hire car for a covid test

An 09:30 covid test at the gas plant whilste staying in lerwick with no personal transport except the daunder(I did consider cycling the 23mile cycle there plus 23 back) but! decided it would be better, or more worth my while getting a hire car then drive out to walls, to see if I could pay someone with a boat to take me to Vaila isle?

It was a miserable morning the rain was lashing down on lerwick town center, by the time I had walked from the town center out to bolts car hire, I was glad I had put on my waterproof jacket and trousers because I was dripping abig puddle onto the floor of the hire car shop, this was after only a twenty Minuit walk. The hire car was a wee blue Kia picano one liter thing not very macho, but hey I wasn’t heading out cruising the strip in Las Vegas! If that were the case, I would have hired a flash car, this wee thing would be fine I would just not take a pictures of me next to it!

I headed off for the covid test I’ve had loads of these now and they don’t bother me, the discomfort level of this test all depends on the medic taking the swab, I had one medic say to me that she would make me cry and make me gag, I thought at the time yeh yeh I’ve had a few of these I will be fine, but NO! she bloody did make me cry and gag. I told this new medic this story as she was a one off, I thought! we had never met before me and this medic, its normally craig the site medic that does this while im on Shetland, this was a new guy, bloody hell he was the same as that nurse shoving the big cotton bud swab thing so far down each of my nostrils the tears were streaming then having me wretch as he massaged my tonsils with it which all seems so unnecessary to me,

Once free of that ordeal, I drove to the town of Voe, I wanted a wee nostalgic poke around. To take photos of the millennium post and harbour, then also have a look through the windows of the sail loft camping Bod (I think that’s me visited all the bods from the outside now). The smell from the bakery was ace, as I peered through the windows of the pierhead inn also for nostalgia, fond memories flooded back of a night out in there when a party bus rolled in, then before I knew it I was on the dancefloor to wigfields Saturday night, these party buses are the stuff of legends, such a shame all these bars throughout the whole of Shetland’s have been closed so long now some will probably never open again I fear this bar may be one of those losses, but my biggest fear is the loss of community it represents

I then drove over what is known locally as the Aith alps, it’s a steep up then a very undulating single-track road through some desolate hills, more like the Scottish Highlands than the alps, but a barren mountainous landscape for sure, very nice it was on this day with the mist as I slowly drove over this mountain pass,

As soon as you come over this pass almost the first building you come to is the famous Shetland honesty cake fridge, this just grows and grows and grows, every time I pass it! this has expanded hugely (for this part of the world) and on this day the café was open, perfect! I pulled into the carpark and walked in to the café; the girl’s eyes were like saucepan lids as I entered! So much so I burst out laughing and said yes you have a customer, then she laughed as she knew she had been caught in shock! she had been mid conversation with two other girls and they have only been open days with hardly a visitor, the door had not long since been unlocked and they hadn’t heard me, it is a cracking wee T shop café country cake stop with loads of great local produce for sale, the gardens are filled with unusual animals like pigmy goats along with Shetland ponies and some unusual fowl! It reminds me of the alpacachino place I visited in the Hebrides, they also have a good vegan selection, my coffee and cake were wonderfuel

Once through Aith you drop down into bixter where I considered the shop, but as I sat at the crossroads I looked over to where DRS has a place firstly I was shocked to see the roof missing, then I noticed his van was there, I drove round to surprise him with a visit, I was hoping he wouldn’t see me until I was right at the gates, but his chocolate lab soba was there she heard me approach and alerted him with her excitement she burrowed her way under the fence, with her tale going like a hummingbirds wing I knew this was no attack dog! I was about to be loved to death, Duncan stopped his job, as I shouted over the fence is there any auld bulls in this farm he shouted back there fucking is now kenjo how the hell are you, he was surprised to see me which I liked and he showed me around his place and the work he has been doing and has yet to do, I spent the time chatting with him and chucking sobas tennis ball, when I left I was feeling guilty that I should have gave him a day’s labour in part repayment for his previous kindness`s

My agenda on heading in this direction was to get to the town of walls (pronounced waas) once there, I was hoping I could potentially find someone with a boat that I could pay to drop me at vaila isle, then I could make my way to the trig point there, I went to the pier harbour area where there was a couple of boats one of which was taking on board fuel from a tanker, speaking to some of the people milling around asking if they knew if there was a boat I could pay to get dropped off ?a deckhand said we are the Foula ferry pal we could drop you but we cant pick you back up. I knew he was having a laugh with me about vaila, but then he said we can take you to foula though have you got a tent we have a place you can camp, this time he was serious I had forgotten this was Tuesday this boat that was refueling was the weekly ferry to Foula, the very one I was supposed to take the previous week!

My mind was racing they were refueling the Foula ferry it was midday they didn’t leave for an hour and a half (13:30), this meant I could actually take this ferry I could pop into town buy food and beer and spend two nights in Foula returning Thursday? I asked the ferry fella how’s the weather forecast for Thursday? Will you defo be able to get me back on Thursday? Oh, there’s some snow coming but I think we should still be going! I was thinking snow wait I have no tent I shall ask him if there’s a B&B or something I could phone? then I was weighing up the chances of delay and not getting to work on Friday, all of this thinking was way too much longer than was necessary, I had even went into the ferry waiting area to check prices and see if there was any business cards, then Bing lightbulb moment! I’m in a bloody hire car that’s supposed to be returned that day I have bags at the hotel to move to sellaness before Thursday night, I had been fantasizing forgetting the obvious logistics, Foula shall wait but it was a fun dreamt of adventure in that brief time This auld saying sprung to mind - COULDA WOULDA SHOULDA are the last words of a fool

From the looks of my maps the people that live on Vaila (one couple live there they have an art shop in lerwick)probably don’t boat out from the harbour, I drove of looking to see the shortest crossing or maybe a wee boat somewhere along the shore? It was very scenic as I drove the single-track road while stopping regularly to check my OS map, eventually opting to drive out to a small hotel called burrastow house or maybe it’s a B&B? I am unsure where the boundary lies,

it looked shut this is where it would be the best place to cross if using a kayak or rowing boat to vaila isle, but that wouldn’t be happening this day it would just be another option for future planning I would drive further up the coast This area of burrastow near walls is very rural a mixture of croft like housing and farmsteads no villages, all along a single-track road to a distant headland, I drove past a phone booth! My eyes were attracted to it for some strange reason? I have seen loads of rural telephone boxes why should this attract my eyes? I stopped the car and walked back to it, what a cool wee visitors’ attraction with a fantastic story, a story of salvation from demolition crowdfunding restoration with a side line on a great tale about a message in a bottle, this was a great find I signed the visitors book and left my name on the chalk board, I was all the more enriched for my visit thank you burrastow community,

On my drive back I wanted to take a side drive up west Burrafirth, I had previously seen a wee whitewashed building there with a plaque and a poppy wreath that had peaked my curiosity, it was a very long drive away from my intended route, well to me anyway some peoples views on a long or short drive would be different from mine, I had went out my way to see this building due to me having passed it twice recently, my thinking was if I did not go back now I would be unlikely to ever investigate ever again, you my reader can judge for yourself if it was worth the visit,

Its up there as one of the most remote still functioning kirks I’ve visited in Scotland, perhaps that’s why it peaked my curiosity, I’m not a religious man but I think if I stayed this rural I would probably go here for a Sunday morning sermon just for the craic it would defo be better than Sunday morning TV! ?