Faroe Islands, day 2
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location | GPX |
| Villingdalsfjall | 841m | 841m | Vidoy, Faroe Islands | GPX |
| Husafelli | 626m | 273m | Eysturoy, Faroe Islands | GPX |
| Borgin | 571m | 86m | Eysturoy, Faroe Islands | GPX |
Day 2 on the Faroe Islands. The day before resulted in the Eysturoy high point (Slættaratindur, 882m) and the Kunoy high point (Kúvingafjall, 830m). This Friday, Anne and I checked out of the hotel in Klaksvik and took the drive to Vidoy – and the high point Villingadalsfjall (841m) – the 3rd highest peak on the islands.
We got a good taste of the shifting weather that these islands have to offer. As we approached Viðareiði, it seemed like the rain would cease and the fog would lift. But no…
We parked by Vid Gard (the uppermost farm) and the guidebook promised us blue sticks up the mountain, but not to the summit! Interesting! We found the blue sticks shortly after passing the gate, and with this kind of guiding, there was no problems heading up in thick fog.
It was a foggy, rainy and eventually – windy hike, but with good clothes and good marking there were no worries.
At approx. 750m, there were no more sticks. We stood next to a number of cairns and wondered what was going on. Apparently, there was a cairned route towards Enniberg, but that was not our direction. The guidebook had warned us, but I couldn’t really believe that the sticks would just end 100 vertical meters below the summit. But they did.
I didn’t have a GPS map, so we would just hope we would find the summit. Fortunately, scattered, small cairns led us up to the top, marked by a pole and a cairn.
It was one of the foggiest hikes I’ve ever done, and even with a GPS, one’s focus is sharpened. But we were able to follow the small cairns back to the blue sticks without using the GPS, and from there on we were “home free”.
We returned to the car 12:23pm – 2h:45m after heading out. We were now hungry for some sunshine!
Husafelli (626m)
Our next destination was Tórshavn and Hotel Hafnia. But first, it was time for lunch. We drove to Fuglafjørður on Eysturoy where the deal was that Anne would check into the local cafeteria and enjoy reading her book while I hiked Husafelli. We talked to a very nice woman the local tourist information, and she confirmed that my plan was quite doable; straight up from Fuglafjørður and down the valley north of the village.
Husafelli: 600 vertical meters on grass, straight up from the village. My kind of route. No switchbacks, no zig-zags. I followed a gully and I heard a sheep going baa-baa down in the gully, and from the looks of it, there seemed to be no way out. Should I turn around and find the owner? There are one billion sheep on the Faroe Islands (I may be exaggerating…), so what would my chances of finding the owner be? Apparently, every citizen has its own sheep. I decided not to underestimate a sheep’s climbing ability and a few minutes later, I saw a safe route out from the gully.
I came up in the pass between Borgin and Husafelli and decided to pay Borgin (571m) a visit, just in case the primary factor was 100m or more. It wasn’t. Approx. 86m, but still worth a visit.
On my way up to Borgin, I got a short glimpse of Husafelli, and it wasn’t the grassy hill I had pictured it to be. It looked a bonafide peak!
Back in the saddle, and on my way up to Husafelli: a nice, albeit foggy ridge walk. I looked forward to my 4th Faroe peak (not counting Borgin) in two days.
I could see nada from the summit, but on my way down the northwest ridge, a marvelous landscape opened up in front of me.
I was torn between extending my hike and get some lunch. The choice fell on lunch and I headed down the valley north of the village. Approx. 2 hours later, I found the cafe and Anne, very committed to her book.
Two women worked the cafeteria: I ordered lunch from the young one, and asked the elder lady about WIFI. I was just quick enough to prevent her from serving me white wine. Another fine thing about the Faroe islands: they all understand Norwegian perfectly well. But WIFI was not just in her vocabulary and she switched automatically to English.
The Faroe Islands consist of 18 islands, 30 municipalities, friendly people, very cozy villages and very, very cool mountains. It’s an adventure to drive about. Now we were heading towards Tórshavn, and we took the old road (Oyggjarvegur) instead of the tunnel. There are some very cool peaks along Oyggjarvegur, and more about that later on….
Pictures from the Villingadalsfjall hike:
Pictures from the Husafelli hike:
Those are some awesome pictures! 🙂