19-July-04

Not much to be done, get up, pack and catch the bus at 9h15 to Klaksvik. Immediately booked into the hostel and put up the tent. For the afternoon we had to climb the 413m hill Klakkus. The view, as from all the mountaintops of the Faroes, was stunning. The pictures of the geese of Klaksvik was taken about half way up.
After dinner Jim decided that we should go down to the harbour. We watched a container being loaded onto a truck all by control from the truck driver. And than we watched fish being unloaded.

20-July-04

Due to laziness (on my part) we didn't catch the ferry at 8h45, but took the one at 10h15 back to Leirwick.
The plan was to take the old road to Fuglafjørður. This road is hardly used nowadays and is an ideal hiking path, we had it all to ourselves. The sun was shining most of the time and no rain, it was the perfect day for hiking. In the afternoon we reached Fuglafjørður, its another little harbour town. But this one actually has a sandy beach. We had the suspicion that it was sand brought in from elsewhere. Still it was nice to walk on a sandy beach.
The library is also the tourist information centre and we were invited to have a cup of coffee, free of charge. Joining us at the coffee table we had a couple from Flanders (Belgium). They were on an island tour by car which they had brought on the ferry.
At information we were also informed that there was no camping in town, despite the fact that the map showed a camping symbol next to the town. The best would be to walk on and to camp out of town. That we did.
But first lets have a look at the town and harbour, we left our rucksacks standing in the middle of town and took a stroll. The 'attraction' here is a fishmeal factory. We could see some boats being off loaded using a big pipe and we saw a bulk carrier being loaded with fishmeal. Jim analysed a sample and pronounced it to taste not bad. He would like to come back at midnight to help himself to a few kg of the stuff to take back home to store in the deepfreeze as he did with that horrible dried fish he got from Iceland and that old reindeer biltong he found in Svalbard.
The slog up the mountain could start. This is the uphill seen in the picture behind the town. We got to about 300m altitude and found a nice spot. I was very exhausted and just laid down, not interested in eating. That only happened at about 22h00 when I made some ten-minute noodles. And than it started raining, it rained the whole night and we got some moisture into the tent, wetting the bottom of our sleeping bags.

21-July-04

Something different today, we stayed in bed. The weather was miserable and we just didn't feel like going on a hike. Initially it was rain and later thick mist that kept us inside the tent. Some of the time sitting in there was spent doing a brainstorm, the theme was 'what to do after retirement?'. This was mainly directed at me, since Jim has half retired already and I am thinking about it, hoping it will come soon. Some of the sensible things that came out of there were: grow exotic vegetables, enrol in a diploma course or another BSc, play golf, play computer games, finish the rockery, read all the books in my possession, play with Linux etc, and even one that said 'get a job', who's idea was that? Not mine.
After lunch things improved and we started packing, by 13h30 we moved out. Up the final few meters to cross over and come down at Hellur. Only one incident was that I slipped on some mud and sat on my ars soiling my pants. Where will I find a washing machine so that I don't have to walk around in dirty pants?
From Hellur we followed the road around the fjord to Oyndarfjørður. The attraction of the town is the Rocking Rock, it's as you come into town down at the coast. It's a fairly big rock sitting there chained to the bedrock. We couldn't see it rock and also couldn't make it rock. Scratching our head we decided that this most likely only applies at high tide when the rock is more covered by water.
At the shop, the only one in town, which had hardly anything, I took some cheese and a cooldrink, the chocolate drink that I really wanted was not available. Inquiring about the hostel we were told that there used to be one, not anymore. So up the mountain again, lets hope it stays dry today.