Sheep Herding

Betty is a single mother who lives and works on her family's farm that's in a remote valley in the Westfjords of Iceland. She lives there year-round, with only seasonal access to the town because the road to her farm is not maintained by Iceland. Each year she invites anyone willing to help to her farm for the fall herding of the sheep. This year, I was able to participate three times. The first weekend, when most of the herding was done, was a very unique experience. I got to spend Friday night on the farm, building fences, and getting the farm ready for herding the next day. That night, I saw the northern lights for the first time! I was jumping around in my PJs and bare feet at 1:00 in the morning on Betty's front lawn with one of my fellow students from the US. The next day, we woke up bright and early to greet the other herders and get started. Basically, as you can see from the pictures, Betty lives in a giant valley facing the wide open ocean. The valley is probably 4 miles long and we had to hike, run, and herd sheep all the way up one side and down the other. I was SOO sore the next day. All in all it was a great experience and I got to meet a lot of Icelandic people as well as some pretty cool sheep. Hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures!

The beach at Betty´s Farm

Icelandic chickens!! This one is for you Dad...

My roommate Etienne and I in the car with Betty´s sheep dog. Her name is Dríva which is Icelandic for the mist from the snow...

This is Betty with one of her baby sheep that she bottle feeds:

This is a view of the valley that we hiked up and down to gather all her sheep:

All the sheep in the barn at the end of the day. There were about 150 of them!

Sailing the Westfjords

For our introduction to Coastal and Marine Management in Iceland, we were taken on a sailing trip around the Westfjords. The captain of our boat, The Aurora, was Siggi, an Ísafjörður native who often sails from Iceland to Greenland during the summers and who generously agreed to take us on this trip. Our weekend started on Friday afternoon with a lesson on sailing safety, lifejacket use, what to do if someone fell overboard... you know, the usual. Since I was recovering from Scarlet Fever (in case you didn't know, Scarlet Fever is not just something that pirates from the 16th century contracted... it still exists) I was feeling a little under the weather. Despite this, I was one of the few people that did not get sea sick.

As my friends were barfing in the bathroom below deck as well as over the side of the boat, I was enjoying the sights of the beautiful landscape that surrounds my new home. We sailed for about 4 hours until we reached the nature reserve which is at about 66° 21' 35" N. Almost the arctic circle! Our captain Siggi made us a delicious dinner on the sailboat while a lot of drinking and story telling ensued. We made it to bed around 2:00 AM and woke up the next morning around 6:00.

Watching the sun rise was amazing. It turned out to be a beautiful day with little wind and no clouds. After being brought to shore in the dingy, myself and my classmates spent the day hiking and exploring the uninhabited and prestine landscape. The pictures I took can only begin to show just how breathtaking it was.

Upon return to the boat, we sailed for another 5 hours to Vigur (I wrote a previous blog about this island). Siggi made us another delicious dinner before we had to sail back to Ísafjörður. Our trip was cut a little short because of bad weather forcasts for Sunday however, sailing back to town under a sky of stars in one of the most remote regions of the world was an added bonus!
I hope you enjoy the pictures and feel free to email me if you want to hear more about my trip!

Looking back to where the sailboat was anchored:

Taken at 6:00 AM while watching the sun rise over the fjord: Sarah (one of the students from Canada) and I on the back of the Aurora:

Holt

Our first day of class was a field trip to Holt, a local beach about 25 minutes from town. We walked in the water barefoot (it was 45 degrees out and the water felt warm compared to the air!), ate rotting shark meat, and drank Icelandic schnapps. Quite the introduction I must say! There were some beautiful rainbows accompanied by hurricane speed winds. The sand at Holt is actually the only white sand beach in the Westfjords. (Almost every beach in Iceland is black sand due to the volcanic activity that created the island) The sand at Holt is white because it is actually made of crushed sea shells. The currents and location of the shoreline allows for this natural phenomenon.

The Hanging Valley

On Monday I hiked up to the base of a hanging valley on the eastern wall of the fjord. There are actually 2 hanging valleys in this fjord, both located on the eastern wall. However, the one that I hiked is particularly spectacular. A hanging valley is a geologic feature that looks like a giant seat carved into the wall of a fjord. Here, in Ísafjörður, legend has it that a giant Icelandic troll sat down on the mountain top to dip his feet in the water and created this large cutout in the land. From the bowl of the valley, there is a wonderful view of Ísafjörður which you can see in the pictures. It was a beautiful hike and I was accompanied by Andrea (my next door neighbor), Zelia (her 18 month old daughter), and Allan (another Masters student).

The Morning After...

SNOW! The morning after the storm...

You wouldn't believe it unless I showed you pictures...

Ladies and Gentleman:
Today, August 20, 2009... it snowed in Ísafjörður. As you can see in the following pictures, it was not cold enough to accumulate at sea level, but at about 500 meters elevation and above... the snow accumulated! As I understand it, most of you are enjoying the hot muggy days of August and I just wanted to let you know that winter is just around the corner. Or shall I say, in Iceland.
Love, Jamie

Vigur

Today I went to the island of Vigur. It was about a 30 minutes boat ride from Ísafjörður (I figured out how to make my keyboard Icelandic so that I can properly type Icelandic words). The views from the island were spectacular. Some of the things I saw included puffins and other icelandic birds, the only windmill in Iceland, and the smallest post office in Europe. Enjoy the pictures! Most of them are taken from the island itself, not of the island. The ones with the houses, flag, and windmill are from the island itself.