Sæunn's mound

On October 13th 1987 the cow Harpa was being led to slaughter in Flateyri. Somehow she managed to break free and escape from her owners and ran for her life all the way to the shore.

She didn't stop there.

She began swimming and managed to cross the whole of fjord Önundarfjörður (almost 2 kilometers!) until she reached the shore on the other side, near farm Kirkjuból in Valþjófsdalur.

The farmer in Kirkjuból, Guðmundur Steinar
Björgmundsson, decided to buy the cow from it's owner, Halldór Mikaelsson, and he gave her a new name: Sæunn (sæ means sea in Icelandic).

In June the following year Sæunn delivered a calf on Seaman's Day (so she would have been "pregnant" when she performed this heroic act) and then had a really nice life in Kirkjuból. She lived to be nine years old and this is where she got her final resting place, at the same spot she came to shore after her crucial hour swimming across the fjord.

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We had a lovely day at Holtsfjara where the sandsculpture competition took place and then we drove all the way to Hólmavík, stopping here and there to see the sights and enjoy the scenery.

More photos from the day HERE