We spent 12 weeks in Iceland. I spent hours– hundreds of hours, probably– planning what we would see and when. And then we scrapped a non-trivial portion of that plan so our kids could attend a Sheep Farming Camp in the remote town of Hólmavík Iceland.
Hólmavík is in the Westfjords of Iceland, a stunningly beautiful part of a stunningly beautiful county. Here’s the road to the Sheep Farming Museum where the camp is:
And here’s a waterfall in the same spot where I took the picture above:
Okay, so … Sheep Farming Camp? Yup. During the summer, the Icelandic Sheep Farming Museum runs a Sheep Farming Camp. It’s from 1-5 PM, costs 3000 isk per child (roughly $30) and is suitable for kids ages 6-14. We arrived at the Museum unaware of the camp. But when we heard about it, and realized that 4 of our kids are between 6 and 14, we knew we had to send them.
My kids loved it. Look at these smiles!
The campers were all Icelandic except for our kids. I assume they would have spoken Icelandic had our kids not been there, but they seamlessly switched to English for the day. Here’s my son’s summary of the day:
The day camp was four hours long. We first went down to the beach and found a lot of shells and bones. A little while down the beach, we walked to an island that we could only get to when the tide was low. On the island, there were a lot of Eider duck nests. Eider duck nests are made out of down that is really soft. After that, we walked to a line of bird nests, and most of them had eggs in them. A little while later, we found a baby duck that’s mom had just left, so we got to see it up close without the baby’s mom trying to get us away from the baby. After we left the baby duck, we went into an old building and the person who was leading us told us a ghost story. After she finished the ghost story, we walked back and had hot dogs. After we finished eating, we started playing games outside. A little while later, it started raining so we had to go inside. We played a few more games, and then we went out and fed two lambs with bottles of warm milk.
Since we (the parents) weren’t with the kids during camp, I don’t have many pictures. But look at this picture from their Facebook page from the last day of camp in 2018!
And look at these cute sheep my kids got to feed!
My kids still remember Sheep Farming Camp, and say that it was one of the best things they got to do in Iceland. If you’re heading to Iceland in the summer, consider the camp. Here’s the museum’s Facebook page, and here’s the camp’s Facebook page. (We coordinated the camp through the museum’s Facebook page. Message them to make a reservation!)
While you’re up in the Westfjords, head to Ísafjörður too! Especially the restaurant Tjöruhúsið.
But wherever you’re heading, take the time to explore. Leave time for the kids to wander, attend an event a local tells you about … or spend an afternoon at Sheep Farming Camp.