October 3 – 5 Suduroy - the most southern island

 

Not the best map in the world but will hopefully give an overview

Our travels around the Faroes so far have taken us to 6 of the biggest islands and this morning we were to travel from Klaksvic to Torshavn (the capital) in order to catch a ferry to Suduroy, the most southern of the islands and only accessible via a 2 hour ferry ride (and by air presumably)  – no tunnel, yet!  It was a day of amazing tunnels.  One of the most amazing was Eysturoyartunnilin which connects the islands of Eysturoy and Streymoy. It is a subsea network of 3 ‘tubes’ over 11Km long and at its deepest point is almost 200m beneath the seabed – not something to contemplate when driving through it!  It also boasts the only subsea roundabout in the world (although we did negotiate a tunnel with a T-intersection in the Westfjords of Iceland in 2022!).  The roundabout is beautifully lit - quite an experience.  Visiting Suduroy means that we will have travelled from the northern-most point of the Faroes (on the island of Vidoy) to the most southern point on Suduroy island. It is a wondrous collection, a smattering, of craggy islands forged by volcanic and glacial activity.  Gives one pause for thought.  

It was later afternoon before we arrived off the ferry and drove south to Vagur where we were booked into a B&B for a couple of nights, so we just hunkered down for the evening – travel can be quite draining!  In the morning the woman who looks after the place gave us some good tips on what was worth seeing. We headed south  first to the we fishing harbour near Vagur, Vagseidi, the site of the first poser plant which enabled fishermen to haul their boats out of high seas.  Then we headed on to the most southern point of the island, Akraberg (lighthouse) perched over precipitous cliffs which are home to a multitude of seabirds.

Vagur

The old fishing port of Vagseidi 

Wonderful cliffs which we couldn't get to as the road was closed

Navigation or communications towers dotted the southern cliffs

Of course to get to that part of the island meant a tunnel but we took the advice of the ‘inn keeper’ and travelled back by the old mountain road. It  was spectacular! Rather scary in places but it was worth it because we were treated to some breathtaking scenery; it felt like we were driving on the top of the world (when not enveloped in ‘eiderdown’ clouds.) We stopped a couple of times to look around and each time we stopped any sheep nearby came running from all directions to us say hello and give us the one over, beautiful things. Wish that I had had a treat for them. 

The road felt very remote - delicious!

As we drove delicate misty cloud swirled over and around us  

Lindsay ever curious reached the top of the hill to find a sheer drop to the ocean was below! He came back  trembling.

Our return trip over the mountain was so much more interesting than the tunnel!

The island has a more remote feel than the others – probably the distance, and that suited us fine. We could have lingered longer. Rather than describe what we saw I will leave you to browse the photos. You might quickly gather that the clouds fascinated me and some of the time those gorgeous  ‘eider-down’ clouds huddling over parts of the island are gently weeping. We only had one complete day to explore this remote island so we didn’t dilly dally anywhere. We aimed to get to the northern most point but sadly we couldn’t make  – inaccessible roads, lots of heavy duty walking involved and visibility pretty much blanked out. On the way we took a pretty rough road into Famjin on the west coast to see the oldest Faroese flag displayed in the church. When we got there the church was closed but it had been an interesting drive. Tradition says that Fámjin used to be called Vesturvik and here’s how it is said to have got its name  “One day two men from the village were out on the sea fishing from their boat. There they saw a French sailship just lying there waiting for wind. The two men invited two ladies into their boat to see a large halibut. When the ladies were on board the men quickly rowed towards their village with them. From the sail-ship they heard the Frenchmen shout "Femmes ... Femmes".  After that day Vesturvik was called Fámjin.

Some of these boat sheds are abandoned

Famjin

This northern region is basalt country

We are totally overwhelmed with the romance and beauty of the Faroes and would both like to rent a wee bothy and disappear to dream for a while. But tomorrow we board the ferry back to Bordoy and the capital city, Torshavn, for a couple of days before departing this magical place.

It's an island, a country, of churches