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