Today we were to taking in two islands - Streymoy and Eysturoy. The morning was a little drizzly but that didn't dampened our mood. Because of the rain overnight the mountains which surround us as we drove were fringed with curtains of waterfalls sending mega litres of water barreling down the slopes; the land must be almost constantly saturated. It was quite magnificent.
Today we drove, via sea tunnel over 5km long! to another island, the island of Streymoy, to explore before driving onto the island of Eysturoy via a bridge turns out! There we were to stay at Gjogv.
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| The Saga Museum is housed in the Vestmanna Tourist centre |
We were heading for Vestmanna to visit the Saga museum which also promised a hearty bowl of fish soup (Vestmanna means ‘man from the west’ which in this case were Irish monks who came seeking solitude to worship). The museum was rather like a walk through history. The fish soup was going to cost us about $30 so we opted out and head back into the rain and on to a small village, Kvivik which huddles on either sides of the river Stora. Here archaeologists have found the remains of a Viking settlement. Unfortunately the rain prevented us getting out to get a proper look at some places – it was simply too wet and often rather slippery.
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| There is a memorial in this graveyard to the Vikings |
We took a fortuitous detour and discovered a wonderful waterfall and a wee village with a gorgeous little tuft-roofed church. All the time it was raining which blurred the scenery somewhat but we were still able to enjoy it.
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| Quaint turf-roofed church at Kladbak |
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| Tyggjara waterfall |
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| The sound of the roaring waterfall was deafening |
Then it was time to make our way to our night’s accommodation which was in Gjogv, the most northern village on this island. It is named for the long deep, sea-filled gorge around which it nestles. It took us two attempts before we were game to tackle the road which, because of the approaching winter weather, claimed to be closed to all but local and rescue vehicles.
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| This was the turn off to reach our village through the mountains |
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| Our second attempt we read the sign properly - another day before it would be closed! |
We later discovered that closure didn’t come into effect for another day – phew we were safe – sort of! The trip over the mountains to reach wee isolated Gjogv was pretty hair raising but ultimately we got there albeit nervous wrecks as the road was wet, foggy in parts and extremely narrow. I can understand why it’s closed to general traffic during winter.
On our way over the mountains, we passed a turn off to a ‘road’ that zig zagged down a long deep valley to the sea. That wasn’t our road thankfully and so I was breathing a sigh of relief - at the time! Little did I know then that we would have to travel that self-same road a couple of times the next day. You have to remember that this was only our second day of riving Faroe’s roads (most of which masquerade as tracks!). A day driving in and out of rain on often challenging roads but what an ending!
Our B&B was perched on the side of a hill with spectacular views of the sea and surrounding mountains. For the time we were safe in our little eyrie surrounded by thick lush vegetation which I imagined would be a glorious profusion of flowers in spring. It was lovely and we were safe! We dined in that night as we needed something more than a ‘picnic’; food is pretty expensive here as you can imagine.
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| Our room was just up the slop and it definitely was a room with a view! |
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| Glorious |
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| Up close the turf roofs are interesting. Be stunning if there are flowers amongst that. |
