With the trip winding down, we started to position ourselves for departure. We woke to a gorgeous day in Aeduvik, possibly the nicest day of the entire trip. Still with the place to ourselves, we had a lazy start with coffee and jam and fresh bread for breakfast.
On our way out of the area, we stopped in Runavik to look around a bit. Expecting everything to be closed on a Sunday, we came over the hill to see a cruise ship looming over the village, so apparently certain shops will open on a Sunday if there are enough tourists in town!
We enjoyed one last pleasant drive up and around to the Nordskali bridge, crossing back over to Streymoy. Near the subsea tunnel to Vagar, we stopped to take one of the few roads we had yet to explore, and enjoyed the scenic drive down into Vestmanna.
Carrying on back to Vagar, we secured our spot at Giljanes camping and then drove out the airport for a nice lunch at the Zorva Cafe. We returned to Giljanes and spent the remainder of the day packing, cleaning and rearranging the van, and hanging out in the lounge with Felix. With perfect visibility today, from the couch we could see Streymoy, Koltur, Hestur and Sandoy islands.
We left the campground at 630am on Monday morning, and stopped at the Magn for coffee and to top off the gas tank. We waited at the Midvagur FK grocery store until it opened ta 730am, to grab some snacks for the plane and some local treats to take home for others. Dropping the Toyota in the upper lot, we completed the check-in process well before the 8am deadline and headed for the terminal, very early for our afternoon flight.
It's a very small airport, with just a few flights per day coming and going. There was a small cafe that appeared open, but nobody seemed around to serve you. We tagged our own bags and waited until the earlier flight for Iceland had left, before checking our bags and crossing through security. After a quick run through duty free for some more local snacks a sextet of Black Sheep lager, we grabbed a plate of fries and a beer in the lounge.
Soon we were on the tarmac and boarding our Icelandair Dash-8 turbo prop (with a very long name I couldn't catch in time), with good seats right at the front for the short flight to Keflavik. The fog had lifted a bit, even though a light drizzle persisted, but once we got up above the clouds it was a sunny and pleasant flight that felt even shorter with the hour gained.
We landed in Keflavik and after taking the bus to the terminal, we cleared passport control and grabbed a slice of pizza before taking the opportunity for a second kick at duty free. Just after 3pm local time, we boarded our Icelandair 737 (named Storurd) and headed for Canada. With our seats right at the very back of the plane, we watched "Journey 2 The Mysterious Island" and "Wedding Crashers" to help pass the time.
Landing in Toronto just after 7pm local time, we realized that we were back at the infield concourse again, and had to take a shuttle bus to Terminal 3. That delay was offset by a mercifully quick customs experience (thanks, ArriveCan!) and the fact that our bags were among the very first off the plane. A short tram ride later, we were at the Bronco and heading for home. What a sharp contrast after two weeks of driving rented and unfamiliar vans on narrow roads.....getting out of Pearson and negotiating the 427 and 401 on a busy Monday night!
We stopped for a quick dinner in Woodstock, and Jane slept from there onwards as I soldiered on into the night. We arrived home just before midnight, though to us it felt like 5am the next morning. We quickly fell into a familiar bed and slept a little while, up too early the next morning thanks to jet lag.
As we sipped a coffee, we surveyed the damage to the willow tree and waited until Noah's Ark opened so we could go and pick up Vincent. Our friends, who used their generator to keep our freezer full of meat in good shape during a 53-hour power outage, had also arranged for their "tree guy" to come and clean up the huge branch that was down and resting on our shed. All we saw was sawdust, a bit of damage to the shed roof, and a gaping hole on the one side of the willow.
Another epic trip was in the books. In the end, we visited 9 of the 18 Faroe Islands and would gladly go back for more!
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