A Fair Wind: A Trip to the Faroe Islands by Alf Alderson

I have before me a map of the Faroe Islands, and marked on the coast of Sandoy Island in my own scrawl besides a couple of indentations in its craggy coastline are the words ‘beach break’ and ‘beach/point break’, both followed by a question mark.

The question marks indicate that I wasn’t sure at the time of writing if these were possible surf spots or not, for I was flying over them in a helicopter en route to Stóra Dímun, a green and windswept islet whereupon dwelt a young family of four plus assorted dogs, sheep and hens. The family had invited myself and three other journalists to their farm to experience their lifestyle out here literally in the middle of the North Atlantic.

I would tell you the names of the family and more, but my notebook from the trip may be floating somewhere in the North Atlantic; it may be on top of the snow mottled, windblasted (wind plays a big part in the Faroes) peak of 882-metre Slaettaratindur, the islands’ highest point; or it could be in one of a number of fine bars in downtown Tórshaven. All I know is it’s no longer with me.

Parallel Universe

But the Faroes offer such a spectacular, parallel-universe-type-experience to the traveller that you really don’t need a notebook to remember anything other than the smallest of details – the big picture is as clear and vibrant as the ever-present ocean-fresh wind which whips almost ceaselessly (see above) across a landscape that looks like someone sliced a chunk out of Norway’s western coast and dropped it midway between Scotland and Iceland.

And in keeping with the parallel universe theme, the unexpected encounter I have the evening after my brief visit to Stóra Dímun isn’t quite what you might expect on the same latitude as southern Greenland. I’m one of a score of people enjoying a night of traditional Faroese entertainment in Torshavn City Hall (including the most excellent band Orca, who create an amazing and very contemporary sound with instruments made entirely from recycled farm implements – www.tutl.com) when I bump into two other dudes who’re introduced to me as ‘surfers’.

One hails from Nova Scotia and is called Yaz – he’s been capturing Faroese surfing for some time on film and it turns out we worked with each other via e mail a few years earlier on a piece on the Nova Scotia surf scene; the other is a Norwegian guy Eric who knows my best surf buddy in Wales. Surfing – it’s a small world, hey?

Cold Water Surfing

The Faroe Islands are one of the new frontiers of cold water surfing, which is all a very long winded explanation for the graffiti littering my map, and despite the fact the islands currently have only one resident surfer take my word for it – you’ll be seeing a lot more about Faroese surfing in the future…

But whilst you’d be justified in expecting the Faroese surf scene to be select in the extreme, so is pretty much everything else here in terms of outdoor adventure. Take my ascent of the aforementioned Slaettaratindur, for example. With a road scrabbling its way to within 250 metres of the summit it could hardly be a major mountaineering exercise… could it?

Deep and Narrow Fjords

Well, if you like well marked paths it’s not for you, for there are none – certainly none that the four people on our little expedition could find. Then again any trails may have been hidden beneath a patchy snow cover that became ever deeper as we made our way to the summit up the north-east facing slope (bear in mind this was late April so snow was only to be expected). But there were no tracks in the snow to indicate that anyone else had made there way up here of late (cairn-marked trails are a feature of summer walking in the islands, though).

Still, the route to the summit was little more than a hard, steep and occasionally snowy slog and the views once there were truly unique. Precipitous slopes and huge crags plummeted hundreds of metres to small tarns and coastal plains, whilst the iron grey waters of immensely deep and narrow fjords reflected the pale skies of the North Atlantic.

In the distance islands such as Kalsoy and Kunoy soared up from the Atlantic to knife edged ridges which would provide the ridge walk of a lifetime. Has anyone ever traversed them? I have no idea and neither had anyone else I spoke to.

The Nordic Sagas

On our descent that wind I keep mentioning gathered speed to throw some snow at us in sharp, stinging bursts (snow that may well have come all the way from Greenland since it was travelling horizontally) and act as a reminder of what a harsh and unforgiving environment this can regularly be, so it was good to hop back into the car and high tail it to the small coastal village of Gjógv (don’t ask me – most Faroese is similarly unpronounceable) for a lunch that, for those who so wished, included seal and whale meat.

Later we drove back to Torshavn on perfectly maintained roads and sub-sea tunnels through landscapes that abysmally clichéd as it sounds were even more out of the Nordic sagas than Norway or Iceland – sea stacks ringed by seabirds, towering cliffs down which cataracts plunged for hundreds of feet before the banshee like wind hurled the water back into the sky again; rain sodden moorlands spotted by snow patches and, on the higher, cloud shrouded peaks snowfields that are part of the scenery from October to May. All these are interspersed by romantically named settlements such as Toftir, Kvivik and Sørvágur that are at once medieval and ultra modern – kind of Ikea meets Thor, the God of Thunder.

As we drove I ruminated on what a strange place this is. You can hike, pony trek, mountain bike, even surf here, yet the obvious draw of such outdoor action is far from being the only reason to visit the Faroes. Like the world’s other strange and surreal landscapes – Iceland, Kamchatka, Costa Rica, Patagonia – the Faroes get under your skin as much as beneath your boots and one visit will never be enough.

FAROE FACTS

The Faroes consist of 18 islands at latitude 62°N, 17 of which are inhabited, with the total length of coastline being 1100km. The capital, Torshavn, has a population of 19,000 making it the smallest capital city in the world (total population of the islands is 50,000).

The language is Faroese, which has its roots in Old Norse, but virtually everyone speaks English – often better than the English.

Average temperatures are 11°C in summer, 3°C in winter, and strong winds and rain are even more common than in Wales…

For loads of useful info on what to do and where to go visit  www.visit-faroeislands.com/ or www.samvit.fo