Nature

The tour of the day in The Faroe Islands was in the western part. The weather in Torshavn was very bad and often if it is, the weather in the north and west are very good. We drove about 50 km to the western part of the islands, through the undersea tunnel to Vagar where Gasadalur is located.

Gasadalur is the home of the beautiful waterfall Múlafossur. The village of Gásadalur sits tucked away between lush green fields and soaring mountains to all sides. It is one of those locations that you only imagine you will experience through photographs.

Prior to 2004, there were only three ways of reaching the tiny community; none of them included travel by car. One way was to hike over the 700-metre mountains, and the other two options were by boat or helicopter. The inaccessibility of the remote location meant the village’s population fell dramatically.

In 2004, a tunnel was blasted through one of the mountains, allowing automobile travel to the isolated settlement. Today, the population totals approximately a dozen people.

Gásadalur has been one of the most isolated villages in the Faroes. It is difficult to get to the village by sea and it was not until 2004 that the village was connected to the rest of the island by road when the tunnel was built. The people of Gásadalur used to walk this path when they had to go to the neighbouring villages to trade or for other errands. The helicopter service began in 1983.

The first stretch of the path is steep and runs close to the edge of the mountain. Therefore, walk extremely carefully, but do not forget to enjoy the outstanding view over Sørvágsfjørður, Tindhólmur, Gáshólmur and Mykines. In 2014, two men managed to climb all fives peaks of Tindhólmur.

There is no church in Gásadalur so the school is used for services. The cemetery is from 1873. Before then, people were burried in Bøur and so the coffin had to be carried over the mountain to Bøur from Gásadalur. The trip was very difficult and the only place that the bearers could rest was at the Líksteinurin (Corpse Stone), which you will come upon halfway through the route. Further on, you come to the spring Vígdá. There is a story that a baby in Gásadalur became seriously ill and had to be taken to the doctor in Bøur. On the way to Bøur, the baby’s condition worsened and it was about to die. According to the Lutheran faith, your soul does not gain salvation if you die unbaptised. Therefore, the priest, who was travelling with them, quickly blessed the spring and baptised the baby.

When you continue, you will see Risasporið. There is a legend about two giants. One lived in Gásadalur and the other in Mykines. Once, they quarrelled and the Gásadalur giant wanted to go to Mykines to settle the dispute. He took running leaps along the mountain, took off, and with one leap, he landed on Mykines. He took off so hard that you can see his footprint to this day.

From Skarði, the path twists down the mountainside to the village. Beware of loose stones! The view down to Gásadalur is one of the most beautiful sights you can experience. The small, beautiful village is surrounded by green infield with harsh high mountains. One of them is Árnafjall, which, with its 722 metres, is the tallest mountain on Vágar. In the village, there are ruins from the Middle Ages, called Uppi við Garð and Gæsutoftir.

The bottom picture to the right, you can see Mykines, the most western island of Faroe Island.

Below you can see Gasadalur village with geese ;o).

Just a marvelous place, sunny green and fresh at the same time.

Love, Health And Wisdom

Brian

Today we went to the North East Island, Kalsoy to climb the Mountain close to Trøllanes and visit the Kòpakonan in Mikladalur. We drove from Torshavn to Klaksvik.

From Klaksvik we went by ferry to Sydradalur on the Island, Kalsoy.

On the Island of Kalsoy we went to the nothern part through three long tunnels to Trøllanes and started climbing the mountain to the top.

After this fantastic climb it was time to visit Kòpakonan in Mikladalur.

Kópakonan: A statue of the Seal Woman was raised in Mikladagur on the island of Kalsoy on 1 August, 2014. The statue is 2.6 metres long, weighs 450 kilograms, and is made of bronze and stainless steel.

The legend of Kópakonan (the Seal Woman) is one of the best-known folktales in the Faroe Islands.

Seals were believed to be former human beings who voluntarily sought death in the ocean. Once a year, on the Thirteenth night, they were allowed to come on land, strip off their skins and amuse themselves as human beings, dancing and enjoying themselves.

A young farmer from the village of Mikladalur on the northern island of Kalsoy, wondering if this story was true, went and lay in wait on the beach one Thirteenth evening. He watched and saw the seals arriving in large numbers, swimming towards the shore. They clambered on to the beach, shed their skins and laid them carefully on the rocks. Divested of their skins, they looked just like normal people. The young lad stared at a pretty seal girl placing her skin close to the spot where he was hiding, and when the dance began, he sneaked up and stole it. The dancing and games went on all night, but as soon as the sun started to peep above the horizon, all the seals came to reclaim their skins to return to the sea. The seal girl was very upset when she couldn’t find her skin, though its smell still lingered in the air, and then the man from Mikladalur appeared holding it, but he wouldn’t give it back to her, despite her desperate entreaties, so she was obliged to accompany him to his farm.

He kept her with him for many years as his wife, and she bore him several children; but he always had to make sure that she didn’t have access to her skin. He kept it locked up in a chest to which he alone had the key, a key which he kept at all times on a chain attached to his belt.

One day, while he was out at sea fishing with his companions, he realised he had left the key at home. He announced to his companions, ‘Today I shall lose my wife!’ – and he explained what had happened. The men pulled in their nets and lines and rowed back to the shore as fast as they could, but when they arrived at the farm, they found the children all alone and their mother gone. Their father knew she wasn’t going to come back, as she had put out the fire and put away all the knives, so that the young ones couldn’t do themselves any harm after she’d left.

Indeed, once she had reached the shore, she had put on her sealskin and plunged into the water, where a bull seal, who had loved her all those years before and was still waiting for her, popped up beside her. When her children, the ones she had had with the Mikladalur man, later came down to the beach, a seal would emerge and look towards the land; people naturally believed that it was the children’s mother. And so the years passed.

Then one day it happened that the Mikladalur men planned to go deep into one of the caverns along the far coast to hunt the seals that lived there. The night before they were due to go, the man’s seal wife appeared to him in a dream and said that if he went on the seal hunt in the cavern, he should make sure he didn’t kill the great bull seal that would be lying at the entrance, for that was her husband. Nor should he harm the two seal pups deep inside the cave, for they were her two young sons, and she described their skins so he would know them. But the farmer didn’t heed the dream message. He joined the others on the hunt, and they killed all the seals they could lay their hands on. When they got back home, the catch was divided up, and for his share the farmer received the large bull seal and both the front and the hind flippers of the two young pups.

In the evening, when the head of the large seal and the limbs of the small ones had been cooked for dinner, there was a great crash in the smoke-room, and the seal woman appeared in the form of a terrifying troll; she sniffed at the food in the troughs and cried the curse: ‘Here lie the head of my husband with his broad nostrils, the hand of Hárek and the foot of Fredrik! Now there shall be revenge, revenge on the men of Mikladalur, and some will die at sea and others fall from the mountain tops, until there be as many dead as can link hands all round the shores of the isle of Kalsoy!’

When she had pronounced these words, she vanished with a great crash of thunder and was never seen again. But still today, alas, it so happens from time to time that men from the village of Mikladalur get drowned at sea or fall from the tops of cliffs; it must therefore be feared that the number of victims is not yet great enough for all the dead to link hands around the whole perimeter of the isle of Kalsoy.

That was my great day on The Island of Kalsoy.

Love, Health And Wisdom

Brian

I have experienced it some times before in Torshavn, but the last time was in 2010. This time the Faroese fishermen forced around 50 pilot whales into the shore/beach of Torshavn. It looks very dramatic, but you have to know that the whales die instantly and every part of the whales are eaten or used. These whales are not protected. There are enough of them in the Seas of the world.

There is a fantastic teamwork among the Faroese people, when someone discovers the pilot whales in the ocean near The Faroe Island. Everyone who participates in the work of catching and killing the whales will get their share of the catch.

Very bloody, but very exciting too. Still a tradition and delicious food. I have tasted it several times and I love it.

Love, Health And Wisdom

Brian