The most beautiful place in the world?

Our first full day on the Faroes and it made me think, what is the most beautiful place in the world? Or at least, the most beautiful place I have visited! Until I started coming to remote islands in the northern hemisphere, I was pretty much convinced it was either New Zealand or Tasmania. In the last ten years, I've been lucky enough to visit Iceland, the Scottish Hebrides, the Shetland Islands and now the Faroe Islands. I love being in remote places and I love wild weather so beauty is not just about the physical appearance of a place, but also the environment and a sense of isolation.

Our day started with a drive to Saksun. As someone who drives on the left hand side of the road, being on the roads here is a little challenging at first. Not only do I have to be sure I'm driving on the right side (literally), but our car is a manual, so I'm being forced to change gears with the 'wrong hand.' I also found out later in the day, that the maximum speed limit is 80kmh. For the first few hours I was zooming along at 100kmh conditions permitting. Whoops.
We eventually made our way to Saksun, a village on Streymoy Island, with an official population of 11 (you read that right). The old turf roofed church, near the car park is not open, but it's a beautiful building and the graveyard is also worth a look if that's your thing. Like most country church graveyards, there's an over representation of one or two families. Read into that what you will! You can also do a walk over the hill to Tjørnuvík, but we were a bit restricted timewise, so we did that leg of the trip in the car later in the day. It looks like a stunning walk and follows an old mountain trail. All up it's about 12km return and if you're in reasonable condition it apparently takes about 4 hours.

Next it was time to make our way to the lagoon. The car park for this track is about 500 metres back down the road. It's an easy access track and if the tide is low, you can make your way down to an ocean beach which fronts the Atlantic Ocean. It's a beautiful walk with great views of the surrounding mountains. The beach and lagoon are only accessible at low tide. By chance we went down at low tide so we managed to get the full experience. It took us about an hour to complete the walk including some time on the ocean beach. If you pick the wrong time and the tide comes in while you're on the beach you'll need at least 12 hours and some warm gear to see a night out fronting the Atlantic Ocean. In all seriousness, watch the tide when you start walking.

The next leg of the day involved driving to Tjørnuvík. This took us about 30 minutes from Saksun. The last part of the trip follows a windy single lane road. Take it easy along here as there's some big drop offs over the edges! Compared to Saksun, Tjørnuvík is a heaving metropolis with a population of 71! It's a cute little village and amongst other things it's home to a surf school that offers you the opportunity to hang ten in the freezing Atlantic. They also offer a sauna, a spa and food and beverages if you're doing one of their packages. When we there it was a brisk 5c and it looked like they were doing a good business. There's a woman in the village who offers waffles and coffee, but if you want anything else in the way of food or drink, you're in the wrong place. There's also a Viking burial site in the village which means that Tjørnuvík is one of the oldest settled places in the Faroes. If you're lucky you might see some sheep walking down the main street with a shepherd. There's also a good, if somewhat distant, view of rock formations known as Risin and Kellingin (the Giant and the Witch). According to legend, they tried to drag the Faroe Islands to Iceland. History tells us they failed with their objective.

It was time to head back along the windy road, but if you keep your eyes open you'll come across the highest waterfall in the Faroes which is definitely worth a stop. You can scramble up to a good viewing platform from where you can get some nice pics and a video if that's your thing.
So is this the most beautiful place in the world? More thoughts on that tomorrow!