July 8: A Day of Magic
Bright blue sky, warm air, beautiful flocks of happily grazing wooly sheep, and a lake suspended in mid air above the ocean. Does it get any better? My morning started out the way much of the last three weeks have – with me navigating a narrow windy road in fog so dense I could barely see the road in front of me. But then after descending onto the island of Vagar, the fog lifted, revealing a magical world.
After seeing more fog on the forecast for today, I made the decision to plan today’s ride around a hike to Lake Sorvagsvatn, reasoning that even if I couldn’t see a thing, at least I would enjoy the physical exercise. As I chugged up one mountain pass and down another on my way to the lake, I kept my speed under 25 miles an hour to avoid colliding with any sheep ambling in the fog covered road, more than once asking myself what in the world I was doing traveling in such conditions.
Leaving the island of Streymoy on my way to the island of Vagar, I traveled through one mountain tunnel and one undersea tunnel, the latter of which was accented with green and blue lights on the ceiling to mimic the aurora borealis, the beautiful dancing waves of light present in the Faroe Islands and other higher latitude areas. By the time I exited the second tunnel and descending further down the mountain, the fog miraculously lifted.
I felt as if a whole new world had opened up, as I could see little villages of colorfully painted homes nestled on the hills along the water and wildflowers dancing in the wind. With temperatures at 55 degrees and the sun on my back, I pulled over to take off my electric jacket and put on my summer gloves for the first time on this summer adventure. I was so excited to be warm and would have stripped down to shorts and a tank top to dance in the street if I had them with me.
Finding the starting point of the hike gave new meaning to the term “wild goose chase” as neither of my navigation apps could even get me to the town of the starting point, visitors were not sure what I was asking for, and several of the locals I asked didn’t speak English and pointed me in the wrong direction.
After successfully arriving at the starting point for the one hour each way hike, I stored my biking clothes and boots at the admission hut and put on my hiking shoes and tank-bag-turned-fanny pack filled with water.
Grinning from ear to ear, I skipped down the path, with visions of The Sound of Music filling my head. Stepping over tufts of brown, white, and black sheep wool, I decided to collect a few to send to my children and support crew back home the next time I can find a post office that can mail letters to the US.
The hiking trail traversed a broad plateau between the lake and the cliffs near the ocean, meandering through meadows, streams, and rocky outcroppings on its way to an amazing viewpoint of both the ocean and lake, with the lake appearing to be suspended in air. I marveled at the views in all directions, with rocky outcroppings highlighted by the deep blue sky and frothy ocean waters and a waterfall cascading down the brown jagged mountain into the sea.
After a picnic lunch on top of a grassy knoll with almost no people in sight, I leisurely made my way back to the beginning of the trail, catching a great photo of a wooly sheep with her fur waving in the wind behind her and her two babies by her side.
