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,