Veronica Baker: Vestmannaeyjar (Westmann Islands)

On May 19, Emily and I paid for a tour to the Westmann Islands, through Iceland Excursions. When they picked us up at 7:30am, they were considering cancelling the trip, as the weather was forecast to be bad enought aht the ferry might not be running to bring us home. They decided to go ahead with the trip, but we were a little wary - would this ruin our day?? However, we must have good karma because it showered for about 4 minutes the entire day, leaving us with sunny skies for the rest of the day!

The Westmanns have a population of about 4100. The archipelago had 15-18 islands, dependign on how an "island" is classified. There are also about 20 skerries. A skerry is a small rocky island too small for inhabitation - sometimes just a rock reef. The only island with people living on it is Heimaey. Many of the islands are in a line along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, as you can see below.

The name comes from a term used to describe Irish slaves (Vestmann - Westmen). One man was murdered by the slaves her had brought to Iceland, and in retaliation, his brother killed the slaves. In 1627, pirates from Algiers invaded the islands and captured over 200 slaves, most of whom never escaped. Later, Turkish pirates took 800 more slaves from Iceland. There are places in the mountain cliffs today that have rocks which were piled up in an attempt to protect the hiding people.

The Westmann Islands have some very recent history! For starters, they are home to the youngest island in the world - Surtsey. Surtsey was created in a volcanic eruption that began in November of 1963 and finished in June of 1967. The island has been continuously eroding since then, and the picture below shows the size of the island in 1964, 1967, 1977, 1992, 2006, and the predicted size in 2050. You can take a boat trip or a flight around the island, but you can't visit - only very few scientists are allowed on the island, to study the development of ecosystems in a natural environment.

Lobster season is coming up, so there were lots of fishermen outdoors untangling and fixing nets in preparation.

We stopped in the Herjólfsdalur valley, where the first settler, Herjólfur Bárðarson was said to have settled on the island, in about the year 900. In the 70s, his farm was excavated and the actual date of settlement was found to be about 800 - however, the schoolbooks still say 900, as it would be too expensive to change them! In this valley is a reconstruction of his farm, complete with a grass roof. The first weekend in August every year is a festival in this island, with up to 15,000 visitors!

The grass roof

Three of the smaller islands, called "Lava Island", "Rooster", and "Chicken"...

Surtsey, way in the distance

Standing on a hill which claims to be the windiest place in Europe, or the 3rd windiest in the world!

To the left, there is a black sheep and her two little lambs!

There are supposed to be puffins here... sadly, there weren't any the day we were there :(

In 1984, a small boat capsized 3.2 miles off the coast of the Westmann Islands. The air was -2°C, and the sea just 5°C. One man, Gudlaugur Fridthúrsson, wearing only jeans and a sweater and in bare feet, swam to land (the only survivor). While he was swimming, a boat passed by him, but didn't hear him yelling - how devastating! After swimming for 6 hours, he reached the shore, but the cliffs were too steep to climb, so he had to get back into the sea and continue swimming. Once he finally found a spot, he had to climb rocks, another cliff, sharp lave from the eruption in 1973, and a dirt road a mile and a half long. The bathtub pictured below was used for sheep in the summer, and he broke the inch of ice covering the water with his fist and drank the fantastic water. When he finally got to the hospital, they said he should not have been able to survive for more than 20-30 minutes - yet he survived for 9 hours! He is now known as the "half-man, half-seal". His fat resembles seal fat, and is three times thicker than the average human.

A cabin on another island

In 1973 an eruption started on Heimaey that forced an evacuation of the island. Luckily, there was a storm that night and all boats were in the harbour. Only one man died - a man who was buried while trying to rob a pharmacy. The eruption lasted from January 23 to July 3, with continuous efforts to minimize the damage. Water was sprayed on the lava to cool it, because the spreading lava was threatening to close off the harbour, rendering life in the Westmann Islands impossible. The harbour was originally 800 metres wide, btu after the eruption was only 160 metres wide - however, it is even better now because of the added shelter created by the new hill. One third of the houses were buried in lava, and another third were buried in ash up to the roofs, and had to be dug out. 5000 people were relocated to Reykjavík during the eruption, and just over 4000 returned to start their community over again when the eruptions had ceased.