On how I mistook the Island of Vestmannæyjar for a chicken farm.....

The windiest place in Iceland on Vestmannaeyjar


Cod drying on racks

Smelly!

Old water tank partly demolished by lava from the 1973 eruption


View from lava mounds of 1973 towards mainland and 2 more islands. Note small white speck on island on the right which is a sheep farm.


Another harbour shot


Harbour shot with me and a teacher from the kids' school


Me at old Norwegian Church replica on Vestmannaeyjar


Inside the plane...first trip

The farm Buland is out in the middle of nowhere in South Iceland, so of course there are not many lights out here except from a few farms in the area. There was one very bright row of orangey lights in the distance not too far away. They seemed to be on all night long and and had a definite shape. Being new I guessed that this had to be a chicken farm, you know where the lights are on all the time. So in surveying the landscape, I had pretty much concluded that this was indeed a chicken factory and had even imagined how it looked!

One day I asked the farmer if we could go and visit this chicken farm. He looked at me with a very puzzled expression and said, "Chicken farm? There's no chicken farm over there, those are the lights from the town on Vestmannæyjar!"

Monday the weather was all sunny and blue so I decided I'd go for a visit. If you want to be spontaneous this is the right place to be! The tiny airport is only a 10 minute drive from the farm. Check in time was for 1pm and the plane took off on schedule at 1:15. I was the only passenger! The pilot did inform me however that I might not make it back later in the day as they were expecting high winds and fog over the island, so I needed to be prepared. Fine with me!

Touch down in the little 6 seater plane was perfect and I also had the whole airport to myself. The lone employee called a taxi as there was no other way to get into town; I was heavy laden with inspirational books and calendars, so decided walking the 2 kms to town might not be the wisest choice.

I spent the day visiting many shop keepers and getting to know the locals. Quite a friendly bunch they are. Then in the evening I stayed at this very nice inexpensive guest house in the center of town because as predicted, there were no more flights to the mainland. The next day the weather was worse so I decided it was time to leave and the only way was to take the car ferry to þorlakshöfn and have my husband come and fetch me if I couldn't find anybody going back towards Hvolsvöllur.

Unfortunately my camera was nowhere to be found as I was leaving home, so the photos here are thanks to the kids' Danish teacher who took these photos from our first expedition. Thanks Ann-Sofie!