where we spent some more time soaking in the view and enjoying the moment.

Reaching the lighthouse was the pinnacle of our trip. With only sheep and seagulls as our companions, we were able to reach what felt like the edge of the world.