Entertaining day in Iceland

Wow! What a great day. Most of my trip, so far, has been spent enjoying the geological features found in the vastness of Iceland. Today, I was fortunate to spend time with some Icelandic people enjoying some local customs.

 

It all started with a great night's sleep in a nice B-n-B. This morning, the owner told me about a local event happening today that few, if any, tourists know about.

Way back in the spring, all the sheep ranchers in Iceland herd their sheep up into the mountains where summer grass fattens them up and there is plenty of glacial water to drink. The ranchers in a local area will mix their sheep together because it would be impossible to keep the herds separate and it no doubt helps in cross-breeding among the herds. When winter comes, they all get together, saddle up their beautiful Icelandic horses (that's another story to come) and herd the sheep back into the warmer lowlands. The trip takes several days as the sheep travel 50+ miles.

When they arrive in the lowlands, they are herded to a place where the ranchers can then sort their sheep. This is done in a big round pen about 100 ft. in diameter - with a dozen or so smaller pens along the circumference. Each pen belongs to a different rancher. There is an entrance to the big pen that is used to get them into the middle then that gate is closed and the fun begins. Everyone starts grabbing sheep and looking at ear-tags for their own and wrestling them through the gates to their pens. It was particularly fun to watch the kids helping their family with this chore. Later, the sheep are loaded onto trucks and taken back to their respective ranches.

It is quite the social scene of the year as all the neighboring families gather in the big pen to visit. I stood in there with them and my feet were constantly trampled on by sheep and my pants smell of wet wool. 

 

All this started about 9:00 am and by about noon, they had filled the big pen 5 or 6 times with a total of about 6,000 sheep sorted into the separate pens. Did I mention that most of this activity is accompanied by drinking that began at 9:00 am! There was lots of canned beer being consumed but the majority of drinkers (the majority of adults in attendance) were drinking out of flasks and pint liquor bottles – from licorice-flavored vodka to some very fine cognac – and I had some of both. I was the only tourist there and when someone found out I was from Texas, there were lots of folks insisting that I try their favorite – so I did.

After the sheep sorting, most of the men gathered in the middle and sang one traditional Icelandic tune after another. I was surprised how good they sounded for being a bunch of drunk sheep herders but I later learned the men in Iceland are quite good singers as it is a rich part of their culture. Be sure to click on the video to hear/see some of the singing.

 

They were still singing a couple of hours later when I was sober enough to drive.