streymoy, Faroe Islands

Up Streymoy, drawn to the Island of Currents


Eysturoy Rocks
Bathers bundled up in the gentle surf of Tjornuvik Bay
Giant and Witch Spell
Father and sons admire the Giant and Witch rocks.
The Giant and the Witch
The rival rocks of the giant and the witch.
Faroese fog
Mist above Tjornuvik Bay
Streymoy Above
Car drives along a road in the highlands of Streymoy.
Sundini Fjord
Houses and roads in the background of the Sundini fjord
haldarsvik
Colorful houses in Haldarsvik
The Memorial Staircase
Couple walk over to the memorial of the deceased Haldarsvik fishermen
The Octagonal Church
Haldarsvik's main church, with eight sides.
Memorial Deceased at Sea
The memorial of the deceased fishermen of Haldarsvik
Swans's Lake
Swans swim in Streymoy's Lake Mjauvotn.
Tjornuvik Cove
Houses by the sea in Tjornuvik
Enclosed Houses of Tjornuvik
Surf below the seaside houses of Tjornuvik
sheep balance
A resident of Tjornuvik passes through the village's sheep.
Way to Tjornuvik
The deep bay of Tjornuvik.
nurseries
Fish ponds in a fjord near Vestmanna.
We leave the capital Torshavn heading north. We crossed from Vestmanna to the east coast of Streymoy. Until we reach the northern end of Tjornuvík, we are dazzled again and again by the verdant eccentricity of the largest Faroese island.

Successive slopes lead us from the cove sheltered by the slope on which the capital is located. Torshavn to the highlands between the Vagá and Kaldbak fjords.

As it ascends, the Oyggjarvegur road furrows an immense meadow that the wind shakes, to which the lateral sun reinforces the green. Three or four sharp peaks stand out above a line of shadowy ridges.

Submissive in front of dark clouds that fly over them at great speed.

 

 

Oyggjarvegur takes us into the shadows. A few kilometers further on, we can see Kaldbak again, its winding bottom, extending to the far entrance of the fjord.

Of a rare geological grandeur, the panorama from the half-slope of the Sornfelli mountain (749m) proves to be chilling.

The Valley of Mjorkaladur and the Prison of All Dreams

More than for the strategic position above the two fjords than for the scenery, Denmark installed, there, a military building complemented with a radar station also at the service of NATO. Over time, the structure lost relevance. In 2010, the keys were handed over to the city council of the Faroese capital.

By this time, Torshavn was home to the archipelago's only prison facility. The authorities noticed, however, that it was getting too much mold. Apprehensive about the health of the detainees, they decided to deactivate it. Instead, they will use the vacant building of the former ISCOMFAROES.

Over time, Faroese and even visiting foreigners became aware of the privileged location where inmates served their sentences. The establishment gained the reputation of being the prison with the best view on the face of the Earth.

We lean to the side. Even without knowing much of the blue planet, we tend to agree. We understood how special Sornfelli's unexpected pildra was, better known as Mjorkaladur, a term translatable as Vale do Fogeiro.

We don't see a single fence, watchtowers or barbed wire. In keeping with the historical and architectural tradition of the Faroe Islands, the roofs are made of turf, covered by a damp-soaked grass that gives them a Hobbitian “Garden of Delights” look.

The Territorial Swan Lake of Mjáuvotn

As soon as we did, we freed ourselves from the wonder of the place and continued on. We join another main road, the Frammi í Dal. We walk along it, in contemplative mode, when a few meters below the asphalt plane, we glimpse two lakes nearby.

The first was dotted with several white swans that the waves rocked in the wind. We are approaching the bank of the Mjáuvotn. The swans come to investigate what we want from there.

Knowing how territorial and aggressive birds are, at the first sketch of an onslaught, we dispatched some final photos and retreated.

At a glance, we reached the edge of the neighboring and much larger lake, the Leyna, whose water feeds the body of the Mjáuvotn.

We passed through Kvivik. From this village, we continue to zigzag towards the north, slowly, along the Landsvegur Stykkid road.

Our first objective for the day was Vestmanna, a town and region famous for its steep cliffs and colonies, from time to time, populous with puffins that inhabit them.

The Vestmanna Cliffs and their Missing Puffins

There follows another abrupt and winding descent to another of the deep bays of Streymoy. We entered the premises of the agency in charge of the tour, excited by the incursion that followed.

As we walk towards the boarding point, however, a joke thrown by one of the passengers of the newly arrived tour, leaves us standing behind: “get ready, you're going to see a lot! “screams the man with a yellow smile on his lips. “About ten thousand. Or more!" adds.

We all put on helmets. The boat sets sail. The houses of Vestmanna are left behind.

We head towards the Vágar fjord, passing through fish ponds, from those amphibious ponds that are increasingly abundant in the Faroe and other Nordic countries. We sailed in the company of soaked sheep of different colors that grazed on the steep banks.

We approach the mouth of the fjord and the North Atlantic. The undulation is accentuated. It forces the helmsman to sail right along the rugged cliffs of Streymoy. We passed under natural arches.

Soon, we entered a cave at the base of a huge stone needle that tore through the mist above.

As far as we know, it was in that extreme habitat that puffins congregated in large numbers. Because we are out of season, or for another reason that the agency failed to inform, puffins or other birds worthy of registration, did not even see them.

The tour had the terminology “Vestmanna Birdcliffs” and a very high price, as there is almost everything in these remote and Nordic places. However, it revealed to the passengers only and only the abrupt coastline beaten by the sea.

A rainbow-generating arctic rain soaks the return and freezes us. Finally, having disembarked, we regained our balance carried by the waves, bought hot chocolate and resumed our journey to Streymoy.

Above Fjord always with Eysturoy in sight

The impassable relief to the east forces us to go back to the shores of the swan lake that we had visited. From there, we crossed to its eastern coast, facing another neighboring island. No longer Vágar, now, Eysturoy.

From bottom to top, on the map, there are villages with names ending in vík: Hósvík, Hvalvík, Nesvík, Haldarsvík and Tjornuvík.

Vík means, in Faroese, Icelandic and Scandinavian dialects, cove. Now, the coves, sheltered from the wind and sea storms, have always proved to be the right places for life in the archipelago.

Of the various villages listed, we had saved time mainly for the last two, the northernmost ones. A few dozen kilometers later, we find ourselves at the entrance to Haldarsvík.

Haldarsvik and its Octagonal Church

We find its white church, the only octagonal church in the Faroe, built in 1856 and with one of the most peculiar altars in the archipelago and surroundings, with a Last Supper, in which the faces of the apostles are replaced by those of public figures of the nation.

We went up a staircase. From the top, we have a view of the church, the multicolored houses of the one hundred and seventy inhabitants, set against the U-shaped bottom of the cove where a voluminous waterfall fell unceremoniously.

And the harbor, partially protected by a pier covered with green grass. A couple joins us. While scanning the view, we analyze an enigmatic metallic monument.

The various names inscribed on plaques encrusted in the grass, help us to conclude that it was a memorial to the fishermen and sailors of the village lost at sea.

Taking into account the small population of Haldarsvík, they formed an impressive number of victims, which sheds light on how, throughout their history, the Faroese were always forced to venture into the ocean to survive.

And how often the treacherous North Atlantic took their lives.

At that moment, another vessel was leaving the port, first towards the fjord that separated Streymoy from Eysturoy. Then pointed north, towards the even deeper bay of Tjornuvík.

Although by land, along the Bakkavegur, we followed its course. The road leads us to a geological alley with no apparent exit.

To the deepest cove and closed off by slopes that we had seen until then, with a few houses nestled in a corner of the beach, flown over by bands of intrusive mist.

Tjornuvik and its Breathtaking Deep Cove

We admire the place as if it were the first place we saw in Faroe. When, finally, we recovered from the charm, we started the descent that led to the village.

Delivered to the slope, we noticed the presence of several sheep, so fluffy that they looked more like sheep's balls, grazing in a defiant balance on the grassy ravine. We stop the car.

We perched on the iron rail and, for the rest of the animals, we photographed them from a short distance. We are in this entertains when a resident of Tjornuvík passes us, in contained disapproval.

In the days we spent traveling around the Faroe, we were warned more than once about how much it disliked livestock farmers when outsiders bothered their animals.

Not this faroes, but another, complained about the unwanted intrusion of tourism: “It's you. And hundreds more all summer long! Do you, by any chance, have an idea of ​​how much grass the sheep stop eating and how much weight they lose because they are always bothering them?

Because. They do not know. But we know. The damage comes out of our pocket.”

We completed what was missing from the route. Already between the houses, we looked for the beginning of a trail that led to a waterfall that we could see flowing from the entrance to the cove.

The Volcanic Shapes of the Giant and the Witch

Once the new half-slope has been conquered, we admire the A-roofed castro, prepared for the snowfall of the long winter, at that time, lost in a grassy hollow that the sea, there, smooth, at the imminence of low tide, bathed in slow motion. .

On the black sand, a couple got into full wetsuits. They prepared to bathe like the frigidity of the arctic allowed them.

We watched them walk into the shallow sea, with the children in their arms.

We see them stop to look, as if hypnotized, at two black rocks that stood out from the horizon, under the spell of the Witch and the Giant, a petrified duo at Eysturoy's feet.

This is already another island other than Streymoy. And another story.

Mykines, Faroe Islands

In the Faeroes FarWest

Mykines establishes the western threshold of the Faroe archipelago. It housed 179 people but the harshness of the retreat got the better of it. Today, only nine souls survive there. When we visit it, we find the island given over to its thousand sheep and the restless colonies of puffins.
Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

Thor's Faroese Port

It has been the main settlement in the Faroe Islands since at least 850 AD, the year in which Viking settlers established a parliament there. Tórshavn remains one of the smallest capitals in Europe and the divine shelter of about a third of the Faroese population.
Vágar, Faroe Islands

The Lake that hovers over the North Atlantic

By geological whim, Sorvagsvatn is much more than the largest lake in the Faroe Islands. Cliffs with between thirty to one hundred and forty meters limit the southern end of its bed. From certain perspectives, it gives the idea of ​​being suspended over the ocean.
Kirkjubour, streymoy, Faroe Islands

Where the Faroese Christianity Washed Ashore

A mere year into the first millennium, a Viking missionary named Sigmundur Brestisson brought the Christian faith to the Faroe Islands. Kirkjubour became the shelter and episcopal seat of the new religion.
Jökursarlón Lagoon, Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland

The Faltering of Europe's King Glacier

Only in Greenland and Antarctica are glaciers comparable to Vatnajökull, the supreme glacier of the old continent. And yet, even this colossus that gives more meaning to the term ice land is surrendering to the relentless siege of global warming.
Thingvellir National Park, Iceland

The Origins of the Remote Viking Democracy

The foundations of popular government that come to mind are the Hellenic ones. But what is believed to have been the world's first parliament was inaugurated in the middle of the XNUMXth century, in Iceland's icy interior.
Iceland

The Geothermal Coziness of the Ice Island

Most visitors value Iceland's volcanic scenery for its beauty. Icelanders also draw from them heat and energy crucial to the life they lead to the Arctic gates.
Jok​ülsárlón Lagoon, Iceland

The Chant and the Ice

Created by water from the Arctic Ocean and the melting of Europe's largest glacier, Jokülsárlón forms a frigid and imposing domain. Icelanders revere her and pay her surprising tributes.
Husavik a Myvatn, Iceland

Endless Snow on the Island of Fire

When, in mid-May, Iceland already enjoys some sun warmth but the cold and snow persist, the inhabitants give in to an intriguing summer anxiety.
Iceland

The Island of Fire, Ice and Waterfalls

Europe's supreme cascade rushes into Iceland. But it's not the only one. On this boreal island, with constant rain or snow and in the midst of battle between volcanoes and glaciers, endless torrents crash.
Seydisfjordur, Iceland

From the Art of Fishing to the Fishing of Art

When shipowners from Reykjavik bought the Seydisfjordur fishing fleet, the village had to adapt. Today, it captures Dieter Roth's art disciples and other bohemian and creative souls.
Saksun, streymoyFaroe Islands

The Faroese Village That Doesn't Want to be Disneyland

Saksun is one of several stunning small villages in the Faroe Islands that more and more outsiders visit. It is distinguished by the aversion to tourists of its main rural owner, author of repeated antipathies and attacks against the invaders of his land.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

Through the Mozambican Lands of Tea

The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beaches
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Juvenile lions on a sandy arm of the Shire River
safari
Liwonde National Park, Malawi

The Prodigious Resuscitation of Liwonde NP

For a long time, widespread neglect and widespread poaching had plagued this wildlife reserve. In 2015, African Parks stepped in. Soon, also benefiting from the abundant water of Lake Malombe and the Shire River, Liwonde National Park became one of the most vibrant and lush parks in Malawi.
Faithful in front of the gompa The gompa Kag Chode Thupten Samphel Ling.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit 15th - Kagbeni, Nepal

At the Gates of the Former Kingdom of Upper Mustang

Before the 1992th century, Kagbeni was already a crossroads of trade routes at the confluence of two rivers and two mountain ranges, where medieval kings collected taxes. Today, it is part of the famous Annapurna Circuit. When hikers arrive, they know that, higher up, there is a domain that, until XNUMX, prohibited entry to outsiders.
Treasures, Las Vegas, Nevada, City of Sin and Forgiveness
Architecture & Design
Las Vegas, USA

Where sin is always forgiven

Projected from the Mojave Desert like a neon mirage, the North American capital of gaming and entertainment is experienced as a gamble in the dark. Lush and addictive, Vegas neither learns nor regrets.
Aventura
Volcanoes

Mountains of Fire

More or less prominent ruptures in the earth's crust, volcanoes can prove to be as exuberant as they are capricious. Some of its eruptions are gentle, others prove annihilating.
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
Ceremonies and Festivities
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
Riders cross the Ponte do Carmo, Pirenópolis, Goiás, Brazil
Cities
Pirenópolis, Brazil

A Polis in the South American Pyrenees

Mines of Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Meia Ponte were erected by Portuguese pioneers, in the peak of the Gold Cycle. Out of nostalgia, probably Catalan emigrants called the mountains around the Pyrenees. In 1890, already in an era of independence and countless Hellenizations of its cities, Brazilians named this colonial city Pirenópolis.
Lunch time
World Food

Gastronomy Without Borders or Prejudice

Each people, their recipes and delicacies. In certain cases, the same ones that delight entire nations repel many others. For those who travel the world, the most important ingredient is a very open mind.
Kente Festival Agotime, Ghana, gold
Culture
Kumasi to Kpetoe, Ghana

A Celebration-Trip of the Ghanian Fashion

After some time in the great Ghanaian capital ashanti we crossed the country to the border with Togo. The reasons for this long journey were the kente, a fabric so revered in Ghana that several tribal chiefs dedicate a sumptuous festival to it every year.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Sport
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
Erika Mother
Traveling
Philippines

The Philippine Road Lords

With the end of World War II, the Filipinos transformed thousands of abandoned American jeeps and created the national transportation system. Today, the exuberant jeepneys are for the curves.
Bathers in the middle of the End of the World-Cenote de Cuzamá, Mérida, Mexico
Ethnic
Yucatan, Mexico

The End of the End of the World

The announced day passed but the End of the World insisted on not arriving. In Central America, today's Mayans watched and put up with incredulity all the hysteria surrounding their calendar.
ice tunnel, black gold route, Valdez, Alaska, USA
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Sensations vs Impressions

A Lost and Found City
History
Machu Picchu, Peru

The City Lost in the Mystery of the Incas

As we wander around Machu Picchu, we find meaning in the most accepted explanations for its foundation and abandonment. But whenever the complex is closed, the ruins are left to their enigmas.
Balinese Hinduism, Lombok, Indonesia, Batu Bolong temple, Agung volcano in background
Islands
Lombok, Indonesia

Lombok: Balinese Hinduism on an Island of Islam

The foundation of Indonesia was based on the belief in one God. This ambiguous principle has always generated controversy between nationalists and Islamists, but in Lombok, the Balinese take freedom of worship to heart
Masked couple for the Kitacon convention.
Winter White
Kemi, Finland

An Unconventional Finland

The authorities themselves describe Kemi as “a small, slightly crazy town in northern Finland”. When you visit, you find yourself in a Lapland that is not in keeping with the traditional ways of the region.
José Saramago in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, Glorieta de Saramago
Literature
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

José Saramago's Basalt Raft

In 1993, frustrated by the Portuguese government's disregard for his work “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ”, Saramago moved with his wife Pilar del Río to Lanzarote. Back on this somewhat extraterrestrial Canary Island, we visited his home. And the refuge from the portuguese censorship that haunted the writer.
Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Wildlife, lions
Nature
NP Gorongosa, Mozambique

The Heart of Mozambique's Wildlife Shows Signs of Life

Gorongosa was home to one of the most exuberant ecosystems in Africa, but from 1980 to 1992 it succumbed to the Civil War waged between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Greg Carr, Voice Mail's millionaire inventor received a message from the Mozambican ambassador to the UN challenging him to support Mozambique. For the good of the country and humanity, Carr pledged to resurrect the stunning national park that the Portuguese colonial government had created there.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Tibetan heights, altitude sickness, mountain prevent to treat, travel
Natural Parks

Altitude Sickness: the Grievances of Getting Mountain Sick

When traveling, it happens that we find ourselves confronted with the lack of time to explore a place as unmissable as it is high. Medicine and previous experiences with Altitude Evil dictate that we should not risk ascending in a hurry.
Okavango Delta, Not all rivers reach the sea, Mokoros
UNESCO World Heritage
Okavango Delta, Botswana

Not all rivers reach the sea

Third longest river in southern Africa, the Okavango rises in the Angolan Bié plateau and runs 1600km to the southeast. It gets lost in the Kalahari Desert where it irrigates a dazzling wetland teeming with wildlife.
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
Unusual bathing
Beaches

south of Belize

The Strange Life in the Black Caribbean Sun

On the way to Guatemala, we see how the proscribed existence of the Garifuna people, descendants of African slaves and Arawak Indians, contrasts with that of several much more airy bathing areas.

Young people walk the main street in Chame, Nepal
Religion
Annapurna Circuit: 1th - Pokhara a ChameNepal

Finally, on the way

After several days of preparation in Pokhara, we left towards the Himalayas. The walking route only starts in Chame, at 2670 meters of altitude, with the snowy peaks of the Annapurna mountain range already in sight. Until then, we complete a painful but necessary road preamble to its subtropical base.
Serra do Mar train, Paraná, airy view
On Rails
Curitiba a Morretes, Paraná, Brazil

Down Paraná, on Board the Train Serra do Mar

For more than two centuries, only a winding and narrow road connected Curitiba to the coast. Until, in 1885, a French company opened a 110 km railway. We walked along it to Morretes, the final station for passengers today. 40km from the original coastal terminus of Paranaguá.
Mahu, Third Sex Polynesia, Papeete, Tahiti
Society
Papeete, French Polynesia

The Third Sex of Tahiti

Heirs of Polynesian ancestral culture, the Mahu they preserve an unusual role in society. Lost somewhere between the two genders, these men-women continue to fight for the meaning of their lives.
Daily life
Arduous Professions

the bread the devil kneaded

Work is essential to most lives. But, certain jobs impose a degree of effort, monotony or danger that only a few chosen ones can measure up to.
Tombolo and Punta Catedral, Manuel António National Park, Costa Rica
Wildlife
PN Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Costa Rica's Little-Big National Park

The reasons for the under 28 are well known national parks Costa Ricans have become the most popular. The fauna and flora of PN Manuel António proliferate in a tiny and eccentric patch of jungle. As if that wasn't enough, it is limited to four of the best typical beaches.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.