TRIP 4: THE FAROE ISLANDS The Faroe Islands (the Faroes, for short) are much smaller than Iceland so you don’t have to tour around them. It’s perfectly possible to base yourself in one or two places and travel around by bus or car or bike from there. I stayed my whole ten days in Torshavn, the capital, and got around fine by bus to every corner of the islands. It just requires a bit of planning and deciphering of the complicated Faroese bus and ferry timetables. There are a few tourist ‘must-do’s’, mainly involving birds and boats, that I won’t be describing here. Instead, I shall be concentrating on the best trails to the best spots that I could find. 40: Fjallid, Gjogv, Eysturoy If you visit Gjogv, you’ll probably end up at Gjaargardur Guesthouse, the only restaurant in town. From here, you can take their back exit to a road that runs along the west side of the valley. Turn left and look for the second gap in the fence on your right after about 80m – it’s between two fences about 20m apart. You go up between these two fences to the skyline and then veer left towards the pass ahead of you, which you reach after about an hour. Photo 1432: map of area around Gjogv (copyright: Sansir 2013, www.sansir.fo) Turn right here and head for the top of the mountain, Fjallid. The best way is not along the ridge, unless you love difficult scrambling, but round to the right of it until you find an easy way up to the cairn at the summit. You may think that the view will improve if you stroll along the lovely ridge towards the sea but it doesn’t: North – along the ridge to the open sea East – Gjogv far below, nestling in its hollow with beautifully-shaped slopes to either side of it, some convex, some concave; over the bay of Djupini rise the huge hulks of Kalsoy and Kunoy, two islands that consist of a ridge of mountains culminating in a sheer promontory jutting out into the Norwegian Sea, looking for all the world like dragons setting out to sea; at the tip of Kalsoy stands the Kallur lighthouse (see spot 51) South – the valley behind Gjogv carrying the road you must have come down South-west – across the pass is Novin, Fjallid’s sister peak, and in the distance the massive peaks of Grafelli and Slaettaratindur, the Faroes’ highest mountain West – on the other side of the ridge is Ambadalur, a remote, green valley with one hut in the middle and a stream bisecting it; it sweeps down from the fearsome crags below Sandfelli mountain towards some cliffs over which the stream appears to tumble You are in the middle of all this, perched on a comfy seat next to the cairn, perhaps enjoying your lunch. Rather than go back the way you came, you can descend the slope immediately below the cairn into Ambadalur, choosing how far you wish to descend into the valley. I contoured round to the right along sheep tracks about halfway down. Then comes a problem. As you turn the corner above the sea, the cliffs become steeper and the cliff path more precarious. I was there after some rain and the path above an almost sheer drop had clearly been trodden recently by sheep but not by humans. My guts told me not to attempt it so I back-tracked and climbed over the ridge behind the precipice, which only took an extra ten minutes. The descent requires an awkward traverse but that’s better than being dead at the bottom of a cliff. After twenty minutes my knees stopped jarring and I rejoined the cliff path. You come to a stile above Gjogv and then there’s another descending traverse but in the opposite direction to tax a different set of muscles. After passing through a gate, you find yourself in a lovely, flowering meadow, specialising in scabious, dandelions, angelica, a white heathery plant and a variety of long grasses. The whole walk took me 4 hours and fitted nicely between bus arrival and departure. Photo 1558: Gjogv village with Kalsoy in the background (copyright: Henrik Solberg, www.solberg.fo) 41: Kirkjuvatn, Famjin, Suduroy There’s no trouble reaching the start of this trail for there’s a road from Oravik over the pass to Famjin. There’s also a path that takes a more direct route but covers the same ground. I took the bus – the views from the top of the pass down into the Famjin area are spectacular and as you descend, the views of the bay and the village become clearer. Photo 1448: map of Famjin area (copyright: Sansir 2013, www.sansir.fo) From the waterfall behind the church, you can choose one of two rudimentary paths up the hillside. It’s a ten-minute climb to the top where you are greeted by a lake and the full force of the prevailing westerly wind. Find your spot along the embankment – mine was a green tuft on a hummock from where I could see almost all of the lake: North-east – the lake sits in a glorious amphitheatre of precipitous rock faces with mountain-tops looming behind; a couple of waterfalls trickle into the lake South-east – another waterfall splashes out of the lake, behind which the southern part of Famjin village spreads out on the hillside with yet another waterfall on the hillside beyond it; the road you have come down winds its way up the valley towards the pass West – Famjin Bay opens out to the North Atlantic between two steep mountains For some reason I couldn’t work out, the locals have constructed some stone banks jutting into the lake just before the outlet. There are also a couple of pipes further along which presumably supply fresh water to the village and what looks like a fish factory. If you haven’t gone up that way, it’s a good idea to come down by the stream, which is steep but easy, providing lots of tumbling cascades to delight your eye. This short walk and the view at the lake offer an ‘essence of the Faroes’ in one easy package, including as they do the essential ingredients: steep mountains, lake, crags, waterfalls, bay, village, church, fish factory, ocean. 42: Tjornuvik, Streymoy This is a whole day excursion that took me just over 7 hours. I was alerted to it by the Faroe Islands Tourist Guide – it’s not mentioned in the only other guide, the Bradt guide- book (6). That’s a pity for this trail is simply epic. The village of Tjornuvik, like Gjogv and Famjin, is the end of the line, or rather road, but can be reached by bus. It’s hunkered down in a steeply-sided ‘botnur’, a circular glacial valley formed during the Ice Age (thank you, Bradt, for that information). In front of the village, a bay opens out to the sea in the north-east. By the way, there’s no longer a seasonal café here, as indicated in Bradt and on the Tourist Guide map, just a tiny waiting room by the bus stop. Photo 1435: map of Tjornuvik area (copyright: Sansir 2013, www.sansir.fo) The path starts about 200m along the road to the west of the village and heads up a rocky slope. You pass a wooden step that helps you up an awkward rock and reach a green sward from where there’s an excellent view of Tjornuvik and also of two sea stacks off the northern tip of Eidiskollur peninsula on the other side of the entrance to Sundini fjord. These stacks feature in lots of photos and have some legend attached to them, but, to my mind, are over-rated. Hold your horses, though, because this view improves as you ascend the path. My best view is from a grassy knoll just before the path meets the main stream coming off the hillside: North-east – Eidiskollur, the two sea stacks and the north-western coast of Eysturoy East – the village of Eidi on the opposite shore of Sundini fjord; behind Eidi, rises a range of shapely mountains, two pointed ones with graceful ridges ending in a sheer drop to the sea – these are the mountains seen from the other side from Fjallid (spot 40), i.e. Grafelli and Slaettaratindur South-east and South – the cliff road descending into Tjornuvik; most of the village can still be seen West – a beautiful valley you are about to ascend up to the ridge between Tjornuvik and the next bay, Sjeyndir Soon you come to a memorial stone to milkmaids who used to climb up here morning and evening to milk the cows at their summer pasture, which makes a welcome change from the usual memorials to men who died in battle or men who died at sea. About 400m further on, you can choose whether to turn right over the shoulder of a ridge or continue up the valley past a cairn that isn’t too obvious from below. The right turn takes you round the coast on a cliff path into a semi-circular cove that you can traverse just below the almost vertical crags above you. The path degenerates into a sheep path but is quite manageable. 43: Tjornuviksstakkur, Streymoy As you exit this cove, there’s a jumble of rocks across the path, above the sea-stack of Tjornuviksstakkur. From here you get your first glimpse of an incredibly steep pinnacle ridge across the next bay that almost knocks you off your feet.