A Beautiful Day In Faroe

This morning the runners stretched their legs and I wrote the first blog of this trip. Two locations were considered and with our hosts driving we went to the villages of Saksun and then onto Tjœrnuvik. The Faroes are so closely linked with the sea - I know that stating it may be so obvious as to be absurd - but the closeness of houses to water highlights this. The fjords and the open sea provides what has sustained these people over centuries.

We passed salmon farms too which I suppose is one way of being more sustainable than taking from the wild. However, in the Scottish Sunday Times the headline reads 'Seals shot to save Waitrose Salmon' followed by a quote 'if seals keep attacking the fish, then, like a farmer kills foxes, we shoot them'. It appears there are killers everywhere who justify to themselves that it is justified! The Wild is dangerous and then disease threatens the seal population and there is every need to be concerned.

I don't think that words would be enough to describe what we saw today.

Saksun is at the end of a finger of water that stretches out to sea. The hanging waterfalls and high ridges on either side are majestic. The vividness of the greens of the pastures are emphasized by the dark lines of ditches and boulders. Sheep dotted the hillsides. It was a pleasure to be there.

I was concentrating on the birds and their national bird, the Oyster Catcher, is everywhere and their calls are constant. Fulmars were on the crags and there was the occasional Herring Gull with a good number of Lesser-black Backed Gulls. An Arctic Tern fished nearby. We eventually identified a female Common Eider with three young. On the edge of a fjord were numerous male Eiders and in one group there were at least thirty. One Hare was spotted and that is the only land mammal apart from a House Mouse - and neither are indigenous.

At Tjœrnvnik we indulged in waffles, cream and strawberry jam where we sat outside and drank coffee. On the edge of the bay were two large stones. One was said to be a witch and the other a giant who agreed to tow the Faroes to link up with Iceland. Daylight came too soon and now they are fixed in stone for ever. That's one way of getting stoned and being enshrined in folk law.

On the way back to a fish and chip supper we saw gigg racing and later watched a re-run on TV. Good luck to them for a superb effort is required to get those boats moving through the water. The weather was kind and the sun shone and at 9am it was twelve degrees. We had some rain and the breeze was light. What a day and again Vodafone failed to solve the issues of no outward going calls or even inward ones. Money for nothing and it wasn't free. We have no consumer or consideration given to us from VODAFONE. IT APPEARS THAT THEY DON'T CARE. Tomorrow is another day.