KÓPASKER

Kópasker is a town on the western side of the Melrakka plain by Öxarfjörður. On January 1, 2019, the population of Kópasker was 121.

Kópasker was a legal trading place around 1880, but the market town began to be built after 1910. The main business is providing services to the residents of the surrounding countryside, and the largest employer is the slaughterhouse and meat processing company Fjallalamb hf. For several years there was a lot of shrimp processing in Kópaskeri, but it stopped in 2003 after the collapse of the shrimp population in Öxarfjörður. There was some fishing from Kópaskeri years ago, but now only a few trills are made from there.

Kópasker's sports club is called Snörtur and played soccer, basketball and volleyball at the time. Now the club has become small and almost only competes in volleyball at senior tournaments.

Like every time, my visit of a place of this island is mainly due to chance. This time, the late hour made me stop in Kópasker, and it is in a camping where I was the only resident that I decided to settle for the night (I was later joined by 3 other vehicles).

I went around the village in less time than it takes to say it, and my first impression was that the houses were mainly guesthouses for tourists, but there are actually more than a hundred inhabitants who live here all year round.

And I would even say that there is everything you need not to have to make long trips to the nearest town, a kind of pharmacy, a hairdresser, a supermarket, and even a museum unfortunately closed during my visit. As well as the intriguing "earthquake center" which was also closed.

During my wanderings armed with my recorder, I took advantage of the low tide and ventured onto a rocky outcrop. I was finally able to discover how Artic Terns are protective birds of their nests.

As I stepped onto this natural jetty, I heard a flock of birds chirping over my head. A tern was hovering above me. It was the first level of alert. First, they fly overhead and signal you not to go any further, then if you're lucky it's on its own, but as I didn't get any, it was 3 or 4 terns that started flying over me, that was level two alert. The next level, well just the birds start swooping on you, not touching you, but close enough to make you want to turn around, that's level 3. And level 4, well I have to admit that I didn't try it, and I turned back, too cowardly to face what was certainly going to be a horde of Arctic terns swooping down on me and smashing my skull with their beaks.

I understood why there was a kind of observatory on the sea front. It's to hide from the terns.

I) Yfirgefið Fjárhús - A nap in the grass

Accessibility:    ★★☆☆☆

    No major problems to reach this sheepfold, except that you simply have to walk between the beach and the airfield. It is mainly a discovery due to curiosity that pushed me to continue walking after visiting the lighthouse.

Recording:        ★☆☆☆☆

    In all simplicity, put the recorder of the grass, in a place where you can have a good idea of all the sounds that are there. And we take advantage of this moment to rest under a bright but cool sun.

Overall rarity:    ★★★☆☆

    The rarity of this sound is mainly due to the fact that this place is remote and should rarely receive visitors, whether tourists or even locals, which explains the incredible cleanliness of the place, and the walls of the sheepfold spared by the stupidity of people who want to leave a trace of their passage.

(more on the rating system here)

It is on the advice of a native that I went to this abandoned sheepfold. I don't remember much about our discussion, but I remember that he was desperate to know that there was a project to build a huge wind turbine on top of one of the surrounding hills. He was the retired teacher from the local elementary school. I can only agree with him about the project. Iceland is a country that spends a lot and makes great efforts to preserve its landscape. Many power lines are buried so as not to spoil the view. The idea of a giant wind turbine in the middle of the landscape is, at the very least, revolting.

Anyway.

The road that was going to bring me to this ruined sheepfold was like a moment where time was suspended. Under a bright, but nevertheless pleasant sun, I took the pleasure to walk barefoot in the water, on the black sand, and in the grass of the path I was walking.

Everything was so peaceful. Once I arrived at my destination, it was even more pleasant to realize that no one before me had disrespected this place. The walls of the sheepfold were spared the endless signatures of passers-by, no sign of a campfire or a party with trash and empty bottles everywhere.

Only nature could live its life in peace. And it is in the middle of the grass, surrounded by bumblebees foraging, with the sea in the background and the terns at a good distance that I could immortalize with my recorder one of the best naps of my stay.

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