Safe Return Doubtful

40 days up in Shetland and I’ve been on an unintended healthier diet. That’s because I’m conserving gas. There are no LPG pumps in Shetland, so what I came up here with needs to last me until I’m back on the Scottish mainland. I do have a camping stove also, which would do to heat food and water up, but it would need to be used outdoors, so a less attractive option.

Therefore it’s been a ‘one pot’ menu, such things as noodles with veg, fried rice with veg, pasta with veg, omelettes, lentils with peppers or chicken, and I’ve some Auvergne dried sausage I throw in occasionally also. Nothing takes longer than 15 minutes. I use the gas also for a couple of coffees in the mornings and teas in the afternoon, so that’s about 10 litres of LPG, at a cost of about £6, which I am hoping will last 8 weeks. It’s done about that length of time before, so here’s hoping..

Burravoe residents are hugely proud of their pier (above). One the committee who maintain it told me how they run it as a business, charging for moorings, and services for boats, such as water, diesel, showers, and kitchen. On Sunday morning a small cruise ship stopped and smaller boats ferried their guests to the pier to see the local Haa museum and cafe. They also offer services for campervans, with hook-up electric and toilets and showers. With Uyeasound a close second, with its spectacular it’s the best such place to use in the islands. I parked away from the places used by motorhomes and other vans, not requiring any of the services.

The attraction for me here was the hike around the peninsula that is the Ness of Burravoe, with its hugely contrasting coastlines, the extremely calm leeward side, which is the reason the bay and pier are so popular, and the wild North Atlantic side. Storms from the east hot Shetland just as hard as from the west. The sheltered side is preferred by the otters, whereas the seals like the rocky inlets of the wild side. Orcas are around also, I keep an eye on the Facebook spotters sight in the hope I might be in the right place at the right time, but no luck yet.

Once done with the Ness the north bit of coastline is much higher and with spectacular cliffs, the first of such has the sort of name I used to collect when visiting, Ladies Hole (along with Twatt on Shetland mainland, Willies in Belgium, and Herbigunes in northern France). I must admit, they still amuse me these days even..

Ladies Hole is incorrectly named these days. It was once a vast hole like others around the islands, but now the ocean side of the hole has eroded and collapsed, so it’s more or a gash. Names stick though, and I can’t see it being changed any time soon. Some views of it below.

On my first hike of the three days, I walked up above it to a trigg point at the Heights of Ramnageo. A wizened local saw me and warned me that the cliff wasn’t fenced. Good of him, especially if it was my first such walk up here, but by now, Roja and I are quite used to it, and stay respectfully distant from any edge.

Further north from here are stacks which include the renowned Stack of the Horse, whose claim to fame is that it is still linked to the headland by a natural grassy bridge, of about a metre in width, with a 30 metre drop either side. Here I draw the line, not for me. Also below it is a natural arch, which under certain calm conditions a boat can be taken through.

We had great weather the four days I was at Burravoe, though on Sunday when I arrived the mist had set in. As it cleared on Monday morning, the views were tremendous. I will enlarge on what I mean by great weather, partly cloudy, usually more sun in the early morning and late evening, and a temperature hovering between about 12 and 15C.

A few visitors called in and chatted. There are a few cyclists of the North Sea Cycle Route who continue to Norway with a flight from Sumburgh in the south of Shetland (to Bergen with Logan Air). The old way to do it, until 2008, was with the ferry to Denmark, then continue north; these days, it’s Bergen and south. Most riders are north Europeans, and of course, the ride, with its wind and unanticipated hills, is far harder than they originally thought. There really are very few other tourists though.

The guy from the Manor House introduced himself. He lives in the rather grand, and huge, building alone, pictured below. It used to be occupied by the Laird, and therefore, with the Clearances and slavery, has a rather dodgy past. He is a reclusive wealthy guy who used to work in the City. A few other locals warned by about his lack of communication, but the couple of times he past, he stopped for a chat. It perhaps helped he was a cricket enthusiast, as I had the Test Match on the radio or TV both times.

This morning after another wander around the Ness, we filled up with water, took out the trash, and left for the ferry to the Mainland. At Brae I took the advantage of a decent sized supermarket, a Co-Op, about the same size as the one in Shap, then drove another twenty minutes to the Lunna peninsula. More on the that in a day or two..