Surprisingly long distances on the islands

The Faroe Islands are pretty small when you look at them at a map and if you check how big they actually they only around 1,400 square kilometers or 540 square miles. So when we booked a place to stay we decided just to stay in Torshavn and then drive around the islands from there.

But the islands are very hilly so when you need to go around them the roads tend to be along the shore for miles going in one direction to find a spot to cross over the hill and then you go down the other direction. Hence a few miles as the crow flies can turn into several dozen miles as the car drives.

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We are going to explore the island furthest away from Torshavn today which you can actually reach without taking a postal boat. We head out of Torshavn through the tunnel and up the coast of the island until we reach the Atlanterhavsbroen which we also crossed yesterday to go to Eysturoy but today we will continue across Eysturoy to go through the underwater tunnel to Bordoy the tunnels on the Faroe islands has made sure you no longer need to take a ferry but they have been expensive to build so you have to pay 100 DKK for the return trip or around 13½€.

We get to the island and drive through the second biggest city on the islands – it doesn’t take long since Klaksvik only got around 5,000 inhabitants. We continue to the northern end of the island. To get there we have to go through two one lane tunnels. They are pretty long and when you are not used to driving on the one lane tunnels it can be a bit scary for every 100 meters or so there is a turn out at one side of the road – here the cars going in one direction turn out and let the other cars pass by. We have the right of way going from Klasvik and we make it through the first tunnel quickly. Then we come out in the open again but only for a short while we turn left and then head into another one lane tunnel.

After we get through the second tunnel we have finally gotten through the mountain on the island and have arrived on the other shore of the island. We drive up north along the eastern shore to a tiny village of Mula. We drive along a one lane gravel road out to the village. The village was one of the most remote on the islands and it wasn’t hooked up to the national electrical grid until the 1970 – the village was the final place on the islands to get electricity.

The road to the village was finally built in 1988 which connected Mula to the rest of the islands by road as one of the last villages on the islands to be accessible by road. Before the road was built you could only get to the village by walking over the hills to a nearby village or by boat. Up until then the village population had for a long time varied between 10 and 25 people. But the road didn’t bring new life to the village – it was more of an option to get away. Hence today there is no permanent resident in Mula after it had been inhabited since 1350.

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The village has a beautiful location but it doesn’t take long to walk through the deserted houses. There are some nice green hills up ahead which could be a possibility for a short hike – but it has been raining and the trails are very wet so we decide against exploring any further along the hills and drive back along the dirt road.

As we drive along the road we find it is blocked by a sheep – the sheep doesn’t want to clear the road it is actually charging the car. The sheep isn’t aggressive it turns out it like to get its head scratch so it goes up to the car so I can scratch it out the window. It is happy until I open the door to get closer to the sheep – then it runs away.