Rettir Adventure

The one I was at was considerable bigger then this.
But this will give you an idea of the shape of the pen. 

 Hey there! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! I have lots to catch you up on. On the 15th of september I got the chance to attend a local Rettir, which is essentially a sheep round-up. Every year the sheep are released to spend their summer wandering around the island. In my last post I talked about how in the fall the farmers then spend weeks going around on horseback or with quads rounding up all the sheep. Once the sheep are all collected they have to be separated by farm. The sheep are placed in a center circular pen that has other pens branching off of it like spokes. Each outer pen belongs to a different farmer and the sheep are herded into each one.  

The pen I was at was ancient and made of stone. It was very cool.

However, this is no simple organized thing. It could probably be done in half the time except for the fact that the whole family joins in. Mothers stand around holding their babies high so they don’t get squashed, 5 year olds attempt to wrestle their first sheep, older kids have sheep riding competitions, teens stand around drinking beer, grandparents give advice. Basically the pen is filled with almost as many people as sheep and most of them are just watching, drinking and singing icelandic songs. The Rettir was once one of the last chances to socialize before winter, so it has become more of a party then a job. 

 So after having had a lovely relaxing summer the sheep are put through a years worth of stress in one day. Once all the people have arrived crowding into the center pen, hundreds of sheep are herded into the pen and the free for all begins. The goal is to grab a kicking running sheep, read the ID number on it’s ear, grab it’s horns and swing your legs over the sheep. Then you attempt to hop/ shuffle your sheep to the location, weaving through people and animals all while the sheep is desperately trying to get away. I attempted once and got about 5 meters with it. :p

This is how you catch a sheep

All the crowds of people, and the sea of sheep.

These guys were just so cute and typically icelandic with their white blond hair and icelandic sweaters :)

This video shows a new group of sheep being herded in, and the sheep going insane haha.

 It was really neat getting to be part of such a real icelandic tradition, though I definitely felt like a stupid tourist who was mostly just getting in the way. It was pretty insane, loud and hilarious and I have never seen so many icelandic sweaters in one place before, hahaha. 

My attempt at catching a sheep...

I'm going to put the info for the date of the rettir. Not for todays date. 

Average weather: 10C  

Sunrise: 6:52

Sunset: 7:52

Hours of light:  13h 00 min