Boat Ride to Vestmannabjørgini- Catherine Kennedy

After a morning of working hard on our projects, we ate lunch and headed downstairs to board a tour bus heading to Vestmannabjørgini. The drive to Vestmannabjørgini took an hour and, to no one’s surprise, the most common sighting were the sheep. We traveled through several tunnels to reach our destination, and each tunnel was fascinating. The manpower to create even one must have been great, given the fact that tunnels go through mountains in order to allow for short straightforward travel. Once we finally reached our destination, we came to a small boat that was waiting for us to board. We all hurried off the bus and onto the ramp that connected to the wharf and boarded the boat to begin yet another adventure on the Faroe Islands. As the engine started up, and we began to pull away, a voice could be heard through a speaker. The speaker told us to look to our left to see the open pen nets that held aquaculture salmon. We continued on cruising by the steep cliffs, and many sheep and their lambs could be seen grazing yet again - I marveled at how they could be so agile on these cliffs. Our guide assured us that these sheep have not known any other terrain and so they are able to navigate these cliffs with no risk of falling. We then arrived at an area where Elephant Rock, a free-standing cliff structure that had the shape and features of an elephant’s head and trunk, could be seen. From this point we moved into the nearby alcove and maneuvered around the elephant rock. 

The navigation was precarious at best and I was impressed by the skill it took to keep our vessel from crashing into any surrounding rocks, although, I’m sure at this point the captain could do this route with their eyes closed. Once we were finished touring around the rock, we continued down the coast where we eventually made it to another alcove. 
The navigation was precarious at best and I was impressed by the skill it took to keep our vessel from crashing into any surrounding rocks, although, I’m sure at this point the captain could do this route with their eyes closed. Once we were finished touring around the rock, we continued down the coast where we eventually made it to another alcove. 


Our next step was to hopefully see some puffins, as well as the highest cliff, which stands at a staggering 200 meters. In this area we again turned into the alcove and kept our eyes open to catch a glimpse of puffins. We saw many bird colonies, but no puffins, however, I did see what I thought was the flash of an orange puffin beak. The grass around the bird colonies was greener in these areas due to fertilization from their guano. This was the last stop on the boat tour, and we began to make our way back to where we had initially boarded the boat. This was yet another amazing experience on the Faroe Islands, and was a nice break in-between working on our projects.



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