Sunday We set off on the Saturday evening, Derek driving down to Leeds in one of the Hallmark cars so we could spend the night with Anne, before driving to Manchester the next day where Derek would drop the car off for the week, and we'd catch a plane to Aberdeen. Due to a ground vehicle colliding with the plane heading for Aberdeen the day before, where 57 passengers had been evacuated, we got to fly in a spacious jet rather than the Dash 8 prop plane British Airways had planned for us. However, from Aberdeen to Sumburgh there was no escaping the prop plane. Sounding like an angry wasp, it flew us over miles and miles of sea towards the Shetlands and I began to realise just how far north of Scotland these islands are.
We arrived in worsening weather, to discover that BA had managed to lose my luggage somewhere en route. Sumburgh must be one of the worst places to lose your luggage - even if it's located in Aberdeen or wherever, there are so few flights land there that you're looking at the next day at least before being reunited with it. In my case, it didn't seem to have even reached Aberdeen, so we eventually just left the airport in the car Anne hired, and drove to Muckle Roe, where we were staying with Ivor and Elsie, distant relations on Anne's side of the family. After settling into what was an extremely comfortble 4 star guesthouse (which didn't take very long in my case) we realised we were going to have to get something to eat. By this time it was pitch black, the wind was force 9 and rain was lashing down horizontally. Combined with the lack of street lighting on the single track road away from Westayre, driving to the Busta House for a meal was something of a scarey experience. All in all, I didn't feel we'd made a very auspicious start to the holiday.
Monday The next day we drove back down to Sumburgh to collect my luggage and look around the southern part of the islands, before heading to Lerwick, Shetland's capital and the only place where you truly feel you're living in some kind of civilisation, with traffic and pubs and shops like Boots and the Coop. The weather had improved a bit but it still wasn't brilliant. We were very much hoping to see the Northern Lights (called the Merry Dancers by the locals), although we realised this was a bit of a long shot. Certainly when we visited Scalloway (shown in the Northern Lights link) it didn't look a bit like that!
Tuesday This was an amazing day. We decided to explore as far north as we could, so we drove to the ferry departure point on the North Mainland, calling in to look at Sullom Voe on the way. This oil terminal has brought people and wealth to Shetland and turned Brae from a small village into the second biggest town on the islands. Actually I could call Tuesday the day we repeatedly did things we weren't supposed to do - first, Anne and I got escorted off the oil terminal by security as we'd bypassed a Stop! sign and wandered closer than we were meant to. On the ferry from Yell to Unst we wandered up to the Bridge mistakenly thinking it was the way to the passenger saloon, and had a more interesting than usual crossing, as we got invited inside, chatted to the crew and looked at echo sounders, GPS equipment and radar screens. We then climbed up Saxa Voe to the military base on top to get a view of Muckle Flugga, the most northerly tip of the UK, and again were made to leave it pretty quickly.
The ferry service around the Shetlands is amazing. Once you pay to travel from Toft on the North Mainland, you can cruise around as much as you like for free, on these very accommodating ro ro boats. We visited the most northerly church, the most northerly house, the most northerly beach, etc etc and then caught a ferry to Fetlar, which is so far removed from life back here (or even life in Lerwick) that it's another world. There are about 7 inhabitants and one ring road round the island. Despite this, while we waited in the dark for the ferry back across, we sat in comfortable seats in a very warmly heated waiting room, with decorative flowers, a working phone box, and equally warm, clean and well equipped toilets next door. The ferry will run in the middle of the night if you book it - and this is not a five minute journey.
The other wonderful place we discovered was the Wind Dog Cafe, at the Gutcher ferry point on Yell. This cross between a waiting room, cafe, restaurant, gift shop, library, children's play area and internet cafe was unlike anywhere else I'd previously been in and typical of the unique remote and barren yet lacking nothing in the way of modern comforts that summed up the Shetlands for me.
Wednesday This was perhaps our worst day weatherwise, with rain and even sleet while we walked round Scalloway. Far from seeing the Northern Lights, so far we hadn't even managed to see the sky. Derek opted for an afternoon in Lerwick again, while Anne and I caught yet another ferry to Bressay just opposite Lerwick, and climbed West Hill.
Thursday We set off for the Eshaness cliffs, perhaps the most scenic area of the islands, with dramatic and interesting shaped rocks and waves crashing around hundreds of feet below us. From here, we drove to the starting point of a walk up Rġnas Hill, the highest point on the islands. Not terribly high, at 450 metres it was still quite a climb, as you start off at absolute sea level (or you do if you don't drive up to the car park at Collafirth Hill like we did). We finished off an excellent day with a meal at the Mid Brae Inn on the way home.
Friday We began Friday by visiting Lunna, which played an important part in the Second World War, being part of the Shetland bus (boat trips between Shetland and Norway to assist the Norwegian resistance movement). We looked round the oldest church on the islands, which I noticed was growing some interesting fungi in the graveyard, and caught a ferry to Whalsay, before visiting Vemontry and later spending the evening with Ivor's sister Tina who very kindly cooked us a wonderful meal. Ivor and Elsie have run this small croft on Muckle Roe all their lives and Ivor is perhaps the most self sufficient men I've ever met. He built his own house in 1984 and has two large workshops where he has just finished building a beautiful boat by hand. I imagine he's be a great person to be stuck with on a desert island - survival would be ensured!
Saturday Saturday was our last full day, and I really wanted to spend it in the north islands again. We made a quick trip to Sandness, which was about the only area we hadn't touched on during the week, and then once again headed for the ferry point at Toft. As we travelled on another ferry from Yell to Unst and drove up the left "fork" of the most northerly island this time, I knew I'd be very sorry to go home and leave this area I could quite easily have settled in. While remote and harsh at times, the islanders enjoy a very good standard of living. Fast broadband is everywhere, the roads are in superb condition (partly due to lack of traffic) and the services that are laid on for the island inhabitants would put most councils round here to shame. I was struck by how many leisure centres have been built - per head of the population, they have more swimming pools than anywhere else in the UK, by a long shot. I suppose they have to do something to counter the long dark winters, although it must be nice in the summer when they experience what is known as the "summer dim", ie when you can watch sunset become sunrise within about half an hour.
We parked the car and walked towards the top of Hermaness, where we could descend towards the cliffs and get the closest possible view of Muckle Flugga and the lighthouse on that small rocky island that marks the most northerly point in the UK, at 61° north. The sun was setting across the sea, and altogether the scenery was out of this world. If I ever go back to Shetland, this is somewhere I want to visit again. By now it was starting to get dark, but the long twilight that far north meant we had a while before the scenery was going to disappear, so we headed back to Bluemull sound to catch the ferry back to Yell. We were delighted when we found the ferry was going via Fetlar and we were going to get a glimpse of this unique island again. Back on Yell, we drove round the island and stopped off for something to eat. Unfortunately, wasting all this time meant that when we reached Ulsta to catch the boat back to the mainland, we discovered, looking at the timetable, that we'd missed the last guaranteed ferry - after this, they ran only if booked while operating the winter timetable. We could only hope that someone was wanting to cross from the mainland to Ulsta, or else we were in for a night spent in the (admittedly warm) waiting room until they started running on the Sunday morning!
Happily a ferry did appear, carrying one passenger and a car. I could have hugged him! I don't think the ferry crew were all that thrilled at having to make another journey with us, having presumably thought they were finished after the previous trip and the captain even came down into the saloon to tell us how lucky we'd been to find transport back to the mainland.
Sunday Our last day :( and we spent the morning exploring the hills around Muckle Roe, before heading back to Sumburgh in the hire car. This time it was two prop planes, to Edinburgh and then Manchester, before picking up the car again and driving home after dropping Anne off at Leeds. We never did see the Northern Lights, but in every other respect, the holiday exceeded our expectations and I'm determined to go back as soon as I can reasonably afford it.
For some photos of the holiday, click here.
29th November 2005