Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

We’re now back in Tórshavn, after three lovely days on the island of Mykines. Puffins abounded there and we got some great photos of these delightful and colourful little clowns. There were also a lot of arctic terns and gannets, plus some oyster-catchers. Our leg muscles are getting strong, too, after some pretty serious hiking.

Google fever continues in my absence. I’ve just read an article on CNN’s teletext about the repricing of the shares. Even here, you can’t escape the talk about Google.

We’ll be hanging out in the Faroese capital tomorrow, then flying back to Reykjavík on Friday, where we’ll quickly change to a flight to Vestmannaeyjar, a group of islands off the south coast of Iceland. We’ll be staying in the town of Heimaey for three days.

Folks back home continue to keep us in touch via SMS messages. Keep them coming, guys; the more, the merrier.

We’ve been having a fabulous time here in the Faroe Islands. The weather has been beautiful for an astounding five straight days. We met some Faroese tourists (visiting other parts of their own country) yesterday and they said that this kind of weather is a once every 10 years kind of thing. It’s been about 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit (since I’m writing this, Ian will just have to deal with the Fahrenheit instead of Celsius measurements — this is my form of rebellion against his tyrany) every day. Yesterday had some clouds, but all the other days have been clear blue skies. Children have been swimming in the ocean and in the streams that run down the steep hillsides through the towns. A picture of kids swimming was on the cover of the newspaper, so you know that it’s unusual.

We spent Monday in Tórshavn (the capital) which Ian wrote about briefly in the previous entry. It’s a much bigger town than we were expecting, with lots going on. It’s full of babies; they’re everywhere in this country.

On Tuesday, we picked up our car and drove up to Vestmanna, where there are giant cliffs that are very popular with seabirds. We had a 3-hour boat ride around the cliffs and into small caves at the base of them. Although a lot of the birds have departed now that summer is coming to a close, there were still lots of birds. We saw a few puffins, which was a lot of fun, but we hope to see many more in the coming days.

We then proceeded to drive up to two towns at the north of Streymoy, the island with both Tórshavn and Westmanna. Both were just beautiful, with grass roofed houses and steep sloped mountains rising out of the sea. Needless to say, we’ve been making good use of our new cameras.

On Tuesday night, we stayed in a hotel in Runavík on the island Eysturoy. The room faced west over the water and had the hot sun (that day was particularly hot, in the 80s) beating in from noon until 11:00. Since they’re not accustomed to hot weather, the room just had one small opening window in a bank of fixed windows. It was absolutely roasting in there. Probably 100 degrees. We opened the windows and went out to find some dinner. When we got back, it was still really really hot. It didn’t cool off until about 6am. Not our best night’s sleep ever.

On wednesday, we took the car ferry from Eysturoy to Borðoy, where the Faroes’ second biggest town, Klaksvík, is. We stayed north of Klaksvík in Viðareyði, which is actually on the island of Viðoy. Eighteen islands make up the Faroes, and you go from one to another quite regularly since many have bits that almost touch, so they can make little causeways that you can drive over. The really amazing thing is the tunnels. Since the islands are so steep, it would be impossible to make a road over the top. Instead, they burrow one-lane tunnels through the mass of the mountains, taking you from one side to the other that way. The tunnels are very small and have irregular sides. As the car in front of you goes through with his high beams on, it looks like a a science fiction movie would depict a creature from outer space with his own protective plasma bubble around him sliding through a tube. I (clearly) can’t do it justice with words, but the effect is eerie.

On Thursday, we had hoped to climb Enniberg, the highest sea cliff in the world (or so they claim), but the very top was in a cloud, so we decided to wait another day. Instead we drove out to the town of Kunoy on the island of Kunoy, which was only recently connected to the road system by a tunnel. There, we met a really nice farmer and chatted with him and played with his dog for a while. Then we went back to Klaksvík, where we proceeded to take a ferry to the island of Kalsoy, take a bus to the very tip of it (through four of the aforementioned tunnels), and climb up to the lighthouse. The bus dropped us and the four Faroese tourists, mentioned before, at the tiny village of Trøllanes at the northern tip of Kalsoy. It looked like 20 or fewer people lived there. The climb was very very steep, but grassy, so it wasn’t difficult to find your footing. We just had to be careful for holes. The grass grows so thickly on these hills that it covers holes and makes a sort of booby trap. Once we got up to the lighthouse, the view was fantastic, and a real surprise, as the books hadn’t prepared us. We could see Enniberg, the cliff that we had hoped to climb (still in the clouds), to the east, and lots of the other islands to the west. Hopefully our pictures will get close to capturing it.

We found out from the Faroese tourists yesterday that they were told that the Enniberg cliff walk required a guide to help you down if the fog rolls in while you’re up there. That information, combined with a look at the route with the binoculars and some wimpiness on our part, made us decide to skip the 6 hour hike up the cliff today. I think it would have been too hard for me.

Instead, we rode on the mail boat to the remote easternmost islands of Svínoy and Fugloy. We didn’t get off the boat to spend the day there, since the only option for the return trip was late this afternoon and we weren’t sure how much there was to do there. The ride was beautiful and we were the only tourists on the boat. When we got close to Fugloy, the swells got really big and the boat was bobbing around like a cork. At the dock, the boat can’t actually tie up due to the rough water (there’s no harbor) so the boat guys just sling one long rope over a winch and then hand the cargo up to the men waiting on the dock. The whole town comes down with their dogs (9 of them today) to watch the spectacle. A woman with two small children and a baby was getting off the boat. We looked on with quite a bit of anxiety as the boat guy held the baby out over the side of the bobbing boat and a guy on the dock tried to get a grip on him. It took several bobs of the boat before they had a good enough connection to pass the baby. The baby didn’t seem to mind at all.

We got back on dry land and decided to try a hike that wasn’t mentioned in either of our travel guides, but was in a small brochure put out by the tourist board. We weren’t expecting much at all, which made the phenomenal views at the top of the mountain above Klaksvík all the more of a treat. The weather was absolutely perfect (no clouds, no wind) and we had a great view of Klaksvík far below and a handfull of other islands. We took a ton of pictures, so maybe a few will come out well.

Okay, that brings you up to date. If anyone made it through all of this, I’ll be impressed.

Well, we finally made it to the Faroes and have spent today exploring Tórshavn. The temperature has been an amazing 25°C today, so I’ve been wearing shorts and sweating away as we walk around town. The locals tell us that this weather is truly extraordinary and that we should make the most of it.

Anyway, if I use this computer for any longer, I’ll have to pay for it, so that’s all for now.

Our 16:00 flight to the Faroes turned into our 15:30 flight to the Faroes some weeks ago.

This morning, checking out of our hotel in Reykjavík, it suddenly and inexplicably turned into our 21:00 flight. It looks like we get an extra full day in Iceland.

Let’s hope we do actually arrive in the Faroes tonight.

Sarah and I awoke to our alarm going off at 07:00 today, which means I actually managed to sleep through the night. It’s nice to finally be on the local time zone. Usually, it takes me only a single night.

After breakfast, we were met by our guide from Mountain Taxi, Beggi, in his monster off-road jeep. This vehicle had 3 radio systems, a GPS computer, a GSM phone and a mounting for a laptop computer, which Heggi told us he uses only in winter. Apparently, the computer tracks his every movement when out on the snow. When he gets lost, he can retrace his journey, step by step.

Beggi and his wife are heavily involved with Iceland’s 4×4 Club. He told us that any jeep with fewer than 5 antennas is probably never driven outside of Reykjavík by its owner. It was pretty easy to tell that Beggi views these people with contempt. His souped up vehicle with 40″ tyres, enhanced suspension and all mod cons left many of these vehicles standing.

We began to drive to Iceland’s most active volcano, Hekla, driving along roads (Hah! Did I say roads?) that I would not have attempted, even if I’d had Beggi’s 12 gear monster at my disposal.

In the afternoon, we arrived at Landmannalaugar, where we experienced the highlight of the trip. At the end of some very rough roads and in the middle of nowhere, a natural hot spring billows steam into the icy air. We stripped into our swimming costume and dived in. Bliss! It was absolutely heavenly.

But, nothing is without its price, of course, and oh, what a bitch when we had to get out of the pool and the icy Icelandic air blasted our soaking wet bodies with Arctic wind. It’s hard to accurately describe how unpleasantly cold that felt.

It was a long trip. Beggi was with us for 11 hours, all told. I even managed to lose my phone in Beggi’s car, but he kindly brought it back to the hotel later in the evening. (Am I really going to lose an item every day during this holiday?)

We’re now at the end of a very long day. We had dinner at Hornið around the corner, then went for coffee and cake at a very pleasant café a couple of streets away.

Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll fly from Reykjavík city airport to Vágar in the Faroe Islands. I’m not sure how we’ll spend the morning yet. Once we arrive in Vágar, we’ll get on a bus to the capital, Tórshavn and then probably try to find some dinner.

By the way, you can send us an SMS message on our new phone while we’re here. The number is +1-650-861-9501.