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