The art of gathering sheep and how I got lost on a mountain

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After our hike at Lake Leitisvatn, on the way to Vestmanna, we decided to pay a visit to our friend Andras’ parents in Sandavágur, who we’d stayed with for two days and borrowed the house in Tórshavn from back in August. His mum was home and didn’t mind us showing up without notice (A very Faroese thing!), and even made us coffee, tea and biscuits. It was lovely to see her and their many dogs again.

When his father came home, he invited us to come along for a gathering of their sheep on a mountain that they own on Vágar at a place called Kalvadalur near the underwater tunnel to Streymoy (yes, they own a mountain, which is perfectly normal on the Faroe Islands!). Of course, we wanted to do that despite being extremely tired from the morning hike. Most of the family came along to do the job and some watched. There were children, parents and grandparents – and us and the dogs.

The climb was tough on top of the other hike, but oh so beautiful! It went well until at some point, where I looked back and had suddenly lost sight of everyone else. I decided to climb to the top of the mountain to see if I could locate them, but just as I got up there, I saw them turn a corner with all the sheep right down the bottom of the mountain. Oh well… At least me getting lost meant I got to see this beautiful view!

The sheep running so far below me…

I ran down the mountain as fast as I could, falling every few metres, but I just couldn’t catch up. Eventually, I got an SMS from Katrine, who told me to go back down to the sheep house, as they had finished and were now registering all the sheep.

I couldn’t see the road from where I was and I thought I had walked too far. I decided to just climb down from where I was and see where that took me. And to my big surprise, when I got a bit further down, I saw that I was right above them – the house was just a few hundred metres below me! I still don’t understand how that could be, as I truly and honestly felt like I was miles away.

I ran down to the others and hurried as I thought they were waiting for me to go home. It turns out that they had only just started registering and medicating the sheep and it took another hour to finish! Next time, I will just stay up there for a while 😛

Standing there watching the sheep get medicated and counted was cold, but it was a lot of fun to see – and I LOVE the weirdness of sheep, they are such adorable (and slightly stupid) animals! They kept jumping on top of each other! Maybe to get a better view of the strange Danish girls? 😉

Thankfully, no one had gone looking for me, although they were a bit worried. I did have a gps on my phone though, and I sort of knew where I was, so it wasn’t really a big problem, but I don’t like it when people worry about me.

Ginormous lice!

Despite getting lost, I had a fun day on the mountain with Andras’ lovely family. It was interesting to see how they handle the sheep, as it’s something that’s very crucial to the Faroese people and economy. It also seems like they take good care of the sheep and they live happy and semi-free lives.

When we got back to Sandavágur, Andras’ mum drove us to Streymoy from where we hitchhiked through to Vestmanna. There our next adventure with Rigmor and Jens and their beautiful family began.

Would you like to experience traditional sheep herding on the Faroe Islands as well? Then join this hiking tour to Kirkjubøur with a local shepherd!