Drangarnir - a photo on Flickriver

Drangarnir

            The Drangarnir sea stacks are easily one of the highlights of the Faroe Islands.  They were certainly on my list of potential sights I wanted to see but right up until I signed up for the guided hike I was not completely certain I was going to actually visit them.  

Hiking in the Faroe Islands is both very straightforward but also a bit complex.  In short, all the land is privately held, or held by the government of the Faroe Islands.  There really are not any public parks, at least not in the way most of us are used to.  So essentially every hike you do on the archipelago is across private land and therefore subject to the restrictions laid out by the landowners.  This usually takes the form of a fee to hike the trail and can range from $10-20 USD.  Some hikes have a credit card terminal at their trailhead.  Some hikes there is a manned booth or kiosk for paying the trail fee.  And then there is Drangarnir, which requires signing up for a guided tour organized by the landowner.  The fee for this hike was about $80 (there is an option to take a boat out to the point as well but that is even more expensive... though it does eliminate the three hour hike).  The fee was a bit steep and I was not completely sure I wanted to pay that much to do this one hike since the islands are so full of other sights to see.  My other hesitation was being in a group.  As a photographer I move pretty slow... slower than most other photographers given my fondness for ND filters, pinholes and super long exposures.  I am also not a snap-and-go kind of photographer, enjoying standing and staring at a landscape for  long amounts of time digesting it visually and mentally before making photos.  So I was not sure how this pace would mesh with group dynamics.  Nonetheless I decided to go forward with it, figuring who knew when I would ever get back to these islands.

The instructions had me meeting up at a gas station at the north end of Vágar island moderately early on a blustery morning.  I had no problems recognizing the other members of my group due to the remote nature of the meeting place and their obvious camera backpacks similar to mine.  Our guide, when he showed up, turned out to be the landowner's nephew and was an agreeable fellow.  He came prepared for the all day hike wearing Wellington boots and with a bottle of Jolly cola in his pocket.  This was as opposed the REI and Arcteryx hiking gear we were all decked out in.  

The hike out to Drangarnir is quite long.  It follows the coastline most of the way along a narrow trail across very steep terrain.  The hike is limited to those in guided groups both for safety reasons and for economical ones and it highlights some of the challenges the Faroe Islands have faced as tourism there has boomed.  These quiet, sparsely populated islands are seeing thousands and thousands of visitors a month now.  I read one stat that in 2022 they had more tourists from the US alone than there are residents of the islands.  As visitors swarm the islands, the residents and government have adapted and tourism has become one of the big economical means behind sheepherding and fishing.  But the impact and behavior of the tourists themselves is still an ongoing issue.  A lot of sites and trails now have No Drone signs, yet you will still see visitors flying them.  One of my fellow hikers on this trek was recounting a fraught encounter he had had with a local farmer after he tried flying his drone over the farmer's land.  Some homes in villages have signs on them politely reminding visitors to respect residents' privacy after ongoing episodes of tourists photographing through windows of homes to make Instagram posts out of the quaintness of other people's lives.  And then of course there are issues with tourists ignoring instructions for payment and circumventing those restrictions quite blatantly.  That was demonstrated less than an hour into our Drangarnir hike.  Despite multiple signs at the trailhead warning guests they were not allowed to hike the trail on their own and had to pay, as well as clear instructions online to anyone who Googles it, we caught up with a young couple heading toward Drangarnir.  Our guide caught up to them, and had them join our group after making sure they went online to pay the fee.  He explained his uncle gets irate at how many people ignore the signs and do the hike without paying, going as far as to patrol the trail by boat looking for interlopers.  

There is a certain entitlement that some tourists carry with them that feels distasteful.  Sure, ignorance is also easy to come by when you are in a foreign country, don't speak the language or understand the customs and context of the place, but I have always thought that is one of the responsibilities of traveling.  I can see the allure of Drangarnir and trying to sneak out here on your own.  Paying a steep fee for a guided tour is not something many of us enjoy, for both the reasons I mentioned above, but at the same time you need to remember you are a guest on this land and to be as respectful of that as you can.  Personally, I enjoyed the whole experience a lot more than I thought I was going to, and I certainly enjoyed it a lot more being there legitimately than if I had trespassed.  For me it is not about the photos, it is about the experience and that experience would be tainted if I knowingly ignored the parameters by which I was asked to visit.  I think some might place the value of the photos over the experience and are willing to get them regardless of the means.  I really don't know for sure though, as I can only speculate on the motives of others.  What I can do though is to share these observations and experiences and offer my opinion and advice.  If you visit the Faroe Islands, which you should - they are amazing - travel respectfully, do your research, follow local restrictions, and do what you can to emphasize the good parts of tourism while mitigating the downsides of it.

Having said all that, at the end of our long journey as we were returning to the trailhead we happened across two more tourists standing at the trailhead with cameras ready, obviously weighing if they should bypass the sign they were standing in front of and had just finished reading.  There was a sense of anticipation to them suggesting they were mere moments away from setting out on the trail without having paid or joining a group and it was unlucky (or lucky) timing on our part that we returned just at that moment.  Our guide saw the two of course and positioned himself a few feet away giving them an obvious look.  After a few moments they turned back toward their car.  Whether they waited for the group of us to leave before sneaking back to the trail or whether they hopped online to sign up for a guided group in one of the following days I won't ever know.  I'll hope for the latter though since I now know it was well worth the expense and the experience.  

Pentax 67
Kodak Portra 400

Taken in: Faroe Islands / Bíggjar Kommuna (show map)

Taken on: May 1, 2023

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Pentax 67

Kodak Portra 400

Drangarnir

Faroe Islands

North Atlantic

film

6x7

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Sets appears in: • Faroe Islands

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Camera: Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 24.5 (Windows)
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