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