Faroe Islands: Rugged Landscapes & Magic Moments

German outdoor and travel photographer Long-Hong Huang (@long.explorer) is renowned for his spectacular visual compositions. With our IBEX, he set out to explore the Faroe Islands – and returned with tales of thundering surf and roaring waterfalls, precipitous coastal cliffs and views that make your head spin.

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Scotland lies 400 kilometers away as the crow flies, Iceland 470 km to the north, and Norway 630 km to the east. From Denmark – the kingdom to which they belong as an autonomous territory – the Faroes are 1,000 km away. By ferry, though, it’s quite a few miles more. Three calendar days pass before the 18 volcanic islands peel themselves from the sea at sunrise.

October brings the heaviest rainfall – in an archipelago that statistically manages just 30 sunny days per year. Temperatures rarely climb into double digits. So why venture into this North Atlantic remoteness at such a time? To feel truly alive! Long-Hong Huang is drawn to places that are raw and untamed.

I’m attracted to places where landscapes are spectacular in unusual ways, where extremes collide. For me, that means barren Nordic regions with fjords, sheer cliffs and towering mountains, endless desert expanses, and densely overgrown jungles that seem impenetrable yet teem with life.

The Faroes resemble Iceland or Scotland in their landscape, but they’re far less sprawling, and you experience nature there in an entirely different way. The islands are compact and close together, so you can quickly hop from one to the next. Each has its own distinct character, and on every single one you’ll find so many striking locations and perspectives that you’d want to stop every five minutes to drink in the views and let them sink in.

The rain swells the waterfalls. Steep, powerful, and mighty, they plunge down the mountainsides, their thunder rivaling the crashing surf.

Fossá on Streymoy is the largest multi-tiered waterfall of the islands. We climbed a path up to the upper level until we stood right before this massive wall of water. The roar is so loud and intense that the ground, while the fine mist soaks you through within minutes. You feel this enormous power and how small you are in that moment.

By October, the Faroes see hardly any tourists. Deep brown tones blend into the luminous green grass cover. The sheep are being brought down from the pastures.

You don’t encounter many people. For me, that conveys a fundamental sense of freedom. Five minutes and you’re out of the tiny capital and right in the middle of the mountains. No trees, a wild expanse, the open sea. You can hardly get closer to nature.

A mystical magic permeates the Faroes, surrounding you as constantly as the clouds.

As if dabbed into the landscape, the traditional wooden houses with their grass roofs emerge. A setting straight out of a fantasy film. A mystical magic permeates the Faroes, surrounding you as constantly as the clouds.

But the Faroes are also “the land of maybe” –the weather is simply unpredictable. So, it’s worth setting out even in stormy rain. Chances are good it will clear up – if only briefly. In our final days, the clouds actually parted and from the cliffs of Trælanípa on Vagar, we had a surreal view across the sea to a lake – and for kilometres along the cliffs toward the northeast. There we witnessed one of the most incredible sunsets – followed by northern lights. As if this mystical world had saved a farewell gift for us…