We were not expecting to see much when we arrived late afternoon at Ham Wall. It was overcast, windy, and starting to rain. However, small flocks of starlings were arriving at the same time as we were. A great egret flew past, and a young heron came very close, seemingly oblivious to our presence on … Read more “Friday, Ham Wall”
Lazy morning. Packed lunch and drove to Loch Spiggie. On the single-track road around Bigton we had to pull in to let a large German tour bus pass in the other direction. At Loch Spiggie we walked a short way along the loch to the beach in howling gales with few breaks in the rain. … Read more “Thursday: Spiggie bus incident”
R dropped J off at Clickimmin Broch in Lerwick in the morning. J spent the morning looking round the broch and Lerwick library, museum, and arts centre. R drove up to the Vidlin in the north-west mainland to look for otters. R spent an hour at Swining Voe. A tern colony was aggressive when passed, … Read more “Wednesday: two boat trips”
In the morning we drove across East Burra and parked at Houss. We walked out on Houss Ness for a bit, hoping to spot for otters. We didn’t see any. We went to Scalloway and had Cullen Skink at Da Haaf, a nice canteen attached to the University of the Highlands and Islands marine centre … Read more “Tuesday: Scalloway”
We had an email notification that tonight’s 22:30 trip to Mousa to see the storm petrels was cancelled due to bad weather – i.e. high winds. We decided to go to Fetlar, to look for red-necked phalaropes. We set off at 7:30am. We drove up to the north of the mainland and took three ferries … Read more “Monday: Fetlar Phalarope Expedition”
We went to Sumburgh Head in the morning. We parked at the hotel and went to look at Jarlshof. On the way, we stopped to look at some Shetland ponies in a field. A man came down with his young daughter to check on the ponies. He offered to sell us one for £1500. He … Read more “Sunday: Sumburgh, St Ninian’s Isle”
In Lerwick R bought a replacement camera, from the choice of one available in the only camera shop in Shetland. Not as good as the broken one, but will have to do. We had a coffee in the Peerie Shop cafe and mooched around Lerwick for a bit. It’s the carnival tonight, and during the … Read more “Saturday: Lerwick”
Decent breakfast – good kippers. R’s camera is playing up: it won’t power on. Google reveals a camera shop in Lerwick which we’ll visit in the morning. We went to Hillswick and parked opposite the St Magnus Bay hotel. We walked around the Ness of Hillswick. Five miles in total, spectacular scenery all round. The … Read more “Friday: Ness of Hillswick”
We checked out and drove a few minutes up the road to the Keen of Hamar, but it was cold, wet and windy so we didn’t bother to walk up the hill to look at the wild flowers. Instead, we drove down to Belmont and caught the ferry back to Yell. We drove north to … Read more “Thursday: Yell”
After a greasy fry-up we drove south west and then west towards Westing. At Lund the road turned into a track, and then was blocked by a gate. An old morris minor approached from behind and a woman got out to open the gate ahead of us. We carried on and parked by the ruined … Read more “Wednesday: Unst, walking, gannet, dance”