settling back into life in Lerwick

Lerwick has a population of around 7,000 residents, It is both the most northerly and the most easterly town in Scotland

Kenjo the lerwegian

The grand hotel is just about as central as you can get in lerwick, I really wish the bars restaurant and even posers nightclub were all open, I love a walk around a museum lerwicks looks like a really good one, it also sadly has been shut all year, but then probably had all these places been open, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make a friend of the new owner of the grand hotel Harvey, I seen him out the back of the hotel one day not wearing a mask and never recognized him, it was his shirt I recognized him by! at that time I must have spoken to him for around an hour every day for over a week, he had bought the hotel in November without even viewing it, when he eventually arrived he did get a few shocks it needs a bit of work in places which he has been doing, every time I visit more and more things get fixed he is doing the place proud, I like the grandeur of it the old fashioned style that this hotel has, as does Harvey he seems to be enjoying restoring its grandeur, it’s what some people would call dated but I would call it classic, the new owner and his son Sam work hard on restoring and maintaining the grand, every day there seems to be a small change which is all adding up nicely,

I have had the occasional tour of an area they are working on, when asking Harvey on one of our daily chats what they have been doing or what’s the other rooms like etc, he sometimes just shows me instead of trying to explain, for example I asked about the room below the turret and tower, he just took me to see it, the tower and spire/turret room on the rooftop was a wee tour I loved awesome views, hopefully one day I shall get to stay in that room, at the other end I also got to see the basement for the bars new pipework, posers nightclub was also a fun personal tour, Harvey even showed me the disco lights working, I took a wee video sending it to some of the young locals saying I was throwing shapes on posers nightclub dance floor, they were all jealous, over all my stays at this hotel, I’ve seen a lot of its improvement’s it’s been grand (pun intended), I’ve said to Harvey he should write a blog or a book on his hotel purchase adventure as it seems everyday something exciting happens, During my previous eleven night stay at the grand, I had been trying to get myself into a routine, at that time being on the cusp of retirement I was fantasizing about having a great daily routine that keeps me healthy happy and productive, at this time I was reading a book about daily rituals by mason curry, I found this book fascinating on the daily rituals of the great minds in history, how the worlds most creative people made time to find inspiration and get to work, my daily routines and rituals are an ongoing learning curve, due to the recent injuries, I have changed my daily habits with no true daily exercise regime! this is not normal for me I have exercised daily for over twenty years up until this point in my life, it will return I am certain, this was my daily routine while at the grand last month • My alarm was set for seven each day but in general I didn’t truly surface until eight when it would be coffee and cereal in bed checking social media to almost ten • Showered then some writing before setting out for a café breakfast/brunch eleven or twelve • A pleasant stroll around the harbour or out round the knab (my favorite walk) with shop stops for groceries and sundries • Back to my room drop off whatever I had bought do some writing and social media • Shorts on and walk down to Bain`s beach to go into the sea up to my crotch barefoot, to try cold water therapy on my injured left leg • Chip shop Chinese Indian Nepalese or thai take away for dinner, sometimes ate in my shorts down at the shore with a can of beer out the shop which I loved on nice nights especially when it was fish and chips on the beach • Everything was shut from seven PM except the Nepalese take away noodle bar. it shut at nine, this was when I missed an open pub, i would have loved to have had some social time in the bars around town, instead it was back to my room alone with some beers • Reading and writing with the very occasional vimeo outdoors film before lights out The lockdown stuff seriously affected my daily routines I was slightly better at productivity writing wise, that came at a cost of my social life and human interaction, I also had lots of planning to do and the occasional cycling adventure round town, I would have loved to have visited the museums and do proper tourist shopping as I love lerwick as a place I had yet another physio appointment(ive now had five appointments at the physio and four at the chiropractor for this injury!) on my previous last day in lerwick before returning to sellaness for work, that appointment was at 16:30, for half an hour I emptied my room and packed the daunder, after a chat with Harvey who said it was cool for me to check out at three, which was great as it gave me a chance to have my daily cold water dip at Bain`s beach five minutes was easy, considering only the previous week I found thirty seconds hard, this was an amazingly quick transition to being able to cope with cold, it also seemed to be working well on my swollen ankle and knee, the knees bakers cyst was still bad possibly due to the previous days cycle around Lerwick`s perimeter for fun, but no longer restricting movement The physio appointment was interesting but I was becoming increasingly frustrated at my lack of progress, I wanted to be out running again, I love when visiting new cities booking myself on a city running tour it’s a great way to see a new city I’ve done some amazing ones over the years my favorite being Sydney although Copenhagen was a close second, by then I had walked and cycled most of the roads tracks and paths around lerwick, I have a few great running routes round the sites planned but cannot trust my left side yet, perhaps I shall do it as a hike or speed march?

Setting my GPS watch as soon as I left the grand, to then pause it while i was in at my physio appointment, I was wondering how long the cycle from lerwick harbour to sellaness lodge would take me, it’s a forty-five Minuit drive I have done often,

According to my GPS it was a 45,4km cycle (nearly 28miles) this took me two hours and 42mins, I was happy enough with that I wasn’t punishing myself I stopped regularly to take a photo and stretch, there was also a headwind in places with never a wind at my back, I made it back just in time for dinner It was time to settle back into working routines for two weeks, and get my laundry done!!

That was over three weeks past I have now finished work at the time of writing for just over a week, and back at the grand now a retired gentleman of the road, I have a fantastic room the view over the harbour from the window is awesome, I’ve settled back into those daily routines along with preparing my stuff, for moving on to Orkney starting on the slow daunder home very soon, I could very easily spend another few months living here like this, every day I feel more and more like part of the community, walking around lerwick is like a walk round Falkirk for me, there’s never a day that I don’t bump into at least one person I know, and also get a toot and a wave from a passing car,

I am naturalizing or going native, I even understand the lingo and have started speckin in peerie bits o da auld norse, an a caun read yon shetlandese poyums oan da bog doors anaw noo, the bards in da bogs poyetry wiz wance awfy haird fur me tae unerstaun

Some folk round town think there Norwegian There’s even a few dafties hink there Glaswegian There’s loons dat identify as nort east yins Don kenjo went native he’s noo a lerwegian theres still so many things i want to see and do around here,its never been about just getting to the trig points, with only foula and fair isle left to do, but there is lots of stuff i still want to see around the rest of shetland, even here in lerwick there is still so much i want to see and do, apparently you can even get a tour of smugglers caves under the streets! like something out an RLStevenson book, i will have to come back and hopefully, next time i will bring ma loon and ma pals I had intentionally booked the Wednesday ferry to Orkney not the Monday ferry, the restrictions on pubs and selling alcohol was being lifted from Monday the twenty sixth, this would mean getting a few beers with my old work mates before I left the island, we have spent lots of time together over the years, when its all counted up with shift workers most of us spend more time chatting with our work colleagues than our partners, but it’s a different sort of chat doon the pub much more relaxed, I was looking forward to a couple of days/nights reminiscing on old times cracking jokes (at each other expense usually) in the pubs restaurant’s and beer gardens of lerwick, but alas due to the restrictions around alcohol still being only outdoors and Shetland being short of beer gardens for obvious reasons there was nowhere serving alcohol on the Monday and big tommy T ma big burra bear, managed to find us a table for a two hour slot on the Tuesday, that made waiting the extra days’ worth while we had a tywo hour sloty at fjara`s beer garden then a few of us went in a taxi to the MBI, the mid brae inn has an excellent beer garden it was great to get back there but i did over indulge, someone? sugested whiskys along with the beers i have no idea what time or how we got back to lerwick, a great send of lads

books maps writing and research

The coast to coast I looked tentatively at the north sea as the waves crashed along the shore of the Voe, the weather was perfect for an endurance event of this type, not overly hot slight breeze and the faintest of light drizzle, this should keep me cool when running and be bright enough for great views of the route ahead, my previous coast to coast adventures had been done by bicycle, the C2C Irish sea to north sea with Brotts`y and Bates`y, then later the Scottish coast coast-forth estuary to the Clyde estuary with gary park, this was going to be a solo event, a nonstop run from the north sea to the Atlantic ocean I felt this epic journey should be marked by touching my feet first into North Sea then pocketing a small stone for the journey. Not a heavy one that could become uncomfortable and perhaps hinder my progress, this done I set my GPS watch to start and pressed record on the go/pro I was off. Leaving the North Sea behind I scrambled up the pebble beach to bound up the grassy slope towards the road. There was a crowd around the car park at the road with my mate robbo there in my support, he said you`re fuckin mad you are in his thick smoggy accent as I ran past him, once over the road I literally bolted through the gate as it was the self-lock spring bolt type of gate that shuts itself effortlessly once you are through, there was no path beyond this gate, moving as light of foot as I could down through the extremely damp squidgy grass, en-route to the seaweed covered boulder and pebbled upper shore, once over the seaweed I ran into the sun which was by now low and casting a warm glow over the water, my now wet shoes were slipping slightly as I quickly approached the Atlantic shore This is my attempt at some creative writing, unlike the rest of my blog! (no comments please) the Shetland coast to coast at Mavis grind had taken me less than a minute as I knew it would, it was just a bit of fun as something I could say that I had ran nonstop from the North Sea to the Atlantic on a coast-to-coast adventure which I now had I love books and maps its been a huge part of this whole Shetland trig point adventure for me, doing the research into getting to remote areas along with the history flora fauna and geology of that area I was visiting, it makes the whole concept of getting from one trig point to the next much more fun when you find out facts along the way and can stop at sights of interest with a knowledge about what you are witnessing, this is also one of the reasons I like keeping a blog, because writing about these adventures is a great way to encourage myself to keep it up, even if it is only to one or two readers I still feel a need to keep going and get the mission done for the blog!

The mission is as far as it can go for now on the Shetland trig point front! My original objective started in June was to get to all of the seventy-seven pillar trig points plus the two curry stools, I have achieved this except for the two pillars on extremely (for me for now) difficult to get to islands of foula and fair isle,

Last week on the eighteen of April 18/4/21, this day marked the eighty fifth anniversary of the trig point! On the18 April 1936 a group of surveyors gathered around a white concrete pillar in a field in Cold Ashby England and began the retriangulation of Great Britain. That trig pillar is still standing 85 years on, these shining (sometimes) white monoliths, I would need to go through my Shetland trig point photos, but I believe there is a couple painted white? I should have counted these! Trig points are now instantly recognised by any walker, or geography lover and have inspired many a trigbagger. Which I suppose I am? I haven’t counted the ones I have visited ion the mainland but may do so one day, they are now largely redundant, back in 1936, they formed a state-of-the-art network built to re-map Britain, dreamt up by Brigadier Martin Hotline, He also designed the iconic trig pillar to provide a solid base for the theodolites used by the survey teams to improve the accuracy of their readings. these are now named after him

Some 6,500 were built, to be used for triangulation, the mathematical process that makes accurate map making possible. It works by determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline. OS surveying teams spent 26 years gathering measurements across Britain to create a highly accurate map of the country, but time and technologies have moved on enormously to the point where the traditional trig pillar is now obsolete in its original guise. They still act as a beacon for many an outdoors lover, but they no longer help shape our maps, these days we still use triangulation for map making but it’s done by computers from some of the two thousand satellites circling our planet As I travel through Orkney, I will not be ticking of the trigpoints that bagging challenge is over for now, I have completed maps one two and three of the O/S landranger series, with only foula and fair isle left to do on map four, map five is north Orkney I will not be purchasing it, just in case?! It is time to move Kenny`s daunder onto a new venture, but as the legendary arnold Schwarzenegger I’ll be back,

This mission for Shetland’s trig points would have been so much harder without the friends that have helped me along the way, I cannot thank them all enough I can only hope they know how greatly I appreciate it. Hopefully I will be of some inspiration to some to go on to do this challenge also? It’s a fantastic way to truly see these islands, in order to properly map the UK the O/S teams also used markers called bolts (19) of these rivets (3) of these and also 11 surface blocks, I have visited one surface block at fethaland and one bolt on the crooksetter hill, the crooksetter hill bolt is right next to the gas plant, if your going to track these down then you will probably need to be better with a map and compass than I am! I looked for that wee bolt at the nearby cairn and in the end was lucky to find it at another smaller cairn

I have logged all these on the trigpointing.uk web site if you are considering doing this challenge then print of a sheet, log all the ones you do I’ve logged mine on the web site and manually on my check sheet and map, also have a photo of each one visited on my phone and this blog, I have no idea how many I have done on the UK mainland or the highlands and islands as I’ve not logged these, I have done the highest peaks in Scotland England and wales each of those has a trig point I could log? I’ve now done the most northern and eastern maybe I should do the most western and southern of Scotland’s trig points, or is my trig point adventures over?

I’ve found reading some books about local people was an invaluable source of knowledge, I learned much more about the islands from reading books like- a town called toilets and also bobby the birdman two biographies about influential Shetlander’s, than I ever found out looking at maps and speaking to people, but those have also been great it’s a shame I’ve been doing these trigs during a pandemic because I could then have spoken with more people,

I am now reading mairi hedderwick Shetland rambles book which is fantastic. I love her stuff, yes the katy Morag stories are great especially the art work, I have this week became a great uncle again to a baby girl called penny, she shall get some katy Morag books from great uncle kenny when I get home, but Hedderwick has also done adult books about her touring around Scotland in the footsteps of a Victorian artist/travelogue`r called john T Reid, these are great books she recreates his paintings and visits the places he visited comparing these places with then in his words and paintings and now in hers, I am enjoying this read sadly its out of print or I would gift it before leaving

Foula folly or foul

With our ferry booking sorted our packing all done, the text messages between me Dunc and Hamish were wee reminders like - don’t forget your toothbrush (a reference to TV show I was once on) and don’t bother with the dancing shoes there’s not even a shop on Foula never mind a disco, needless to say we were all on a high and kittled up ready to get to Foula that April Tuesday morn, the previous day me and Hamish had taken a look out to sea along the route the wee ferry would be taking there had been a bit of wind but the swell didn’t look too bad?

Come morning I was sitting propped up on my bed watching the big ferry go past my excellent window view at the grand, the packing was mostly complete, I had time to do a last-minute kit check, then some research into the areas we should visit once we got onto the isle of Foula, my phone rang it was a Shetland number! OH no thinks I not again? but unfortunately my first thought was right! it was the ferry company the Foula ferry was cancelled yet again for me due to weather, I was gutted, I said so to the woman on the phone she was apologetic but said the weather they get sea condition wise around Foula was much different from what I would likely see around the mainland, and the ferry would have to cancel if it felt it was unsafe, It was with a heavy heart that I had to tell Dunc and Hamish. lads our ferry is cancelled, they were also gutted and genuinely felt for me not just for their own loss, oor island camping adventure would now not happen, Dunc messaged to say he was all packed anyway and wanted to give his tent and camping equipment a go, we could still go somewhere for two nights? Hamish said he would like to go walking up the north mainland, but for this day now he would now take his wife out but could join us for a night camping the next day, he was keen for a walk up around the north mainland coast, he even reckoned we could visit a tidal island and he knew a good place to camp on a beach

Duncan said he would pick me up at two PM as he was heading to Eshaness for a walk with his boys first, I checked out my hotel room leaving some bags at the grand and went for lunch at the dowry café, whilst Dunc was at Eshaness cliffs he had a check at the sea conditions of the west coast! It was blowin a hooly, we had been doubting the ferryman’s cancellation, in Duncs own words -apologies to the ferry men it wid be a rumble oot in yon in a peerie boat, translation- the wee boat would have been tossed about out there today, Dunc knows about such things so I guess its for the best the ferry got cancelled,

Chucking all my bags in the back of duncs wee white van we set off for north mavine, I had got to thinking I wouldn’t be visiting up there again but here I was setting off to camp, at the outset of the trig point adventure I had been keen to camp up at fethaland, I wanted to visit the most northern part of the mainland and explore the abandoned fishing village, this never happened for numerous reasons but it looked hopefull I may get a walk out that way now, once we set up camp we done a bit beach combing looking for driftwood in the hope we could make a wee campfire later when it got dark, there wasn’t a lot of driftwood, plenty plastic junk but not enough wood for much of a fire, this didn’t bother me as I have grown to realise we shouldn’t really be having fires outdoors any more its just a waste of natural resources and bad for air pollution, Dunc was keen on a fire though, we opted to drive round to the ollaberry shop to see if they had any firewood? I have visited this area a couple of times before, big Jim that works with us lives up this way, I had recently been trying to talk him into saving the remote telephone box from demolition there, he could buy it for a pound to renovate it for the community, just like the one out at Burrastow that I love I said to him, but he’s not wanting the hassle, we caught the shop just before shutting time but they don’t sell firewood anyway, we had an exploratory drive around the area, for being remote some of the nice big homes have some good gardens, there is one house with a passenger plane in the garden the wings removed but looking braw, I bet it makes a great garden retreat I would love to see inside, there’s another house with its own mini lighthouse in among a square of trees someone had built a huge pyramid of multi colored balls and there was even a naked lady mannequin lying in a bathtub in someone’s drive! I do love a bit of upcycling garden art

We stopped at a quarry which had some obvious waste wood for our campsite, then settled down at our campsite and got the fire on, while also cooking Duncan’s saucer maet in his frying pan on my multi fuel stove while we drank beer and chatted, all was great until just before bed time a hail shower hit our camp site, we abandoned the outdoors taking shelter in Dunc’s more spacious tent for our last hour, of course this had to involve a whisky nightcap I had brought my favorite a Balvenie 12 year old, or I should say one of my favorites there is only good whisky and better whisky`s Balvenie in my book is one of the better ones

Hamish joined us in the morning he brought plenty stuff for getting a good fry up breakfast, which is a challenge for my no meat or dairy diet, I did have a few mega tasty farm eggs (thanks Mark), some of which I’m ashamed to say did disgustingly get stuck in my beard as I bit into the yoke on a roll, Hamish had even brought camp chairs he had us fed and his tent up in no time, he is such a problem-solving fixing ball of energy

We set off for the island of Uyea it would be roughly a ten-mile round coast walk back to our camp site to take in this island, to begin with it was a good gravel land rover style track, strangely we passed A sheep that was standing not moving much foaming at the mouth and shaking no very well looking! The fields strangely had big white boulders strewn all over it was the rock type I don’t know enough geology to name it, when we eventually got to the coast high up on the dramatic cliffs, we were lucky the sun was out with clear skies and spectacular views over the geo stacks to the north

Uyea isle is a tidal island at low tide you simply walk over a beautiful soft golden small beach among high cliffs and geo stacks, we had spent too long at breakfast the tide had unfortunately turned the crossing was under water, but we did have a nice spot of soft sand to watch the waves crash ashore and celebrate with a beer each, there was some seals playing in the surf they seemed to enjoy the crashing waves, we could see their whole shape(normally you only see the heads) due to the clear water with golden sand below it,

Following the coast back round meant a lot of weaving in and out of plenty more voe`s, the sun kept on shining, so much so that I ended up with my face burnt! it was a cool sea breeze which meant you never truly felt the intensity of the sun on the skin,

Hamish had even brought a fire pit style BBQ, the boys didn’t take long in firing up the food and the fire, for our night on the beach camp fire site the second for me and Dunc, gratefully this time there was no hail shower, with a roaring fire and plenty layers on along with a fold out camp seat, this was glamping for me Hamish even put music on a wee speaker, while I tried to get him to acquire a taste for whisky. I did feel slightly out of it as my environmental conscience worries about camp fires and cooked farmed meats, it was such fun though I just had to shove that stuff to the back of my mind for the night

The plan on the next fine morning was for a walk out to fethaland, I am a sleepy heid in the morning it was nearly nine before I surfaced! by which time the boys had started getting things ready for breakfast and breaking down the camp site, something went wrong with my multifuel stove half way through boiling a pot of water for coffee it was a total failure! Its probably my fault somehow but I am disappointed in the multi fuel stove, its an absolute faff which I cannot be bothered with, I would rather eat stuff cold than be bothered especially in the mornings, minus my failure on the hot water front for teas and coffees we had a hearty breakfast,

The history of the area of fethaland is fascinating I had read so much on so many different subjects about this area that it all became foggy in my head, the history of the people the rocks the sea, the fishing the crofting, without my reference books to hand I could not remember exact details of all the flora fauna and history of this region that I had read of, for example some of the oldest rocks in the whole world are here, there is an abandoned village where messages were carved into rock and an ancient settlement that had made bowls form soap stone, it was the birthplace of one of Shetland’s most famous photographers jack ratter, along with all of that and more that I can no longer remember, once up at the lighthouse it is also the furthest north you can walk on the Shetland mainland,

We cleared away our camp site and drove the short distance to isbister to park up and begin our walk, we had glorious sunshine the whole walk I carried waterproofs and extra layers unnecessarily, its an undulating land rover track firstly uphill to pass the trig point that I had previously visited months ago, Dunc and Hamish didn’t bother going up to bag it, I guess it’s not on their agenda perhaps they are not box tickers like me, as we approached the abandoned settlement which at one time was Shetland’s biggest fishing village, we spotted at least thirty seals basking in the sun, they also spotted us and started their ungracious belly flop into the sea in a panic, well most of them a couple continued to bask

Something large flew into my face and specs then didn’t go away I was thinking a cleg but when asking the boys? Wits on ma heid? it was a big bumble bee that had taken a shine to my tammy! I ended up having to take it off as the big bumble bee would not let go, I laid it on the top of a roofless Bod and said to the lads don’t let me forget that hat on the way back, as a child there was countless bees around the local meadows, me and my pals would go collecting them in jars off the top of meadow flowers then shake the jars and release the bees near the girls around their skipping ropes, then as we grew older we would just kill them viewing them as nasty pests, my dad had a trap for them in the garden at summer it was a jam jar and water, nowadays I wanted to feed this one and wouldn’t dream of killing it, I was worried it was hungry and wished I had a bee rescue kit with me like big Jim has bought,

It was a pleasant walk up to the lighthouse, we were rewarded with fantastic views once we were there, the sun was out with only thinly scattered high light clouds the type that never blocked the sun, also no heat haze to spoil the endless horizon, our view out over to yell and Unst was picturesque clear, me and Dunc were pointing out places that we have been should go to would like to go to, Hamish was dreaming of kayaking the coast which on days like this when there’s no real swell either kayaking is probably the ideal way to see this part of the world

On the way back down the huge bumble bee was still loving ma tammy! or is it a beanie a bobble hat or a bunnet? Its defo not a wooly hat as its synthetics but this bee was strangely loving it, I gathered an empty shell placing a crumbled piece of oat trail bar, hoping there must be some sugar in that bar that the bee would love; thinks I? I will never know I had to scrape its last unwilling leg of ma tammy with this shell, before leaving it on the roof top in the shell with biscuit, hopefully it had a scran then flew of to a field of flowers, although it would Probably need to fly a fair distance for that!

We picked up three pals on the hike out? three Shetland ponies came of the hill to follow us probably thinking we had food, I discovered a buried car with just a steering wheel poking through I felt I should take a shot at driving this island! I took my specs of for this photo and that was the last I seen of them

When Duncan dropped me and my stuff of at the grand, the workies on the back windows of the hotel were in a flap, they had removed a window to do some repairs, then the owner’s dog had jumped out the open window onto the scaffold and escaped to street level and was now gone! They informed me that the film crew for the TV show Shetland was kicking off at the hotel. They had seen them as they chased the dug, This turned out to be fake news the film crew stars extras and support crew, were using the grands dining areas as a sort of canteen not filming there, I have never seen the series and know nothing about it but the hotel was full of people as I tried to check in! there was two police that I suspect were not police! they had shimmer stuff in their hair, also the film folk had a reasonable que for a food van outside and countless folk going in and out the grands front door and reception area, perhaps had I known who was who? I could have had my selfie pole out for photos with TV stars? Harvey the hotel owner was mega apologetic that my room wasn’t ready, could I come back in an hour? Absolutely no problem Harvey I can see how busy you are, OH BTW do you know your dogs escaped out the back window? Eh no it couldn’t have! Well, it did - busy day for Harvey indeed, the link to the video hamish made - https://youtu.be/33jsydo95Yc

I went for some lunch at the peerie shops café this now must be the last café I had not been to, by the time I had lunch my room was ready, I was back in my favorite double room with the awesome window view (braw) I watched down on the harbor pier later as the film crew vans packed up to leave, there must have been ten vans some loaded with equipment some mini buses for people, also private cars and a couple of small trucks,

Vaila at last

Vaila isle at last The foula crew met at fjara cafe for brunch to make last minut packing plans, the conversation flowed rapidly along with the time, we couldn’t get everything organized and discussed in the brief time we had at our table, But Hamish threw a wee gem of an adventure plan into the works? He knew I was planning a vaila trig point trip and reckoned we should give it a go the next day in the double kayak, the wind was to pick up at some point but the double was more stable in the water so would cope better in a slight swell, Duncan said no worries if we don’t do it by kayak his brother has a boat oot that way we could get to obtain my objectives later with a bit of notice perhaps the following weekend, Hamish said that’s a great option Dunc; what we will do is load the kayak drive oot have a look if its too choppy we will take you up on the very kind boat offer

Next morning, I was packed and ready to go as per Hamish`s instructions at 08:00, we firstly went to his house for toast and coffee and load the kayak and equipment on his car, although there was a very slight breeze the weather was actually very nice, we had even packed some sun screen! The islands are extremely braw on days like this the horizons look endless and the rugged coastlines look as strong as castle walls, it was a drive where you constantant`ly got distracted from the conversation to mention the view braw, Our original plan to launch from burrastowe B&B was scupper`ed as there was a film crew with all their trucks vans and cars milling around, there is a TV show called Shetland or something that seems to be reasonably popular, I wouldn’t know as I never watch TV but this show was getting filmed at our intended launch site this day, the security bloke said we could park up and launch down at the fish farm pier close by, Hamish already knew this and even better he actually knew one of the fish farm workers called Keith, we went round and spoke with him he was extremely helpful telling us where best to park and that he would watch our progress, if we needed any help they could rescue us with their boat, he even let us use the loo and offered us a coffee and said be sure to pop in when we got back!

We gave it a go! I couldn’t get my life jacket zipped up and Hamish had forgot to zip his dry suit we headed out to sea into a headwind, Hamish steered the kayak by his foot pedals I was at the front just concentrating on looking at the horizon and paddling with fury as we hit some swell and the water splashed over the bow onto my specs hat and gloves, Hamish was chatting from behind I had to tell him I was silent through nerves which gave him a chuckle, he was loving the stability of a double kayak with a rudder as opposed to his normal single with a sked, I was just a bit rusty having not exposed myselfnto much kayaking of late, but i did know from personal experience that I didn’t want to go in the water!

Once over the open water it was a pleasant fast paddle into the pebble beach near the big fancy hoose on vaila, we dragged the kayak well up above the tide mark and took of our dry suits while drinking a wee cup o green tea, I had only one objective then to get to the trig point, but Hamish was keen to walk around a bit of the shore line, of course I immediately changed my attitude this is a superb coastline the weather was perfect for a walk around some stunning cliffs, there is times for box ticking getting the task done and there is times for leisure strolls or runs or just a connection with the area you are passing through, Hamish was right lets live for the moment and take in this island for all its worth which is what we done

Firstly, we headed up to the tower OMG this is fantastic the millionaires that own this island are art collectors, this tower up on the hill is about as artistic as you can get, I peered in the windows slack jawed at the raw beauty of the surroundings inside these people have exquisite taste,

We then marched along the coast being careful to stay away from the edge of the big cliffs, where we came upon by accident a cool sea hole, I checked my map this one is called maamy`s hole! We stayed there to take photos and do a wee video before moving on along the coast to the high points, I didn’t truly need my map as we could clearly see each high point on the island the trig point came into view on the second wee peak after maamys hole

It was a vanessa again I was delighted to see it, psychologically for me this was a huge mile stone, as vaila is an island very close to the mainland like noss balta Bressay even Fetlar papa stoor and skerries all to a degree defo close enough to the mainland to not be stand alone! Foula and fair isle are so far out on their own they could really be classed as separate entities for my Shetland trig points challenge?! This made reaching this trig point almost feel like I have done it! Previous to putting my hand onto the top of this trig point I could not have said I have done all Shetland trig points, but now? Foula and fair isle are slightly different from mainland Shetland vaila is not,

After the trig we followed a land rover track over to another pier then came down by the impressive house to get back to our kayak mission accomplished, well it would be once we paddled back to the mainland, we had a sandwich and some tea and this time sorted all our equipment properly, which was back to front really because we now had the wind at our backs the return paddle was ten mins quicker and nowhere near as scary a bit of a high swell coming in from our side in the middle section briefly but mostly the wind helping us over with zero sea spray hitting my specs and hat this time

Keith had us in for a cup o tea and explained a bit about the salmon farm to my enquisative questions, I took a photo of the Shetland tv show film crew we loaded all the gear and kayak, we then stopped at the cool telephone box at burrastow as we drove past to sign the visitors’ book. Then we got the shop at walls I bought postcards and beer, then visited oor work mate mark work mate for me long time friend for Hamish, it s lambing season so he is busy, but he made us tea I drank beer and then we got to help him shift some lambs aboot, I learned a lot about lambing the spray painted numbers and the iodine on the back sack and crack stuff. Also, I was given a tour of the shed which has alexa and a web cam for the sheep’s mental health all fascinating stuff

Hamish dropped me at Tesco in town another wonderful day to be alive , hamish made a wee video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J294lq_qU1s&t=13s

Noss at last drone

Kayaking to Noss

Hamish had all the equipment ready and told me to be at the Bressay ferry terminal for nine AM, I walked along at ten to nine his car was in the ferry que, easily spotted it was the one with the kayaks on the roof! I opened the door and asked if this was the adventure wagon? And if so do they have space for a small one? Jump in kenjo said Hamish this is my mate Aaron (pronounced erin in these parts) and my daughter Tahlia,

The ferry journey to Bressay from lerwick is quick and easy, it was non stop chat about weather, swells, tides, kayaking experience, equipment and before we knew it we were at the normal car park for going down for the summer ferry to Noss which sounds posher than it really is, as this ferry is just a dingy with an outboard, this is still in the winter timetables so there would be no`one else around, we dropped the chain that was over the approach road, the legend Hamish then drove us down close to the shore this way we didn’t have far to portage (love a chance to use that word) our kayaks

Hamish had brought an inflatable kayak a double sea kayak and his own sea kayak there was four of us, so there was an option for us all to go at once! But due to experience levels the slight swell and skerries, Hamish correctly chose to use the double kayak to ferry his daughter and me over, with Aaron doing the steering of the double kayak, this turned out to be the very best way by far, three went over tahlia jumped out two came back, I jumped in and went over and then we all disembarked on Noss at a scenic secluded beach,

I hadn’t bothered bringing the map its truly straight forward you just head to the obvious high point was my thinking! this worked out totally fine for getting to the trig point at the high point of the isle, It’s a 592ft cliff right next to the trig point, which made for awesome footage on Aarons drone, we spent a bit of time around this area, BUT We shoulda looked at cradle holm while there, I am now gutted we never walked along the cliff top for a squint aboot, it wasn’t until I read the guide books the following day that I realized we had missed one of the should see spots of Shetland, it was once a major tourist attraction with even Walter Scott visiting,

I had my first incounter with the legendary bonxies these big sea birds are renowned for attacking folk, there was a dead lamd and a dead sheep which was likely due to them, its not nesting season yet another few weeks to go but they are here now on shetand, and showing their dominance in the sky, next month here i would have required a stick to walk around with

We did have a poke around the warden/ homestead pony pund area which was very interesting,In 1842 it became illegal for woman and children to work in coal mines. The marquise of Londonderry had to think of some other slave labour for his Irish coal mines? he bought the island of Noss to breed Shetland ponies to do the mine work previously done by woman and children, this would have been a huge expense for him as compared to the virtually free woman and children,

A remarkably intact survivor of this legacy for breeding the Shetland ponies for the pits, is the rare building type known as the pony pund, this one we visited on Noss is by far the best preserved, I have driven past another on the way to work countless times but never bothered to look around, there is another I’ve seen on the road to voe and after a bit of research found There is other comparable steadings to be found at Garth, Gungstie (Bressay) and Kirkabister (Yell)

The Noss kayaking team then had tea and biscuits on the beach, all of which had dairy so not any good for me, Hamish had some water for me though what an absolute gem he is, the tide was defo higher with a bigger swell as we headed back to Bressay! But I was lucky Aaron took Tahlia first then came back for me, they all laughed as they set of paddling saying see you in a month kenny! as I stood on the beach alone taking pics, I knew they were joking but it is sad being left alone on an island, they didn’t even hang aboot, it was straight over and straight back for me, I am not used to kayaking in a swell it was exhilarating and fun a wee adrenaline buzz for me, but I was glad to be in the double kayak trusting aarons abilities

once we got over and carried the kayaks back to the car, it looked like we could make the one o’clock ferry Hamish put the foot down, only to watch the ferry leave the pier, I was ok with this as the next ferry was only half an hour later, I could buy a beer at the shop with snacks while we waited, an actual social gathering with people which is a bizarrely rare treat in these covid days, I was extremely happy just to sit around a picnic bench drinking beer and chatting -Braw times

hanish made an absolutely fantastic wee video of our day which i uploaded to my you tube channel https://youtu.be/JpbVT8ReGd8 What an absolutely wonderful day all in all