A Winter Adventure In The Faroe Islands

The captain came on the intercom: “Good afternoon ladies and gentleman. This is your captain speaking. We will shortly be beginning our descent into the Faroe Islands. For those of you that are travelling to the Faroe Islands for the first time, you should know that landing at the airport there is a bit different to other airports. Because we are approaching over open ocean, you may experience some considerable turbulence. Because of the short runway, I will have to touchdown quickly and brake hard, so it might not be the smoothest of landings. But don’t worry. This is perfectly normal. Oh, and by the way, the runway has grooves on it to let water drain away, so it will also be a fairly noisy landing.”

A Winter Adventure In The Faroe Islands

We hadn’t even touched down in the Faroe Islands and this short trip was already feeling like a great adventure.

I watched the sunset over the horizon (at 3 in the afternoon) as we circled above the airport in a holding pattern whilst the runway was being cleared of snow. Out of the window, I caught glimpses of these remote islands jutting out of the ocean and I instantly fell in love. And for someone who usually has more than enough to say, I was silent. I was in awe of what I was seeing and it gave me goosebumps.

We touched down, almost disappointed at how smooth the landing was, and walked across the tarmac to the small terminal building to pick up our luggage and rental car keys. It had just turned 4pm and it was already dark outside, so we headed directly to our hotel, which was next to the airport.

Arriving on a national holiday, everything including the restaurant at the hotel was closed. I was hungry and tired (I have been known to start sobbing in these circumstances), but I was so excited to be in this amazing place that I really didn’t care that all I could eat that day was crisps and some slices of cheese that we found at a nearby petrol station. I was in the Faroe Islands!

What they say about the weather in the Faroe Islands is true. “If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes”. Over the next three days, we experienced the most erratic and changeable weather, and although we didn’t see the sun as much as we would have liked, when it did peek through the clouds, it was glorious! We even managed to get in the hike that was on the very top of our “must-do” list, out to the Trøllkonufingur. The weather was perfect and despite the fog rolling in a few times, it kept on moving and we got to see the cliffs glowing in the golden light of the winter sun.

With only 3 and a half days in the Faroe Islands in winter when there are only 5 hours of daylight, I feel like on one hand, we saw so much, but on the other, we barely scratched the surface of what this beautiful country has to offer. But there’s one thing I’m sure of. I will be going back.

Images by Wild Connections Photography