Page 9 - Van Wig & Associates, Alamitos Heights ~ January 2020 Issue

nordic islands

IN THE ‘LAND OF 10,000 WATERFALLS’ TRAVEL
THE FAROE ISLANDS DRAW MORE VISITORS FOR

THE PICTURESQUE NORDIC SCENERY

By Kelly Smith lived in Trollanes, a village on popped up. Two hotels, I also relied on public ferries, can halt it, as an American I he said. He worries people will
Kalsoy with only three families including the first chain hotel, buses and a helicopter, all of met found out and was stranded destroy the puffin colony and
he grassy island with its who for generations have a Hilton Garden Inn, were which had limited hours and overnight. suggested limiting the number
sheer rocky cliffs jutted made a living by raising sheep being built when I visited last destinations. In a pinch, I Most visitors paid the $15 of ferry passengers or restricting
Tfrom the sea, not a tree and rappelling cliffs to collect spring in the capital, Torshavn, hitched rides from an American, fee to hike on their own. (The walks through the area during
in sight. bird eggs. The village became (pronounced like “Toesh-ow-n”). an Irish couple and other kind collected money goes toward nesting. “We just have to control
As I hiked along a footpath, reachable by car when tunnels “It’s a little dot on the map, strangers along the way. protecting the island’s iconic bird it more,” he said.
I saw the snow-capped were carved through mountains but there’s a lot of things going The sun was shimmering life and nature.) But about a In Klaksvik, the second-
mountains of other islands in in the 1980s, but it remained on here,” said David Whale, a on the sapphire blue ocean dozen of us joined Heini largest city (pop. 5,000), I felt
the distance. Seabirds squawked isolated—until tourists began British transplant who co-owns when I boarded a ferry on the Heinesen, 67, whose father guilty as I boarded my first-ever
and soared through the blue arriving a few years ago, lured Heimdal Tours. island of Vagar (pronounced was the last lighthouse keeper. helicopter ride.
skies. From the stout red and by dramatic images of mountain “It becomes the land of “vowar”), heading to Mykines The fit retiree with a gray beard Some locals lament visitors’
white lighthouse perched at the peaks from a lighthouse. Now 10,000 waterfalls,” Whale said. (pronounced “Me-ch-ness”), the walked with a wooden hiking use of government-subsidized
end of the island—the object Kallsgaro said his once secluded helicopters (my 15-minute
of my hike—the sea stretched land gets 20,000 visitors a year, trip cost $32), which is vital
endlessly across the horizon. forging dirt paths that didn’t The Faroes are home to millions transportation for residents.
I felt like I had reached the exist centuries before. of Puffins. Up to 2 million breeding However, the tourist board and
end of the Earth. It was merely Although the farmer is now pairs live here each year. guide books tout island hopping
the far tip of Kalsoy Island, one a part-time tourist guide, it by helicopter. Without a car,
of the most northerly of the hasn’t all been a boon for him. it was an efficient way back
blustery Faroe Islands. Overflow crowds park cars on to Torshavn, on the island of
I’d come for that sense of his fields; some hikers litter and Streymoy, gliding over the sea,
remote wonder, but I was just others leave his red gate open, villages and windmills below.
one of an increasing number allowing his sheep to escape. If Back in the capital (pop.
of people who seek out these a hiker is injured, Kallsgaro calls 20,000), I splurged on Faroese
tiny specks on the map between a helicopter rescue, a free service tapas at Barbara Fish House
Scotland and Iceland. Travelers for the hiker. (A local newspaper with two New Yorkers,
come for the panoramic said helicopters rescued 20 people devouring mussels, fish soup,
vistas, waterfalls, puffins—and on the Faroe Islands in 2018, half langoustines, smoked salmon
paradoxically, an escape from of whom were tourists.) I made my solo weeklong trip westernmost island. stick, leading us on unmarked and local beers. The Danish
the crowds. The volcanic islands are part of before peak summer tourism. To The boat passed mountains paths as he chatted about the brewery, Mikkeller, opened up
A few years ago, the stunning the Kingdom of Denmark, but save money and avoid driving dusted with snow as the red, history and climate. He paused next door in a 500-year-old
views were largely left to the they are self-governed with their alone through narrow, dark white and blue Faroese flag as if deep in thought. turf-roofed, wooden house.
islands’ 50,000 residents. But own flag, culture, language and one-way mountain tunnels, I whipped in the cool wind at “What do you hear? You’ll hear Nearby, Tinganes, red
since 2013, the number of distinctive landscape—a secluded skipped a car rental—a challenge the stern. Other tourists and I nature only,” he said in a hushed, government buildings with
tourists has increased an average paradise for visitors who can for sightseeing on any island, gawked at Drangarnir, iconic reverent voice. “It’s beautiful.” grass roofs, stand in an area
of 10% a year, according to island-hop by ferry, helicopter but even more so in a place sea stacks with a slanted top He pointed to white and gray that was once the Vikings’
Visit Faroe Islands. In 2018, a or car through tunnels under with limited public transit and and doorway-shaped hole in fulmars flying overhead and big general assembly. Evidence
record 120,000 people visited the sea. With a few exceptions, an emerging tourism industry. the middle, and the islet of gannets diving into the sea. At of Irish and Viking roots are
the volcanic isles. they offer largely free, unfettered (There are also two well-lit, two- Tindholmur, its five sharp peaks the puffin colony, the whish- scattered across the islands—
“Instagram is probably the access to the scenery. But last way subsea tunnels and crews are rising above us. In the distance, whish sound of thousands of from Viking burial grounds to
biggest reason people come,” April, the islands temporarily building a third one that’s slated the waterfall Mulafossur birds filled the air. A sign urged Kirkjubour, a settlement from
25-year-old farmer Johannus shut down major sites for to open in 2020.) plunged over a cliff into the viroing, respect, for the birds, the Middle Ages. n
Kallsgaro told me, lighting maintenance. Some farmers are Instead, I booked tours with ocean next to mountains and and Heinesen hustled us past.
a cigarette. “We’re all over starting to impose fees to trek two companies, which offered the tiny village of Gasadalur. Eight people live year-round ©2019 Star Tribune
Instagram.” across their land. excursions only on certain The ferry usually sails twice a on Mykines, but the island now (Minneapolis) Distributed by
Since 1698, his forebears have Since then, Airbnbs have days, a scheduling challenge. day each way, but bad weather attracts 15,000 visitors a year, Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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