decision made time for Lerwick

Time for Lerwick It is a total Faff and time thief packing and cleaning I was up at eight, but the rules of staying in self-catered accommodation is you leave it as you found it! I had been there five days so there was a fair bit of packing tidying and cleaning to get done, this is a big enough pest when you have a car or some motorized transport with a car parked at the door, I didn’t I was cycling with camping gear and chalet six was down a set of steep icy snowy slid`y stairs, it was after ten before I had the bike all loaded and chalet cleaned,

The sun was out again I was happy (with the weather not to be leaving) it was truly cold though! I seem to spend an unusual amount of time thinking about what stuff I would be better with and what I should have left behind? As I cycled off, I was thinking a snood instead of a buff and merino wool skull cap would be better! These sort of questions never end, I am starting to think there is no correct answer, too much stuff you sweat when pushing hard up a hill freeze your wet clothes on the downhill, too little stuff you never get a heat with toe`s and fingers the first victims being the extremities, I will no doubt write more on this as the weeks go on as it’s a huge issue regardless if you are hiking running cycling walking keeping warm and dry is essential to happiness, or maybe I should read some wim hoff (the iceman) and embrace the cold

It was weird yet again getting used to the fully laden bike, the tent strapped to the handlebars and front panniers made for wobbly steering, somehow in my head I had came to a conclusion I had fourteen miles to cycle? Scalloway to Lerwick. The road was slushy with snow narrowed for traffic but fortunately not too busy I cycled off happy, ready to progress the mission, its not pleasant being a cycle tourist at the best of times on a car road with no side area for cycling but when its narrowed by slush and snow I felt I was a nuisance to car van and truck drivers on the road, not so much on the nice easy downhill section toward the golf course junction, (totally covered in snow but flags still in the holes?!) the next uphill section is where I felt bad as I was slow and could hear traffic slowing behind me,

Once I crested the hill, I could appreciate the blue skies as I seen the calm sea in the distance life was good, strange how calm seas with a clear sky in bright sunshine can make you smile even if it is cold and the mudguards are full of slush, I stopped to take a photo of a snow-covered sign thinking this cant possibly be my turning? But it was! My destination turned out to be less than seven kilometers it hardly felt worth while loading the bike for such a short journey!

I text Duncan ton say I was at my apartment he has had a recent covid test all clear, neither of us has been anywhere or done any partying we decided it would be ok to go walking together, there was a trig point near my apartment, Duncan said he would do it with me, it was behind a quarry and over some open peat bog up to cress the map said was hill of dale but trigpointing uk says hill of fitch! It was great to have someone who could take my photo at the pillar no timers or stands to set up, Dunc is a fast walker though who takes the lead we were up mand down very quick

I then grabbed shopping from Tesco Dunc said why don’t we go have a look at the next one is it far? No buddy it’s not says I showing him kebister ness on the map, oh aye says Dunc I know it lets go! He is a go getter oor Duncan once the dug had the bit in its teeth lol, we were out to the next trig in no time, as we were halfway out on this walk, we spotted two otters playing, we stopped dead! Dunc says get your camera kenjo I got the phone out for a shot but they darted off as I was taking pictures of their escape route, otters are just too camera shy! Or I am too slow

I was then free for the evening to enjoy my nice self-catered apartment the scooty allen with a pleasant stir fry dinner and a hot bath Bliss, with the snow falling outside I was glad not to be in my tent! Tomorrow things will be different

goodbye to the wee chalet at easterhoull

Easterhoull chalets were ideal for me it was a shame I was in a chalet all by myself cooking for one a double room unslept in, it was also a shame it was winter with snow and ice all over the pathways, but there is also positives to these points I can turn that frown upside down easily by thinking no midges! Any other year at this time I could have been here for the fire festival Scalloway’s up helly Aa, I went by the beat of my own drum doing my own thing so I should be happy about the freedom it brought me,

I could easily have stayed longer there is lots to see and do in this area, it’s a shame the museums cafes pubs and visitor attractions were all closed due to covid19, there was still loads of outdoors activities to keep me busy and the weather was good cold but clear you can’t ask for better than that at this time of year,

The person that owns the chalets is also an artist Sarah Kay Arts, check out her stuff on her web page (I like it), she has some buttons on display in this chalet I love them and at present I fully intend to make an order for some of her buttons for my favourite waistcoat, she is not the only cottage art studio/business here on Shetland there seems to be a few dotted all around I have regularly passed studios, sometimes in the most remote location you will pass a road with a sign art studio this way open, the artist that owns these chalets also does some cool work with beach glass I’m a sucker for some upcycling, there is a piece of art in the hall of this chalet with beach class on it I really like it,

On top of all that there is also her award-winning garden where she up cycle’s waste and plants bird friendly trees and insect loving plants creating a well needed corner of biodiversity in these sheepwrecked areas,

Maybe one day I could return to this area in the summer as part of a cycle touring holiday with friends or family, if I do I would be happy to stay here again for now i was sad to be leaving the place, BUT i have a mission and a plan its time to move on

Lerwick here i come

Scalloway

It was great to have a wee chalet it had a cozy wee functional kitchen a spacious lounge and dining area two rooms one with a double bed the other two single beds along with a good shower room/toilet, absolutely everything I could need, on the first day in had two coffees in bed catching up with social media a double breakfast muesli and oat milk followed by eggs and toast, my map showed a trig point straight across the bay I could actually see from my window, deciding I would walk over to it then have a stroll round town was my plan for the day, Setting off around midday it was a very pleasant walk over frosted over trails and paths all with great views as there’s no trees (or is that a bad view) I reached the trig point quickly too quickly! This was too easy I really should have done at least two trigs this day, oh well, I stopped a while and took various photos, trying out using my Joby tripod Bluetooth as opposed to the usual iPhone ten second photo timer,

I then walked along the ridge passed an arial mast to a summit cairn I was later to find out is locally known as witches peak, this is where they burned their witches back in the day! Barbara Tulloch and her daughter Ellen – the last witches to be burned in Shetland – were executed on Gallows Hill, overlooking the village what the locals I spoke to called witches peak It was excellent views for me from here down on to port Arthur harbour area and the un missable big castle Until 1708 scalloway was the capital of the Shetland Islands it was the capital before Lerwick existed, from what I heard there seems to still be a little rivalry between the areas,

During WW2 scalloway was the headquarters for what was called the Shetland bus check it out on the internet it was a secret mission for the Norwegian resistance, they had a base here and travelled back and forward to occupied Norway, Crossings were mostly made during the winter under the cover of darkness. This meant the crews and passengers had to endure very heavy North Sea conditions, with no lights and constant risk of discovery by German aircraft or patrol boats. There was also the possibility of being captured whilst carrying out the mission on the Norwegian coast.

Early on it was decided that camouflage was the best defence, and the boats were disguised as working fishing boats and the crew as fishermen. The fishing boats were armed with light machine guns concealed inside oil drums placed on deck. The operation was under constant threat from German forces, and several missions went awry, of which the Telavåg tragedy in spring 1942 was a prime example. Several fishing boats were lost during the early operations, but after receiving the three submarine chasers there were no more losses. There’s lots of memorials and stuff about it all throughout the town and guide books

As I walked through town having decided I would buy a beer from the shop and drink it on the castle gardens, I bumped into young Pat then john then gary then mark! who asked if I fancied a trek out to the smugglers cave oh yeh,

This cave would have been extremely difficult to find had mark not already known roughly where it was and someone had put a sign up (I bet the smugglers don’t like that) there was a good set of rope ladders down into the cave where the mouth opens out onto a discreet landing round the opposite cove, I was glad of my headtorch Waking up late due to excessive beers and drams the previous evening I had one mission the trig point down at the bottom of burra, it was midday before I set off Shetland is an archipelago which means a string of islands some connected some not, I found this strange when I cycled the HEB way that you went form island to island over causeway’s bridges and short ferries it was all the Hebrides but every island had its own identity regardless the size of sea gap to bridge somehow, leaving Scalloway I cycled over a single lane bridge to trondra isle then another similar bridge to the isle of burra, this is the land of the burra bear tommy T and a couple of amazing beaches,

Yet again I was lucky with the weather its mostly single-track road and very undulating I was up and down the gears a lot, there was a couple of exhilarating downhills over cattle grids where I was thinking point and shoot don’t brake and hope there was no black ice at the bends! Finally, I came to the parking area for Minn beach another tombola this time one side a pebble beach the other golden sand, I left the bike here after a heart pumping steep gravel downhill, there is a remote beach hut here I wondered if it was for hire it’s a fantastic location, The walk out to the trig was about two kilometres over frozen ground, there was frozen rivers and frozen over wee lochans and the sun was at that dropping toward the horizon losing its intensity a warm glow (not very warm for heat) light, I was rewarded with great views out over to the south where I had come from only a few days before fitful head and Scousburgh hill trigs I had done from spiggie, calm seas and clear sky it was braw

The trig point had a cairn circle it was a vanessa type, I had pieced together some go pro fixings and adapted them to the selfie pole and mini tripod with a couple of stones placed on the legs I managed to make a guid wee tripod for a selfie standing on the trig point, I had intended to have a sandwich and beer here but I stupidly left them in the kitchen,

It was really cold cycle out to the village of hamnavoe where I intended to buy a beer at the harbour front shop and text tommy to have a beer with me outside? but it was just too cold even with my thin gloves bicycle mitts and gore text fur lines over mitts my fingers still got cold beautifull as it was it was still cold! A full moon to cycle toward which seemed to be right above the wee chalet

Originally when I phoned to book the chalet, I booked it for three nights, I decided I would phone again and book another two nights due to mark going above and beyond mates’ duties, he had left his hovercraft out on the shore for winter but when he heard I was coming went to check it was ok for a day out? Nope! the battery and some other electrics where knackered he had gone to a big effort to get parts together to get it operational for me to get a run out which became a great day out, in order to get the hovercraft day out and the nearby two trigs I had booked a further two nights in the wee chalet this would make it five nights in total, (so far)

After the hovercraft day I got organised early enough and cycled to the village of quarff here I hid the daunder down near a burn at a road bridge, then headed up over the fields to a peak called scrae field, which had some strange looking abandoned buildings of to the right of the trig points I’m guessing something to do with the war as it seemed too high up for houses, once I had taken photos and marched back down to the village, it was a short cycle over the main road and down to the coast for a mile or two walk out to a point called the coall this trig sat on a wee hillock of its own jutting towards the sea around some geo stacks,

On the cycle back to Scalloway I got caught in a sleet shower into my face it was cold wet and I had to squint my eyes behind my specs as the wind shoved the sleet into my eyes, its one of those things that when you see this coming, before it gets to you as you nearly always get a warning! Stop the bike put on your lights so cars can see you get the extra layers on, which of course I never as I only had a about two mile left to do I just got cold and wet, it was still a good day out

oxna by hovercraft

Mark had said he would give me a run out in his hovercraft if I was out his way, this was months ago and I would hazard a guess that he didn’t think I would be visiting his area in January! But true to his word when I told him I would be staying on Shetland all of January with some time spent near him, he went out and had a look at his hovercraft? The thing was he had left it on the beach for winter for the first time, this was due to him building a new bigger one in his garage, he had abandoned/neglected his older one thinking it would be fine for the winter outside, this was a mistake seaweed had blocked a drain the engine compartment filled with water his battery and some electrics were??! No working! ! It taken him a lot of time and effort which I truly appreciate greatly to get the craft up and running, this made for me staying an extra couple of nights to get a run out in it essential, mark had sourced parts from forums and twenty-four-hour deliveries to get it up and running I cannot thank him enough

Of course it doesn’t all come down to getting the machine running there is the weather, and also for mark childcare, I made myself available and kept my fingers crossed, the gods were in our favour and all the planets aligned this day, the weather report did say the wind would be bad around 4-5PM this turned out to be wrong it was snowing in the morning and the wind wasn’t too bad later, this didn’t stop us from worrying the wind makes a huge difference on wave size and with a small hovercraft weighted with two people that would make a big difference added to faith in recent repairs holding up! All these factors made mark choose the nearest decent sized island which was oxna, I had really wanted to visit Hildasay isle which has Shetland’s only ever railway line, it was for the islands quarry which at one time was a source of stone for building projects all over the world as far flung as Sydney Australia parliament buildings, back in the 1890s it was home to a large quarry and had a population of 30 people. Materials from the quarry were transported along the tracks and then shipped far away, as with many of the islands hildasay is uninhabited now, only 15 of Shetland's 100 islands are inhabited now. why did these people leave the places they loved? Largely, it revolved around centralisation, which is a move away from subsistence living.

The number of people living on Shetland peaked at more than 31,000 in the 1860s. Which was a bit of a “bloated" population. "Shetland then wasn't able to support that kind of population," The figure fell to 17,000 in the 1960s, although it now stands around 23,000. I was up early waiting for a text from mark to see if we were on for an island-hopping adventure? If the hovercraft wasn’t ready or childcare was an issue it could be postponed and I would go cycling to the next nearest trig point, mark text! We were on he would get me at moores slip in the harbour at Scalloway at 11:30, from what I could see out the window and on my map there appeared to be about four harbours? I sent a text but knew I would get no reply as he would be on the go. I would just head to the main harbour feeling sure I would spot him approach!

Sure, enough as I got down to the central harbours area, I spotted the hovercraft speed in to town mark standing poised at the helm in an action pose! BRILLIANT I was looking forward to this, he zoomed it up onto the beach and jumped out handing me a lifejacket telling me to wrap up sit there, hold on, and follow his movements when things are bumpy then we were off, it felt like being a pillion on a motorbike very exhilarating bouncing into waves avoiding skerries and a big swoosh round between waves on our approach to oxna islands beach,

I was grinning and on a high when we got ashore it was as good as I thought it would be I would love a toy like this for myself, I wanted to be the skipper not the pillion, Oxna isle is famous for a gold bangle/bracelet found in the 1900`s here, yet another antiquity found on the Shetland isles housed at the national museum, all these wee islands seem to be treasure troves of antiquities through the ages, the percentage per square meter must be higher than anywhere else in the world save maybe the pyramids or Rome!

There is a nice but dated house on the island only occupied occasionally, I had a look in the windows mark tells me he knows the owners and that there Is a couple that rent the place every year for a month! I wondered if I could stay in here on this island alone for a month?

We were worried about the wind picking up and there was some dark clouds ion the horizon, before setting of again we had a discussion about a further stop before the end of the day, he reckoned papa island would be a good stop there’s a deserted kirk to explore but he would wait to see what the conditions were like before making that decision, if he felt it was gonna get choppy we would head to trondra. There would be no point in trying to communicate while the engine was on, so I guessed as papa isle slipped past on our port side(I’m an auld sea dog now) that we would be going to calmer shores nearer the mainland, Trondra it was we stopped at a pebble beach in the bay and mark fired up his old army issue stove to make us coffee and noodles, which he added a bit of seaweed garlic and chilli to, all chopped up with his knife it was a great wee beach snack,

It wasn’t far from here to where mark lives so we parked up the hovercraft, and mark showed me the new build in his shed, its at least twice the size of the one we had just been on he has pieced it together upside down in his garage out of fiberglass sheets and is now got the engine but still needs the skirt and fans some of which he has on order He then showed me round his chicken coop picking up the birds as we chatted, putting write ups on here about him stoking his male and female chickens would spoil an interesting factual write up so I’m not going to do it! even though he had a large black male chicken there!!

Great day out

spiggie to scalloway

Yet again the roads were snow and iced over when I awoke and yet again I met Chris outside for coffee this time for the last time, loading the bike up with the packed panniers and bags takes a bit of time anyway, this would give the gritters and the sun some time to make the roads a bit safer for me, BTW I love the Scottish government APP for the gritters they all have mega cool names and you can check if your intended route has been gritted, I was sad to be leaving the spiggie the views are awesome what an excellent location for beaches and bird watching,

once on the go I was only up the road two or three mile when an irritating rubbing noise started? It turned out the front panniers must have been too heavy and had slid sown a wee bitty, sitting on the front mudguard which was now slightly rubbing the front tyre! I had to stop and make adjustments, just a quick fix involving a bungee, again, I had chosen the main road knowing it would be free of black ice by that time of day, the weather was excellent, I have been along this section of road around 200 times mostly by coach occasionally in a car, it’s so much more scenic on a bike I seen sights I had never seen before and was able to pay proper close inspection to stuff I had seen from windows previously thinking what was that as I flashed past,

the first photo stop was at the sixty degrees north sign, The sixtieth parallel marks a borderland between the northern and southern worlds. Wrapping itself around the lower reaches of Finland, Sweden, and Norway, it crosses the tip of Greenland and the southern coast of Alaska, and slices the great expanses of Russia and Canada in half. The parallel also passes through Shetland, there is wee signs for this invisible border into the northern world at both sides of the road, every cycle tourist I have seen stops to take photos here I was joining in on the fun and took loads of photos, plus a wee bit go pro footage playing and learning with all my stands poles and connectors for remote filming/ photo shooting,

I then had further stops firstly at a closed museum at cunningsburgh then at a shop called mackenzies where I bought a hot cup of soup and some juice they didn’t sell beer! After cycling through Quarf, I spotted a motorist heading in the opposite direction that I knew! It was tommy T, he acknowledged he had seen me by rolling down the window and putting his hand out with the thumbs up, I pulled up at the side of the road and waited thinking he would turn and come back for a chat but he never did!

It wasn’t far from Quarf to my destination it had been a 21-mile cycle from the spiggie hotel to easterhoull chalets Scalloway, I cycled over the brow off the hill to a glorious vista of a setting sun with clear skies Scalloway harbour and castle frames in a frosty sunset scene Braw,

These wee self-catered chalets where the recommendation mark had given me and it was an ace recommendation, I had phoned them up to book myself in for three nights the previous day, I was mega chuffed to see the sign for them right at the start of town, with fantastic views over the town harbour and castle I had to take a lot of care though as my chalet was down some steep slippery stairs, which I done in three trips for panniers & bags, then the daunder on the shoulder holding the railing with my mitts taking care due to slippy cycle shoes on! Right away I went for a walk into town to catch the shops I could cook myself dinner in the chalet with chilled ales this was glamping

staying at the spiggie

Spiggie hotel Stopping at a shop/garage junction to check my map and make a plan of where to camp, I was in a quandary but knew it was gonna be dark before I knew it I would be best to find a place to camp? Considering some spots local to this junction or cycling up nearer the next trig point was how I was thinking, a fellow cyclist outside the shop asked me where I was off to, I explained roughly that I was looking for a place to camp, he suggested I could camp near his hotel, obviously it was closed I couldn’t stay in the hotel but could camp in the field across from it and he would let me use his loo! Too awesome an invite to refuse he explained the easiest way to get there but he would be going the longer way for exercise, by the time I had the tent up in the fields over the road from the hotel he appeared, we made more formal introductions his name is Chris and what a sound nice guy, I could camp out the front for free he had been shut to guests for a year due to covid anyway, This was my first night with this tent and so much of the gear I was glad I wasn’t truly wild camping which I nearly was, me and all this gear had a bit of bonding/learning to do! The wind was howling 30MPH minimum I had placed the tent behind a sort of hut sheltered somewhat from the worst of the wind but it still managed to make an awfy draught through the tent vent, I think this is a summer tent! I wore clothes inside the sleeping bag plus the silk bag liner but I still couldn’t get a heat it was a cold restless night with having to get up three times for a pee, this made me for once in my life gratefull the bar and pubs were all shut, I had bought four cans of beer earlier but only drank two which made me annoyed it was still three chilly pee waking’s, Chris had said he would bring me coffee at 08:00 which he did absolutely fantastic of him I was so grateful, I explained I wanted to do the local trig points and it would be good if I could leave my stuff and camp here another night? He said no problem actually would you like a bath later around four? I needed to put the hotel heating on! I said of course thank you he then let me use the hotel toilet again a luxury I was extremely grateful for then I cycled off, The first trig point was called fitful head it was also a sort of radar style Hedland Hight place like a big golf ball on the horizons high spot, there was a road all the way up but there was snow and ice with lots of shut gates saying private road no vehicles, I was happy to leave the daunder and walk the end steep section, the cliffs around there were typical Shetland sea cliffs steep barren covered in sea birds The cycle back from there was the same as going a very scenic cycle along the shore of loch spiggie an RSPB reserve, then past the lovely spiggie beach and back up to the hotel my camps site, I don’t mind admitting it was tempting just to say that was enough for a day! But I never I cycled on past ma tent heading to the second trig scousburgh which again had a road all the way up to it due to this time there being a big telecoms mast, yet again I left the bike at the steep snowy icy section, but this time it was a mistake I just didn’t know the winding road would have turned to the mast as I could see it undulating off into the distance presuming it didn’t also take a swing towards the mast

Once back at the tent I was in time for the promised bath, chris showed me to one of his hotel rooms and I had the best bath ever, just no towels I had forgotten mine I had a dry clean t shirt pants and socks but had to use my fleecy as a towel, (I’m guessing covid restrictions on towels) Chris said as I left the hotel for my tent if I was staying again he could probably rent me a room, I said I had to keep moving thanks for the offer, but the thought of that hotel room was in my head all night, I didn’t know where or what to do with wet or sweaty gear I only knew wet stuff makes you cold, I had to get dry and wear dry stuff before crawling into my bag like a big cold slug. Sure enough my equipment was lacking again not as much wind rattling through the tent this time but moisture and dampness inside the tent snow and ice outside! Another restless long night Chris brought coffee out again in the morning and I asked him straight away if it was ok to rent a room for a night, yes that would be ok I started packing up the tent while chris went off and put the hotel heating on, I was the only guest and I think from what he said the only guest in a year! A hotel all to myself wasn’t the fun it sounds when the bar restaurant are shut no breakfast no towels everything in darkness except my room, I could become like jack Nicholson in the shining and go a bit loopy! A nice warm bath later and a wee dram and I was not loopy but happy

Once I had the tent down and airing my stuff all laid out in my room I had time to do a trig point before the sun went down, a pleasant cycle out to st Ninians isle which is close to spiggie, I had hoped to cycle over the tombola but the sand was too soft and deep I had to leave the daunder tucked behind a sand dune to march over then up the other side of the double sided beach isthmus connecting the isle with the mainland making it not an isle as it has a sort of beach causeway! This is The most beautifull tombola in Europe supposedly and I wouldn’t disagree, the trig point was right at the far end as you would expect, I was annoyed there was so many sheep on the isle being a tree lover, the trig is right at the sea edge close to serious cliffs it had a beauty of its own, this isle has the added bonus of an ancient church ruin that a school boy in the 1950`s found some serious hidden treasure, when viewing the ruin the treasure was found in it is truly hard to imagine that such precious objects could be found there, this part of the world must have been so much different then as the treasure would have been extremely rare and expensive in the time it was made and for hundreds of years after

I enjoyed having a hotel room and did not miss the tent at all! Having a look at my map it would appear I could still potentially do another two trigs while staying at the spiggie? It didn’t take much self-persuasion to ask for a second night this would give me a chance to sort my stuff and paperwork, I was behind on social media emails and personal contacts due to there being no wifi and no signal in the hotel, but I could still fill out my physical log and do research into where next, I went out into the street with a coffee in the morning to get a signal on my phone and hopefully chris would come out at some point, I put a blog post up then chris came out no problem for another night we exchanged personal details for track and trace, and chatted for a long time about church stuff he was impressed by my knowledge of Scottish church history, he is originally from Buckinghamshire and does a lot of work for the church

I cycled off to the town of sandwick where there is a trig point out near the shore, I chose to cycle out the main road as I knew it would have been gritted I had waited until the back road near the hotel had been gritted also and the salt had done its magic on the black ice with the help of the sun before setting off, it’s a long undulating road but at least the bike wasn’t fully laden

Cycling as close as I could get to the trig point near a place called the wart! As I stopped the bike next to some barbed wire fence then a farmy\rd dog came bounding at me I leapt the fence thinking it would be in attack mode like most farm dogs, the daunder slid down the barbed wire in my haste and scratched the front post painintwork, the bloody dug just bounded the fence also like it wasn’t there and it turned out to be a right friendly beast, it wouldn’t go back when I was shouting at it to go back but joined me over two other fences up to the trig, what a view I was rewarded with it was stunning sunshine and no wind with views over to the island of mousa and its historic huge broch, I would really like to visit that broch one day ive read a lot about its fascinating history,

On the cycle back I stopped to send mark a text as I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t spend longer at the spiggie, my message asked him to find me a place to stay or camp if possible somewhere around Scalloway for tomorrow evening, I had to do this text here as I had zero signal in my hotel room due to thick old stone walls, and the Wi-Fi didn’t work, the next day I would be moving for sure with a heavy laden bike for the north,

Up helly Aa 26th! not

 Up helly Aa

Today would have been the Lerwick up helly Aa it’s very sad it’s cancelled yet another covid victim it was cancelled early last year as they take years in planning and organization! If things don’t change soon next years will be cancelled also 

They would have had a very frosty day for it with snow on the ground I have fond memories of Tommy T and AJ texting me wee videos during last years event just before the world closed down Happy days I am going to cycle fully laden bike to Scalloway today but I’m going to wait on the gritter passing and the roads to be less slippery first ! 

I took this in lerwick a few years back