Faroe Islands

After breakfast we went to the lecture given by Dayo on animal communication. It was quite interesting, though I felt that often the science was stating the obvious!

At 10am there was a crew safety drill, fighting a simulated fire in the garbage room. This was followed by the 'Abandon Ship' order.

We then went to Gordon's talk on the Battle of the Atlantic. Again, an interesting lecture.

We arrived in the Faroe Islands at around lunchtime and below is our first view of the southern tip of the island of Suduroy. There are 18 major islands altogether.

We were guided into the harbour of the small town of Tvoroyri by a pilot vessel.

Rather than the hike, we had opted for the coach tour of the southern part of the island, visiting small settlements, such as Porkeri and Vagar. We had a very likeable young tour guide, whose name was Napoleon. He is a linguist and has been studying in France. He spoke about his family and also told us interesting facts about the Faroe Islands and the Faroese. When he spoke of the inhabitants, we thought he was talking about fairies!

It was very overcast with occasional showers as we drove along the coast, stopping at a grass-roofed church, in the town of Porkeri. It was a simple Lutheran church with wooden cross-braces to protect the building in the heavy storms they have here frequently. The other guide, who is a lay preacher, talked about the church, which reminded us of those we saw in Greenland, complete with a ship hanging from the ceiling. Napoleon sang us one of the hymns in the hymn book while we followed the Faroese words. He has a very good, clear, natural voice. Faroese is quite different from Danish. 

We reached the lighthouse at the most southern point of the Faroes, where we all got out of the coach and walked towards the point. The view was amazing.

Next we went higher, to a cliff overlook, but the mist rolled in and visibility was very poor. We saw some very impressive vistas during breaks in the clouds, but the wind became too strong and we didn't want to be swept away! We had reached Akraberg, the southernmost tip of Suduroy. 

The drive round the island was along some winding roads through steep-sided mountains.

5 kms from Akraberg, we made our last stop at Sumba, where we all entered a hall to see the Faroese Chain Dance. It was very simple, performed in a circle by a local dance group. We were invited to join in, but declined. 

To say the very least, I was underwhelmed by the dancing. Wendy liked the singing that accompanied it, but I felt it was very dirge-like and reflected my general feeling that the Faroes were a bleak place to live! Still, it was warm in there and the people were welcoming. All the local residents seemed very keen on music-making and Napoleon joined in the singing.

We returned to the boat at about 5.30pm. On the coach ride back, Napoleon sang Faroese songs to us, including the National Anthem and a wedding song, which he accompanied on a ukulele! Unfortunately, the weather was deteriorating and it was raining all the way back to the ship, so we decided not to go and have a look at Tvoroyri, which looked very quiet. We were sorry not to go to a busier part of the Faroes, especially Torshavn, the capital, on the main island of Streymoy.

We met Barry and Michelle in the bar for a drink after making the decision to abandon the 'Hot Rocks' dinner we had booked on the aft deck, as it was cold and rainy.

As we had our evening meal, the ship set sail for the very north of the Faroe Islands where tomorrow we will take a Zodiac tour of the Vestmanna cliffs on the island of Streymoy.

St. Kilda

We had set our alarm for 6.15am, so that we would be up for the ship's circuit of St. Kilda before we dropped anchor off The Village.

It was overcast at our first sight of St. Kilda. First, we saw the northern tip of the archipelago - Stac an Armin, next to Boreray. The sea conditions and weather looked hopeful as I went up on deck to take photos on our approach to Hirta, the largest island. Several of the islands were giant stacks jutting out of the sea with thousands of gannets flying around them.

Arriving at our anchorage in the bay where the settlement is located on St. Kilda, we felt excited at the thought of actually landing there.

After an hour, we had our breakfast and then Paul, a local National Trust of Scotland guide, gave a talk on the history of St. Kilda and told us it is a World Heritage Site for both cultural and natural history reasons. Shortly after, we boarded the Zodiacs for the short ride to Village Bay on the Island of Hirta.  The sea was incredibly calm with no wind at all.

We felt really privileged to land here. We were told it is about a 1 in 10 chance of visitors being able to get on to Hirta, because of extreme weather conditions and heavy seas. On shore, we saw the ruins of the houses abandoned by the St. Kildans who left the island in the 1930's. We decided to walk part-way up the military road that wound its way uphill to the radar and communication aerials at the top. Paul, the NTS man, said it would take about 45 minutes to the top. We went about halfway up a quite steep concrete road, which had been built by the military. We took photos of the sheep, the plants, the lichen and the nesting birds. The sheep are brown Soay sheep, found nowhere else in the world.

On the way we met Bruno, the expedition photographer.

On the way back down, we walked past the stone walls and the ruins to Main Street. As we descended, the supply helicopter came in. It comes on Tuesdays and Fridays, weather permitting. Larger items are brought by sea. Wendy looked in the small museum and at the exteriors of the houses, but didn't go in, as some were occupied. Nobody lives permanently on St. Kilda any more, but volunteers and researchers come in the summer months. I walked to see the gun which was by the quay. It was installed in World War II, but was never needed.

We also looked at the church and the old schoolhouse, with its early 20th century maps on the wall. After buying a few items in the shop, we took a Zodiac back to the ship via some bird and seal colonies. Our driver, Marijke from Holland, was a good guide and talked about the puffins, common seals, kittiwakes and gannets that we saw. One or two seals followed us in the water. We were in the Zodiac with just Alice and Arlene, sisters from Australia, so it was good to have plenty of room to move around the boat and take photos. 

As we headed back to the ship, I couldn't resist taking yet another photo of Silver Explorer at anchor, this time in the bay at St. Kilda!

We had lunch back on the ship with Susan and Frank from Melbourne, then we sailed away from Hirta towards Stac Lee, Stac an Armin and Boreray, where the gannet colonies are located. The stacks and cliffs there are very dramatic.

The stack in the photo above was covered by nesting gannets and the top slope looked as though it was snow-covered when, in fact, it was tens of thousands of birds nesting. We both agreed that the huge number of birds was one of nature's marvels.

We spent about an hour going from one island to another, with the ship being positioned extremely close to the rock faces, giving us all great opportunities to photograph and film the birds. There was a 'cloud' of them flying around us, leaving and returning to their nesting places. We could see some of them trailing long strands of vegetation, probably seaweed, from their beaks. The threat from skuas was ever-present. It is one of the largest gannet colonies in the world with 60,000 pairs. We felt very privileged to see them so close, thanks to Captain Alexander's superb handling of the ship.

A typical view of gannets clinging to the sides of the stacks.

As a mist descended over the rocks, the ship set sail for the Faroe Islands. At 5pm, Victoria gave a lecture on the Vikings in Scotland, after which we had a much-needed cup of tea in our cabin, brought by our butler, Evelyn.

We had dinner with Barry, Michelle, Declan and Anne.  As we went to bed, the sea was like a millpond. No Stugeron required!

Stornoway

I woke just before we reached Stornoway and berthed at the quay. There would be no need to use the Zodiacs this morning.

We had our breakfast and then boarded two coaches for a four hour tour taking in two of the highlights of the Isle of Lewis - the Stones of Callanish and the Blackhouse of Arnol. Our local guide was Mary McLeod and our driver was Donald. Mary was an interesting guide, but not always easy to hear!

It was a 45 minute drive towards the north of the island to go and see the standing stones at Callanish, which date back over 5,000 years. They are very similar to the stone circles we saw on Orkney. The sun came out and we all walked around the site, looking at the stones and admiring the views. With the absence of trees, it was quite bleak, but wild and lovely in its own way. There were many sheep and cattle on lush green grass, often close to lochs. The stones are in the shape of a Gaelic cross.
 

We took a lot of photos, including the one above of Digby and me, then we walked downhill to the visitor centre/cafe, where we boarded the coach and drove off to the Blackhouse of Arnol.

It was about another 45 minutes to the Blackhouse of Arnol, a restored crofter's house. It is an ancient house, so called because the 'new' houses built later were called white houses. The blackhouses were thatched with oats and had different sections for the animals (the byre), people and stores (the barn). They had a peat fire constantly burning, but no chimney! We went inside and were practically smoked out by the fire! We looked at other buildings, some in ruins, then went back to the ship for lunch, which we had on the aft deck with Barry and Michelle, a British couple who live in the Algarve. 

In the afternoon, we walked round Stornoway, passing the fishing harbour at low tide, and then on to  Lews Castle, which is about to be turned into a hotel.

We had a general look around the town, which was quite pleasant, but not as attractive as Tobermory. At the Baltic Bookshop, we bought a book on St. Kilda, where we are hoping to land tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

We returned to the boat where I wrote up the blog for the past two days. The boat will set sail in about an hour for St. Kilda, about 100 miles south-west of Stornoway. The good news is that the weather forecast for the island is not bad at all. Let's hope it stays that way. We wouldn't want another Tristan da Cunha experience!

A couple of photos of us leaving Stornaway.

In the evening, we met Barry and Michelle in the Panorama Lounge for a drink and then Declan and Anne made up our group of six for dinner.