Day 4.
11 August 2013. Today our exploration started a bit more relaxed as we were feeling good about the previous sampling day. And today the weather was nice and sunny!
In our first stop we encountered The Troll and The Witch. The Troll and Witch are two needle rock stacks in the north west of the Island of Eysturoy, close to Eiði, immersed in Faroese legend, and are know locally as Risin og Kellingin.
From here we drove to the end of the road, and our first monkeflower population of the day was in the town of Gjógv. This was one of my favourite towns, so colourful, and so green that even the roofs were covered in grass.
But the real prize was the stunning monkeyflowers that we found growing in abundance along the stream in the middle of town. The stream ran all the way to the sea, and monkeyflowers travelled with it to the very edge.
After Gjógv, we stopped in Eiði, where we saw the spotted morph, although we didn’t collect samples here.
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The next stop of the day was both unplanned and strange. We came across a small port town, where the main roads to enter the harbour had been closed. We navigated the closed signs and reached a full car park. There was nobody there but we saw a few people walking with wheelbarrows to the harbour. In the floor I noticed a small piece of some kind of black and white rubber. I was sad when I picked it up and realised what it was.
The only dark cloud of my visit to the fantastic Faroes was what we saw that day. It is hard to accept that the tradition of pilot whale hunting can still coexist with our understanding of the world and our place in nature. The whole town, kids included, were participating and 12 pilot whales laid down butchered. The blood spilled on the pavement and over the harbour. The sea in the small inlet was bright red.
We decided not to take pictures here. In part out of respect for the local people (who were visibly uncomfortable with our presence), and in part to not preserve the horror of what we saw.
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The end of the long day got better. We collect samples in our next stop, Kirkjubøur in the southern tip of the Island of Streymoy.
Kirkjubøur is a beautiful small community with an ancient church which was under repair, and a beautiful Norse house turned into a museum. Nobody guarded the house, and visitors were asked to deposit the entrance fee through an honour system. Inside the Norse house was a fantastic collection of historical artefacts that documented the old life style in the Faroes.
Monkeyflowers were growing along the stream that crosses the town. Some of it had been grazed, probably by sheep. Only the spotted morph was seen here.
And a last couple of images from earlier in the day. I think I took them somewhere between Torshavn and Kirkjubøur.
