Aff tae the isles

It was fantastic having a down day in the peerie swabby apartment at decca on the first night the wind and snow howled outside, I was so happy I wasn’t in the back of a van or camped better than that I had a warm wee haim from haim, A kitchen living area and two double rooms, ok some of that was pure overkill for me on my own I just shut the door of the second room when I arrived, I also don’t watch tv so never truly used the living area either, but the kitchen shower room dining table and bedroom were a dreamsville base for the next two nights With the camping gear and bike now set aside at sella and all mainland trigs done, I now had to make a definite plan of where to stay and how to get to trig points? The first thing I dealt with was transport I booked a car hire not a van this time, Friday to Wednesday I had a covid test to do on Tuesday then back to sellaness Thursday with all the mainland trigs done I needed to be on an island now? A few messages wi dunc Thompson I opted for yell, sitting warm and happy in my apartment I booked an airB&B, paid for it, sorted I thought it looked cool a converted barn great price job done for the weekend I thought! At nine PM I got an email from the hosts saying it wasn’t supposed to be on airB&B they were cancelling my booking, late at night I made a reservation on another airB&B place, this one never took immediate payment it said reserved pending owners’ acceptance of booking, obviously by then it would be morning before they got back to me, morning I was hoping to depart for yell, oh well off to sleep I would deal with it in the morning Decca apartments have loads of new cleaning instructions in place for the new norm they are well ahead of the game for these new procedures, before leaving in the morning there was loads of stuff, I had to do so they could come in and sterilize the place for the next guests they were super-efficient about it all, but these wee added chores meant I spent the morning up until ten getting things just right for departure not organizing yell stuff, Eventually I was all packed two carry packs one wee one at my front the big one on my back and a pannier to carry for my snowy march into lerwick to pick up the hire car, I joked with the reception girl, I hope it’s not a wee pink thing, naw she said its green, but it wasn’t just green it was GREEN bloody hell this wee thing was loud! I have spent more on hire vehicles this four weeks than its cost me for some of my cars! A great example is the Mitsubishi coupe I bought for £550 that me and cammy drove to Bulgaria in (see my Bulgaria by road blog) not only was that cheaper than my hire fares, I sold it in Bulgaria for not far off what I bought it for and flew home, of course it’s a different world now and my plan has changed far too quickly too often for me to sort out something like that, who could have predicted this weather? Or how long it would be here for? It is what it is! The wee green car will be fine lol

Sitting in the co`op car park surrounded by snow and ice with nowhere to stay that night now having had a second airb&b rejection! the second one was cool though they had no oil for their heating and the road to the cottage was a sheet of ice that the oil lorry couldn’t get up also the heating hasn’t been on for a long time it would never be ready for my arrival. I resorted to phoning places of which there is not many on yell, the old post office hotel is totally closed for the pandemic, but then Caching! I found a place phoned the owners up yeh we are taking reservations see you at tea time as we are out now! Excellent I was off to the isles I drove the green machine to the ferry terminal and as I had some time here on my hands, I booked an appointment at the chiropractor in lerwick (more on that later). Once I drove on the ferry, I was on there was no going back the staff know that also, the islanders all have a card they swipe which obviously I have not, but I reckoned I could just use the visa card? but no I had to fill out a form they would send me a bill, no problem I was on yell for the weekend now I was happy, Driving out the ferry it was left or right I hadn’t even checked the map! Which I really should have as unfortunately there was no view, I had to stay in the vehicle and had zero view of crossing the yell sound, instead I was making notes about appointments from messages and emails, worried I should do this while I had signal, no worries though I just drove right, there wasn’t much daylight hours left anyway, I just reckoned there would be no trig points this day anyway,

It was single track road and the other cars of the ferry had their routes sorted I found a passing place pulled in and let them all pass, now I could look at a map, not too far up this road I could go visit the white wife, I wanted to do that! A few years ago, there was a brewery in unst called Valhalla that made many good beers, I used to buy them in the moorfield hotel before the brewery shut and the hotel burned down, one of the beers they sold was called white wife I liked it and had a fair few bottles of it back in the day, I had to visit this memorial

Strangely the signs for this monument were good but the path was not, it’s a totally class monument a ships figurehead with a great tale of struggle and survival I was extremely glad I had made the effort to visit

By the look of the map there was a trig point reasonably close to the B&B? I made a driving error the roads weren’t great due to the snow and ice once of the main roads, eventually I found where I could park up to do it, at a place called west sandwick I could see it from the car it was late but I had my head torch? Hmmm!? Naww? I got lazy and went to the B&B it can wait, the B&B was down a hill but fortunately there was a parking spot at the top of the approach road, the snow and ice down there was far too steep for the green machine especially with no winter tires, I don’t often do B&B`s they are normally a last resort for me as was the case here, my mate brottsy always says yer just staying in someone’s house, which it is of course I’m ok with that the couple that run this one are extremely good people everything worked out just fine for my three nights at their farmhouse B&B, even better you can get your evening meal also added to the deal if you like? She said? Superb said I that is wonderful, but I am really sorry I’m a wee bit weird with my eating habits, I don’t take dairy and I don’t eat mammals, the look on her face said what does that even mean? I explained I’m not vegan but close, I will eat eggs chicken and fish, argh that’s no bother she said do you want chicken broth followed by a salad for dinner perfect says I, fish the next night then Sunday roast was chicken all good, I know its hard for folk who are accustomed to meat and two veg dinners to understand veganism and its close associates! It would have been easy had I said I was vegetarian