To the end of the World! - or the British Isles at least!

To the end of the World! - or the British Isles at least!

Today was the big adventure, our trip to Hermaness on the isle of Unst. This is an RSPB nature reserve at the northern most tip of Shetland, and so the most northerly point of the British Isles. We made an early start and drove up past Lerwick, Brae, Sullom Voe and Hillside to the ferry terminal at Toft. There is a ferry about every hour. Here's a chance for me to tell my Shetland Island joke….
"Is this where you catch the ferry north?"
"Yell?"
"I SAID IS THERE WHERE YOU CATCH THE FERRY NORTH?'…..
(The next island is called Yell……)
The ferry has a capacity for about 16 cars, but as it was early and Sunday we had no problem.
From the Yell southern terminal - Ulsta, to the northern terminal is about 9 miles, and you can't really dawdle because there's another ferry to get to Unst. So we just "bombed" up the road, this is easy because on Yell:
a) The roads are great, in really good condition.
b) There's hardly any traffic, we probably only met 3 or four cars on the whole trip.
c) There are no distractions! A black sheep, (as apposed to a white one), is about as interesting as it gets!

Unst is the last Island, and this is more interesting and before we got to the most Northerly car park we saw: the the most Northerly Brewery, the most Northerly Cafe, the most Northerly Church, the most Northerly business - are you spotting a theme here? oh and a "furnished" bus shelter - it has an arm chair, a carpet, some books, a pack of cards and even it's own web site! (I didn't see a bus timetable though!)

Before we started our walk onto the bird reserve we tried to visit the visitors centre.. (the most Northerly visitors centre?), but guess what? It was closed "for the winter"…. It was August 21st!

The walk to Hermaness point begins over a vast stretch of boggy heathland, it would be a nightmare if those wonderful RSPB people hadn't provided a "duckboard" type path which went for over 2 km! But it was still an exhausting ascent, to a spectacular coastline view of high cliffs and the blue Atlantic! We walked north along the cliff top, the path dropped really steeply, and I was aware of how we had to go back up this hill on our return… Our aim was to keep following the the coast until we could see the Flugga Mucker lighthouse, the furthest we could go, when we got to this point we stopped for our sarnies. As we ate we watched the gannets flying from the rock stacks below, the weather was good again and the rest was much appreciated!

The return journey was tough, (that steep bit!), but once back on the duckboards it surprised us how quickly we got to the car park, on the way back we passed a pair of nesting skuas and a lady cyclist…. a rare bird?

On the Shetlands many of the roads are really narrow - single lane, and there are "passing points" every so often. When we drove away from Hermaness we were on one of these lanes when we met another car coming the other way…. I reversed maybe 200 yards and pulled onto the verge, the car passed but when I tried to move on I realised we were actually in a ditch! PANIC! We really thought we were stuck, and Sunday afternoon on Unst is not the easiest place to get the AA out - that's if you can get a phone signal… So with Jan pushing the car and me using all the skills I've learned from Top Gear we managed to extricate the Kia! Phew!

We stopped at the aforementioned Cafe and bus shelter (photo opportunity) on the way back and then motored/sailed home.. A long day, but memorable too.

Cliff top walk..

Another good weather day and another great walk. We went west to Scollaway, (the second town on Shetland - which incidently is one of the bleakest places I've been to!) and then south to the little island/peninsula called West Burra - there is an East Burra, but curiously no Middle(s)burr…..
We parked up, crossed another beach/causeway and walked the Burra.
Whilst criss-crossing the peat bogs Jan spotted an otter! She was dead excited and we waited a while for the little critter to re-emerge from it's bolt hole, but that first fleeting glance was all we got.
Further round the island the cliffs got higher, the waves were bigger and the scenery was very dramatic.
At the end we paddled back across the beach and went for a late lunch…. except Scalloway was closed! The only cafe really was closed and the only hotel/restaurant l was deserted. We bought nibbles from the only shop and headed for Lerwick…

After a traditional Shetland salmon sandwich, (for me anyway!) I treated myself to a traditional Shetland woollen jumper, then it was Tescos and home!

Cliff top walk..

A really great day today! The weather is so good we can barely believe our luck! Fingers crossed for the next few days.

We decided to go north, to a place called Eshaness, where there are some impressive cliffs, coves and a Lighthouse designed by Robert Louis Stevenson's Grand father! - actually this Stevenson chap designed a number of Shetland's lighthouses.

The drive was spectacular, beside perfectly calm inlets, ("sounds") and along deserted roads. We went through small villages, Brae, Hillside, Urafirth and saw trout farms and loads of sheep.

Stopped at a campsite cafe for coffee and buns before arriving at the light house.

We walked about 4/5 miles along the cliffs, watching gannets, cormorants and obviously sea gulls. The sea was dead calm and looked inviting….. only a few miles of Atlantic to the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, America….

Sunny days!

The weather has been great for the last two days, real sunbathing weather honest! Yesterday Jan was a bit poorly so we stayed around the cottage, but today we explored... we went to the lighthouse at Sumburgh Head, the most southerly point of the Shetlands. From this point we could see Fair Isle, 21 miles south. We also looked around an iron age settlement called Jarlshof.
Sumburgh is where the Island's airport is, very small, but lots of helicopters coming and going - I supposed they're involved in the oil business.

After a cuppa and a bun at the Sumburgh Hotel we visited St Ninian's isle, a great little place, the amazing feature of this place is that it is joined to the mainland by a causeway of sand, a two sided beach! The water was cold, but paddling was obligatory of course.
Birthday meal tonight - steak and roast tatties!

Shetland!

After a really early start, (4.30!), we arrived in Shetland at 11ish - via Aberdeen and 2 turbo propped flights in titchy little planes - very exciting.
Shetland is a really weird sort of place, I think you need to adjust to it, the pace of everything is so slow and the scale of everything is so small! Our "cottage" is cosy and we'll go walking and exploring after we've sorted out our nest.

Later on... went down to the coast near the cottage, and within half an hour we saw Guillemots, Cormorants, Gannets and some basking grey Seals - oh and loads of sheep an' cows!

Bit pooped after the early start, so it'll be an early night!