The hire van option

Scooty allan Lerwick The world I need not remind anyone changed dramatically in 2020! We all had to adjust to a pandemic that was killing predominantly the old and weak but was such a severe illness when it struck an area it passed around a social circle /group/community /work place/village town city – country so rapidly hospitals couldn’t cope, governments worldwide reacted by locking us all down The weather was beautifull but cold at night my camping equipment had been found to be! LACKING I had made myself soft with the wee chalet and now the excellent self catered apartment at decca the scooty allen suite I’ve been to lerwick a few times now always in a rush doing a course visiting somewhere for dinner advanced driving class first aid courses a night at the mareel after work, this was different I was here as a tourist/local and in touch with my pals, of course it was covid times and all the pubs were shut folk were scared to have me stay, so I couldn’t party at the pubs and crash on a mates couch, instead I booked a self catered apartment very nice it was too the household is called the decca and its split into various lodgings of various sizes I had to book a family sized one the single/doubles weren’t available, it was a real shame I couldn’t have had more time in this apartment as it was wonderful, the daunder was out in the shed and I only offloaded clean clothes pannier plus electrics and logs/maps. Food cooking tent sleeping all stayed in the shed with the bike Dunc arrived sharp and was itching to get some trig points with me, which was fantastic we headed straight for the quarry straight over the road, well noy straight over the road as that is lerwick brewery which I had a very tasty complimentary beer on the digs table braw,

It was a snowy march up the back of the quarry Dunc put on such a pace I never got a chance to study the map or do a preferential route choice we just went for it! dunc had the bone in the mouth so to speak lol, we ended up having to traverse the ridge which was braw and the weather was good, we had aimed for a mast but the trig was off to the left of that, all great we chose more open ground back to the quarry road and were done in an hour and a half Once of the hills dunc had his wheels and offered me a lift to tesco for provisions? OH tae feck Aye yah dancer says I, its pandemic time but me and dunc had both been tested for work then spent three weeks on nightshift together then he got tested again! Because his wife Susan had been contacted by track and trace, I was confident of sharing his car and company and he was of me,

After my shopping trip which I went in alone masked up dunc waited outside it’s the way theses things are now sadly, shopping in the car dunc said is there any nearby trigs kenny? Yip dunc showing him the OS map there is this one, lets go have a look days dunc! Well that actually meant lets go do it! He is such a grafter a go getter in life one of life’s good guys, as we marched up to this trig chatting nonstop[ well I think Duncan done a lot of listening and I chatted nonstop, as is the norm for us he is a listener,

STOP I said look otters, get your camera oot says dunc but as usual the otters were quicker than the cameras, braw they were though a pair, I approached where we seen them filming on my phone on the approach, but alas they had gone there was a cool little burn tunnel down to the sea they musta scurried away in.

It was only half an hour out to this trig there and back to duncs van but a graet wee walk, that was us sorted for the day outdoors it was time for beer at the scooty allem apartment

After dunc left I made myself a stir fry and had a long soak in a hot bath, bliss, also caught up with some paperwork and social media while I had some wifi, the next morning I had to leave the apartment for ten AM and also had a van to pick up at ten from a van hire company,

I text steve the apartment owner would it be ok if I left the apartment but came back for my bike once I had collected my van? No problem says steve and it wasn’t, I left the apartment at 09:30 briefly spoke with steve before my walk into town, I was walking in a winter wonderland there was occasional snow flurries the landscape around was whitewashed with snow, the houses were sometimes Norwegian looking at others alpine and then occasionally a traditional Scottish stone build a braw,

Do you still hire motorhomes I asked? No motorhome or campers in the winter we will not be hiring out campers until April she said. This was once I was into lerwick proper at the hire company, once I had found the desk and filled out all the hire company forms plus chats about liability etc., I asked the woman behind the counter has the van got winter tire’s? She said NO I don’t think so, I said you don’t think so? I looked out the widow it was an actual heavy snow shower! I was officially in the north in winter so I asked again? Look its important pointing to the snow outside, I think so isn’t good, she said ok no! none of our hire cars or vans have winter tire’s, thanks I said I will be careful, all good though I eventually found my hire van, wiped the snow of ma specs and hit the next door shop for a take away coffee shot of the loo beer snacks and provisions, good to go, I picked up the bicycle and camping gear from my apartment’s shed and hit the road