Faroes

Day 3 - Sat 17 Jul 09

Streymoy and Vága

After booking the boat trip from the pub last night via their wireless connection the plan was to get up early, head off and see some cliffs. However the weather wasn't playing ball.

The trip over the hills was covered in cloud however the harbour at Vestmanna was clear. The woman on the counter suggested that the weather might clear for the 14:00 trip, so we decided to head off through the toll tunnel to the island with the airport on it.

Most of the places have the same look and feel with small houses around a harbour and a tiny church. However the village at the bitter end of the island is a bit different.

Gásadalur Tunnel

First there's the approach to Gásadalur which is via an unlit single carriageway tunnel, then there's the steep drop down to the village, and then there's the views from the tiny group of 15 houses across onto a series of sea stacks and islands. Which are breathtaking!

The tunnel was only built in 2006, before that the tiny population had to. Use a boat to visit the rest of the islands.

Tried to give a lift to a young mum pushing a pram up the steep hill to the tunnel, but she was having none of it. She just laughed and said 'I'm live here' - not that there was a house anywhere near by.

Got back to Vestmanna in plenty of time, and the boat left at 14:00 with the roof packed with tourists, we decided to stay in the cabin. The clouds hadn't quite lifted, but that gave the cliffs a even more other worldly feel, as the clouds rolled off them. It looked just like the start of Jurassic Park . It was amazing how close the boat could get to the cliffs , the Captain managed to sail the boat into a number of crevasse. One rock (predictably called the elephant) has a whole in it, and we managed to sail through that. The sea looked calm, but there was quite a swell!

The rest of the afternoon was spent visiting the few parts of the main island that we'd missed yesterday I guess the highlight was the oldest wooden buildings which are painted black, with red window frames, and grass roofs.

Back into Torshavn in the evening to get something to eat at the Marco Polo, which was okay, but rather expensive!