Shetland Bits And Pieces

Onto the journey from Aberdeen to Lerwick, via Kirkwall. The boat left at 5pm and was due to reach Lerwick 14 1/2 hours later at 7.30am the next morning. That's not a problem at all when you have a cabin and a whole load of bars just outside your room (but far away enough to not keep you awake). I spent the evening watching Rory McIlroy win the US Open in my room, then wandered out to have a drink and force myself to stay awake until 11pm when we reached Kirkwall. The picture isn't very good quality but shows that it is far from pitch black.



Here's the top of the boat at 6.30am the next morning. It was pretty busy when we left but for some reason I'm the only one on it at the moment!



Here are some other bits and pieces while I Was driving around. This is the monument to the Shetland Bus at Scalloway. This was a series of boats which ferried people between Shetland and Norway in the second world war.



I went up to Voe on Mainland to get some lunch but unluckily for me, the only pub in 20 miles which served food wasn't serving today. I knew something was odd when I saw 20 men in there in almost identical dark suits - it was a wake. I went outside and took a couple of pictures instead.





To reach the "North Isles", I had to take my car on two more ferries. The first one goes from Toft on Mainland to Ulsta in Yell, and takes about 25 minutes. There's then a 15 minute drive across Yell (it should probably take a bit more than that, but there's just NO ONE on the roads today) and then a 15 minute ferry from Gultcher in Yell to Unst. Both ferries the are roll on, roll off variety. I was told to book a space otherwise I might not get on, which I did, but decided I wanted to get to the hotel earlier so I turned up to the port an hour and a half early, hoping to get on on an unbooked basis and expecting a big queue. Here's the queue.





And here's me watching Countdown on a virtually empty boat halfway between Mainland and Yell. The cost of this luxury? £4.80 each way. The ferry from Yell to Unst is free. Long live subsidies.