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The Route/ Travelogue

 

Getting there and to Streymoy

When I arrived at the airport in Copenhagen, I even wasn't sure if the payment for my ticket had arrived. This all because my bank introduced a new system for international transfers, and they hadn't got the new forms while they couldn't use the old ones. So I could transfer the money just 10 days or so before I left home. When I ask at the Atlantic Airways-Desk, they told me that my money had arrived today... I was lucky, and I could forget about my backup plan of going toward Sweden and Norway. A few hours later the plane landed on Vagar, and I started walking towards the campsite at Sandavagur. It was a bit hard to get up the steep hill near Vatnsoyrar to get to the hikingtrack which went along the ridge. But once I was up there, I was rewarded with a great view. The next day I walked to Oyrargjogv, where I expected to find a ferry (which was still on my map), but it wasn't there. I already saw a strange road somewhere, where there shouldn't have been one, and somehow someone had build a tunnel in the meantime. Of course hikers weren't allowed in the tunnel and I had to hitchhike to get trough it. The driver went to Eysturoy so I went with him until we arrived in Oyrarbakki where I went off to buy some fuel for my stove. Then I hitched back again and the driver invited me to show me around in Klaksvik when I was there. Some time later I arrived in Vestmanna, where I went for the famous Vestmanna bird clifftour with Gunnar Skuvadal. The boat ride was amazing, along towering cliffs crowded with all kinds of birds, and sometimes even a sheep on an apparently unreachable spot of grass. After the tour I started walking up the mountain along the hiking track to Saksun.

Hiking to Saksun

After about 90 minutes of hiking I put my tent up near the reservoir, made my dinner and went to bed. The next day was a very foggy one, and there was no way that I could hike. The track was marked with stone cairns, but because of the fog I couldn't see them, even while I knew that I put my tent somewhere in between two.Fog! So I couldn't do anything else than wait and read. At the end of that day I had nearly finished my only book and learned the lonelyplanet section about the Faroes by heart. The next day it was still a bit foggy, but I could go on, and there was just one place on a mountainpass where I had some trouble finding the cairns, but because the fog come and went every few minutes, that wasn't a real problem. After a few hours I arrived in Saksun, where I made myself a cup of coffee while I waited for the museum to open. By the time it should have opened I realized that I hadn't adjusted my watch and I had to wait for another hour. But after you've already waited nearly two hours, you wait the extra hour too...

To Torshavn and then to Eysturoy

After having seen the museum, I tried to hike on, towards Tjornuvik, but the very steep hillside was just to slippery. So I decided that this was way to dangerous, and because it started raining, and I didn't want to walk back along the road, I decided to hitchhike again. The Norwegian couple in the car gave me a ride to Nesvik at the start of the road. From there I continued with some tourists from Scotland, who gave me a ride to Torshavn. Once we arrived there I even got a bottle of beer from them! In Torshavn I went to the campsite and put my tent up. The same evening I realized that I left my map in the car of the Norwegians, and the next day I went into town to buy a new one. Because the weather was still quite bad and I still wasn't used to that kind of weather (After a few more days I didn't give a shit anymore about it), I just walked around town and relaxed on the campsite. Puffins near Gjogv.The next day I took the bus to Eidi on Eysturoy. Later that day I walked a few kilometres along the road towards Gjogv, to see the sea stacks 'Risin og Kellingin', and after dinner I climbed up Eidiskollur north of town to see the stacks from above. On top of the hill were also some building ruins from worldwar 2, which where interesting too. The next day I hiked trough some fields near the transmitting tower, and on-wards along the road until I reached Gjogv. Gjogv was a very beautiful village, but it was very crowded because I was there during the two days that the people for the Iceland bound ferry had to wait on the Faroes. I hiked for a while along the cliffs north-west of Gjogv and there I saw my first puffins! When I went back, and then to the campsite in Gjogv, it was totally full, so I had to hitchhike again to get back out of town. In Oyrarbakki I took the bus to Leirvik, from where I took the Ferry to Klaskvik.

Klaksvik and how to lose all your money

In Klaskvik I couldn't find the campsite which should have been there, and because it was already getting late, I couldn't find anyone to ask. After searching for an hour or two and asking a handfull of people, I finally found someone who knew where the site was. It was the parkinglot of some kind of kindergarten along the road to Nordoyri (remember this, if you ever might get to Klaskvik!) There was no grass and no access to water. The nearest stream was also quite hard to get to. But I was totally wasted and I just put my tent up, just to discover that my matches were wet and the waterproof ones didn't also work like they should. The next morning I packed my stuff and decided to catch the bus to Trollanes on Kalsoy. On my way into town I met a father with his daughter from Inverness, who I already met on the campsite in Eidi.
While the weather in Klaskvik and most of Kalsoy was nice, the weather at Trollanes wasn't. It was again foggy, and by the time it cleared up enough to walk to the lighthouse at Kallur, I only had about 90 minutes before the bus left again. So I just started walking, but I had to go back before I arrived there. But nevertheless it was fun. Especially the long, narrow single track tunnels on the island are impressive. When I was back in Klaskvik I went to the hostel, because I didn't want to stay on the campsite again.
The next day I went with a girl, Yerina, who I met at the hostel to Vidareidi for the spectacular view. Although we didn't go up to Enniberg (because we picked the wrong mountain), the view from Exaggerating (I don't even try to pronounce this...) was amazing too. While I was waiting for the bus I realized that I lost my money locker, which I had safely around my neck. I went back too look for it, but that was nearly impossible in an area of about 1x1 km with kneehigh vegetation and no clear orientation points. Fortunately I had used an ATM in Klaskvik that morning and had forgotten to put my bank card back into the 'safe' moneylocker. So I still had it, but I had lost a lot of money which I had reserved for a helicopterticket from Svinoy back to Vagar. I still had enough money for the bus back to Klaskvik, and the next morning I went to report it to the police office. In the Netherlands this wouldn't have been of much use, but a few weeks after I arrived back home I got a letter from the police in Klaskvik that they found my money!!! Great people on the Faroes and especially in Vidareidi!

From Svinoy to Vagar

After having been to the police office I took the bus to the ferry to Svinoy, and in Svinoy I again had to search for the campsite which was on the map. But this time I was on an Island where nobody spoke English, but in the end someone showed me a spot in the garden of the school, next to the church. But I'm still not sure that it wasn't someones lawn... Because I wasted one day with all the trouble with my money, I didn't have any time left on Svinoy. The next morning I went to the heliport to get the helicopter. I payed the ticket and after some waiting the helicopter arrived. To my suprise it was totally empty. During the flight the pilots told me that they had send everyone with the ferry because they expected it to be to foggy for the helicopter. Of course they couldn't reach me and so I got my own private helicopter... Great service from Atlantic Airways. helicopter From now on you're my favorite airline! And my luck didn't end. While the it was relatively clear on most of the Faroes, Torshavn was totally fogged. And because I had to wait in Torshavn while the helicopter picked up people on the southern Islands, I couldn't get out there and I could fly all the way with them. Somewhere near Vagur on Suderoy we even had to land on a parkinglot outside of town because the heliport itself was to fogged to put someone else out of the helicopter. But the fog was only locally and I could enjoy most of the flight. After about 2 hours in the helicopter we arrived in Gasadalur on Vagar, and I had to get off.
From Gasadalur I hiked the town of Bour and on to Sorvagur. The view on top of the ridge between Gasadalur and bour was simply incredible. Gasadalur I had planed to hike all the way to the campsite in Sandavagur, but by the time I was near Vatnsoyrar I was tired and at the same moment stopped a car to offer me a ride. So I did that. The next day I left my stuff on the campsite and hiked through the interior of Vagar which was rugged, desolate and just wonderfull! Unfortunately this was my last day, and the next morning I had to catch the flight back to Copenhagen, from where I took the train home.