what's abode? !

I had been out here previously with Robbo to do a bit of whale watching

(or orca spotting to be more precise), this time I had a chance to look around a wee bit as it was sunset when I parked up, but the main thing I wanted to do was try the new gas stove which went fine I am sure I will get better the more I use it, I was slow and careful, it’s much more noisy than I thought it would be or maybe I had too much pressure or the valve to far open time will tell, I had regretted buying this style as I am used to my pocket rocket with the gas cylinders they are so easy and efficient, this new one seems a right faff in comparisons but I upgraded as my thinking was that I felt if I ever get around to cycling over someplace remote like the silk road or south America, I can cook using this with virtually any fuel easily obtained even petrol or diesel, but being honest about it I do not need it here in Shetland, I would have saved time and hassle with my wee pocket rocket, I also brought well actually bought a ghilly kettle which I am stupidly lumbering around with me it works of twigs and pine cones! With a romantic notion in my head of gathering some dry wood bits of twig from a beach it doesn’t take much wee bits and some card or paper rubbish to kindle it. I never expected the whole island to be stuck under snow and ice! But I did know it’s an island that has very little twigs and pine cones anyway! DOH I will be sending that home in disgrace lol, the pocket rocket is much safer the MSR fuel burner you truly do need to watch what you’re doing! fire and liquid fuel is something to treat with respect My dinner was good though I had a chance to use up some of the bags of things I had bought, it was a good thing britains most northerly fish and chip shop frankies at brae was shut when I passed, this is another thing about life on the road eating cold stuff out of shops you pass aint that bad, if you have a van you can find a place that sells coffee easier than it is sometimes to fire up your cooking stuff, having motorized transport and cash in your pocket can make you lazy towards cooking for yourself especially when it’s around -3 outside, Once I had ate dinner, I did my log and wrote up some stuff on a word document to hopefully upload later, there is absolutely zero signal up in these sorts of places, there is nothing you can do about this but once you get back into the land of 3&4G your phone pings with various irate friends and family you never replied or you haven’t updated the blog or Instagram strava and no messages for three days, yeh sorry about that but I had no signal! Once you set off driving from one area like that and pass through somewhere with a signal on the way to your next destination you either need to stop driving/cycling/walking and respond especially when its yer mammy! Or accept its best to get the days activities completed then get a catch up with the backlog once you can sit somewhere with good wifi and or signal (wifi is much better as then all my files and photos get backed up to the cloud) It was another bloody cold night in the back of the van this night I tried the extra layer of a foil emergency blanket somebody had put it in my work helmet! (thanks, anonymous good Samaritan) It would be rude not to give it a go, I liked it as it kept any condensation drips off the sleeping bag, did it help with heat retention? Maybe a bit I had put double socks on and the cycling cape over the bag along with four upper layers two lower layers the silk liner, below all that on the vans wooden floor a foam sleeping mat and the thermarest that now needs blown up every three hours or so, it was bearable but still bloody cauld especially if I needed to go for a pee then crawl back inside all those layers and pull the sleeping bag hood over my tammy and jacket hood, what do the folk wear on Everest or the arctic I wish johny notions Bod was open, I wonder what he would say about his bod being shut all last summer due to a pandemic? Considering it was a pandemic that made him famous

John Williamson (c. 1730 – c. 1803), more commonly known by the nickname Johnnie Notions was a self-taught physician from Shetland, who independently developed and administered an inoculation for smallpox to thousands of patients in Shetland during the late 18th century. Despite having only an elementary education and no formal medical background, the treatment he devised had an extremely high success rate, resulting in the immunisation of approximately 3,000 people and the saving of many lives, which had a significant effect on the demographics of the Shetland population at the time. He is reputed not to have lost a single patient. While Notions administered his inoculation by at least the late 1780s to early 1790s (and likely much earlier), his method was largely overshadowed by the work of Edward Jenner, who pioneered the cowpox-based smallpox vaccine in 1796. Despite this, Notions and his inoculation were held with high regard with Shetlanders at the time, while the same could not be said for the cowpox-based vaccination introduced to Shetland in subsequent years

It certainly made for a bit of thinking from me parked up outside his hoose! During this pandemic smallpox makes covid look like a common cold, anyone that’s worried about the vaccination these days should have a look at smallpox and its successful vaccination, of course that said every single one of Johnny notions patients is now dead lol, it was different times then of course but people bringing smallpox to these islands causing various epidemics wreaked havoc at one time killing a third of the islands population young and old,

 

I had been telling the boys for months about my plan to spend my four weeks of work on Shetland completing the trig point challenge that I had made to myself, hopefully to do all the trig points before leaving shetland to cycle home? My work mates all loved the idea but felt it was a bit daft to do it in winter,

I suppose it is! but due to other commitments along with pledging to go flight free for 2021, there was no other viable time,nobody told me about these bods a sort of cross between a bothy and hostel?  

 

In Shetland, a Böd was a building used to house fishermen and their gear during the fishing season. Today, the islanders use the word to describe basic accommodation, the first camping Böds opened in l992 and more are planned to create a network throughout the Shetland Islands. The Böds are all in attractive localities and each has an interesting history. Böds are very basic, some in remote areas having no electricity.

The böd at Aithbank on the island of Fetlar was once home to a legendary local storyteller Jamsie Laurenson

The Windhouse Lodge Bod-The solidly built gatehouse to Shetland's most haunted ruin, this is one of the best-equipped böds and a perfect base for touring the North Isles of Shetland

Johnnie Notions offers economy, self-catering accommodation in a traditional building at the north-western tip of the Shetland Mainland. On the North-West coast, this small cottage is associated with the pioneer 18th century smallpox inoculator, John Williamson, locally known as Johnnie Notions.

 

The Grieve House offers economy, self-catering accommodation in a traditional building on the island of Whalsay on the east coast.Scotland's great poet Hugh McDiarmid (Christopher Grieve) lived for nine years in this croft house, where he wrote some of his best work. The 'Bonnie Isle o' Whalsa' 

The Sail Loft – Voe- Once a store for sail fishing boats' gear and later a knitwear workshop, the largest of the böds stands between the tideline and a handy bakery, in an idyllic village setting at the head of a mini-fjord. 

 Voe House Böd Overlooking the picturesque village of Walls is a fascinating building which has been carefully restored using recycled building materials.

The Skeld böd is amongst the latest additions to the network and has been converted from its original function as the local shop with considerable care and attention to detail. Situated in the thriving village of Skeld it sits right above the marina within a stone’s throw of the sea

The Böd of Nesbister is the only original fishing böd in the group. Situated on a low rocky peninsula in one of the most picturesque inlets in Shetland this böd can truly give you the feeling of being back in the days of the “haaf” fisherman since there is no electricity and the toilet is of the “bucket and bury” variety. The water washes almost up to the front door and in bad weather can sweep clean over the peninsula, effectively placing the böd on an island. Truly a location for the adventurous spirit.

BETTY MOUAT'S BÖD offers economic, self-catering accommodation in a traditional building at the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland.

This stone cottage was originally the home of a redoubtable lady who, in 1886, drifted alone on a fishing boat to Norway and lived to tell the tale. The böd is next door to the Old Scatness Broch and Iron age village archaeological site and is also handy for Shetland's main airport and the Fair Isle ferry.

On reading all about these and looking at their locations all I got all excited for the adventure ahead and had to try to book a bod for late January -

hello I have a plan to cycle tour the whole of Shetland ticking of all the trig points along my cycle route as i go, I will be doing this over four weeks starting 22/1/21 to 19/2/21, i would love to use your Bods along my travels? your website shows them as shut until march is this the case?

      all info welcome thank you – kenny

the reply was –

Hi Mr Alexander,

 

Thank you for your enquiry.  Unfortunately our bods are only open from March – October and in fact they have been closed nearly all year due to covid & at this point we are still unsure if we will open them at all next year.  Soryy.

 

Martine

 

Lerwick to where?

The previous transit sized van was fine for my purposes on these roads, but the hire company had hired that one out, if I wanted a van it would have to be the next size up high sided and longer? I couldn’t think of any other options except to return to cycling and camping its still snowy and icy and the roads are treacherous – I took the bigger van! Duncan helped me throw all my stuff in the back of it as I prepared to leave, I had by then spent two nights at Dunc`s house sort of by accident, I am sure him and susan will have been glad to see me go by then. I had bought lots of extra food and beers thinking I would leave most of them at Duncan’s as a small thank you for the previous nights breakfast dinner and snacks, we had ended up having a chippy and neither of us in the mood for a repeat of the previous night’s excesses Dunc insisted I take the food away this meant loads more stuff in the van to carry hopefully I will get through most of it before I need to pack it on the cycle for moving?

Setting of in the morning I had no proper set plan? I wanted to get to some far flung areas of trigs, by then I had wiped out the south island OS map well wiped out except four island trigs noss Vaila foula and fair isle, This is trig points on islands that have only summer ferries, moving up into the mainland map I had patches of areas where there was one or two left to do six in total on the mainland map before I moved onto the third map of Yell and Unst also Fetlar!

I decided first off all to do Sandness hill as this is a big hill for Shetland, well it looked like it by the map, I expected it would be a fair trek up and down, it wasn’t I trekked up and down in around an hour the views were spectacular, especially down on to papa stour it was so clear I could see the whole island, having been there now I know what all these areas where, I had a drive down into sandness town for a look at the town and beach and use the harbour loo, then I drove out to where they are building a wind farm there is a trig up there where the farm is going but the road is getting used for construction traffic, the side road was snow was ice covered! Speaking to the security gate man he was unhelpful to the point of a jobs worth that wanted me to feck aff, I didn’t argue as I had others to hit, I could do the others first, then come back to this one when the road was less iced hopefully, The next near`ish by trig- was one is out past the town of vidlin, from where this was circled in pencil on my map it looked easy enough, it also strangely had a black biro`d box in the map where I was certain the trig must be, I walked out all around that area as there was a couple of other wee peaks”! that vcould possible be the biro mark? the trig was defo not there ! not where it was marked on the map definitely not, this was not my usual navigation left or right issue, the large area thatI had hiked around definitely had no trig point? a big well-made square`ish cairn I felt hopeful about on approach but nope no trig! Later when I was parked up for the night miles away, reading the map coordinates from my checklist! bugga it looked very like the drawn pencil circle is a circle and pen mark done in the wrong place! This made sense now, I had went to do a different one absolutely months ago and had went to the wrong side of a voe! where I was searching was where I had marked my map as a mistaken trig DOH! the actual trig unfortunately for me once I checked the co`ordinates was right at the map crease between top and bottom halves among a load of blue sea and lochans not on the high ground where I thought it was! but down by the sea according to the coordinates! ARGHHH

I drove away annoyed about these two trig points I was now not getting this day; I would need to be happy with one, deciding I would park up at Eshaness lighthouse for sundown, I timed this good for what I hoped would be a nice sunset lighthouse vista? but no unfortunately it was a heavy cloud night there was not much to see or do so close to big cliffs in the dark with snow and ice on the ground it was more earie than scenic

I was sort of getting used to the van life by then, I would sit up the front cab filling out my logs and blogs having a beer after food with snacks occasionally putting the engine on to warm the cab, it was -3 outside! That was according to the weathers web page that I checked in town when I had a signal the weather app didn’t work out here(no signal no wifi) I am sure it was more cold than that and it was windy, not windy by Shetland standard only a draught for here but I’m a soft soother! I was parked up on an icy cliff top( I also have far too good an imagination!) going to bed in the back of this bigger van had some benefits, I could stand up straight no need to crouch with bags of room, the high ceiling worked for the frozen condensation, my thermarest seemed to be losing air faster now, it seemed like only three maybe four hours before I had to blow it back up the sleeping map I had bought in lerwick isn’t enough for me(must be age)! I shoulda took the old mattress Dunc had offered yet another silly mistake why not? Then again how to keep it dry? he said it was going to the bin (I hope not) it looked fine someone could use it, we will now never know Goodnight from the only human for many a mile on a sheet of ice at a cliff edge (lol drama king)

road trip to Bressay

Although I was booked back into a hotel the night before Dunc had cracked open the whisky and made me some food, we sat up late chatting, I then crashed out in Dunc’s spare room, he woke me at ten AM! OH WELL, breakfast then go to Bressay for the delayed two trig points

We caught the midday ferry to Bressay which is super close to Lerwick, I never previously knew the layout its not until you do something like this that you understand, where Lerwick lies there is a body of water called Bressay sound when you are strolling around Lerwick or looking from a distance you would think it was part of the mainland its that close, there is also an island called Noss extremely close to Bressay, it also has a trig point but only a summer ferry for twitchers apparently! Goes there, But I really want to go to that trig on Noss one day, it is right at the top of a sea cliff feature I have seen so often (A lot this week) it is around 180 meters straight up from the sea to the cliff edge trig. It wouldn’t be this day though - no boat

Dunc’s wee van was first of the ferry and we quickly found our way with only one wrong turn up a gradually worsening single track road the last section I wouldn’t have risked driving it, but dunc wellied it up the track braw, the march over the hillocks to this trig was fine we stopped to admire a flat stone quarry no surprise the dry stain dykes are so guid locally, but we were both delighted to see a big gun right at this trig we had a good walk around and chat, I had stupidly left my phone at duncs house so Dunc took all the photos

I am carrying far too many guidebooks three physical books along with my maps and the internet, BUT you still miss stuff (maybe it’s the beer fog) there is some underground stuff at this gun we were later to discover we could have visited!

A swift drive to the other side of the island parked up then marched over some rough ground past a cool abandoned croft house, I bet this old place has a story or two that will now never be known such a shame, Duncan said it was not unusual for couples to have ten children and allnof them live in these wee crofts, after the rough boggy sheep field we joined the road up to the ariel masts, due to the snow and ice this was undrivable for dunc to say that you can believe it! trig point photos taken and yet another read at some information boards, Bressay has lots of these, they are very informative this one was about a real pest of a U-boat that wreaked havoc in these parts, I was impressed by the quality of the stories on the tourist info boards all around this area and Shetland in general,

We then had a visit to the lighthouse and a walk round the shore, its an impressive shore line and big wave movements you can visibly see the power of the sea around there, if you look at the big swells crashing against the rocks long enough you could almost feel sea sick! Or was that Dunc’s whisky fi last night causing that!

With forty minutes to spare for the ferry arriving we had time for coffee juice and snacks at the shop it had been a quality visit, I had a van to collect before five Dunc dropped me off to collect it, then I went to Tesco to buy stuff I wasn’t needing, hoping Duncan would let me cook dinner or take some beers, but naw it was fish suppers and an early night I did coax dunc into taking some whisky but he insisted only if we open it,

lerwick & oor dunc

both my work mate Duncan’s have been absolute legends for Kenny’s daunder they have both went above and beyond mates duties on helping me out with my adventure/daunder/saunter/ dallyings, I am extremely lucky to have great guys like them in my life when dunc had to dash off to take care of his dad he was apologetic to me for changing our plans I was very much the please do not say sorry the important stuff is making sure your dads ok/comfortable kenjo is out having a jolly and can look after himself no problem, I walked into town passed the clickaminn broch locked and closed for winter/covid, I then walked along the cracking shore front path with loads of great information boards back up towards the town centre this bit is known as the sooth mooth a very interesting area when the path hit the main road, I stopped because an air ambulance flew over!

I started filming on my phone as I thought I was witnessing an air rescue but I want it was a training exercise the winchman was going down to retrieve something the helicopter had dropped into the sea? lots of the main street shops display the costume worn by the guiser jarl,for up helly Aa which is really cool

As I was filming a car pulled over and the driver got oot for a chat it was mcscheibs (tom M) he was heading out nightshift that night, he said I was in workmate central with cal tug AJ and himself all living in the area I was standing, he had to go but was pleased to see me, strangely I had met sandy on the pier the previous night and throughout my visit to lerwick I was consistently waving at folk?! I wondered if it was the beard or whether it was actually all folk that knew me? Or are folk in lerwick just really nice and friendly and smile give you a thumbs up nod or wave?

I text AJ who said he would come pick me up and go for coffee, we had coffee and I had fish and chips again! In a nice restaurant next to the tesco, its tier three in lerwick so cafes are open until six strangely much of the rest of the island the cafes are all shut,

I had a pleasant walk around lerwick taking in the sights, its strange that all the streets at the centre have signs says stuff like bank street formerly known as swallow street! Why did most of the old town have a former name?! it is a nice town though I enjoyed my stroll round fort charlotte the shopping area pier and old graveyard, then dunc text me he came in and picked me up I had dinner with him and his lovely family he proper looked after me for the next day what a star

sleeping in a hire van

Leaving the van hire place and loading the daunder and all my bags into the back I hit the road, the bike was bungeed up to anchor points on the van and all the bags placed behind it to hold it all in place (hopefully) young Duncan had said to me marinas and ferry terminals are your friend kenjo if on the move with a van, he is a wise young man our dunc the first night in the van I spent at a marina which during the summer doubles up as a motorhome caravan park near cunningsburgh called aithsvoe, I was off course the only person there! But the toilet block was open so I could use it I didn’t investigate but I think I may well have been able to get a shower there, a sign said the kitchen area was closed due to covid sadly but I never tried the door?

Gary park had messaged me saying if I was sleeping in the back of a van then leave a window or vent cracked or the condensation will drip on you through the night, this did happen at one point early on but when I eventually woke in the morning the drips had stopped? I looked at the van ceiling there did look like there was lots of drops ready to drip! I reached up and touched one it was a sheet of ice; I was all cuddled up in my clothes sleeping bag liner and away from the wind but it was still a cold uncomfortable night

My thermarest sleeping mat has developed a slow puncture it lasts about four hours then requires a blow back up which also makes for a restless uncomfortable sleep, ive since bought an old-fashioned camping roll mat to try along with the blow up thermarest I shall trial this soon.

The second night in the van I built a sort of basha style inner tent using my cycling cape as an overhanging drip stopper, there is no vents or windows in the back of this style of van, I was parked up at the ferry pier at west burrafirth, again I could use the toilet block braw, The third night I spent at a car park near a main road at a place called park hall, near a town called bixter which I knew had public loo and a wee shop that sold hot coffee, this was a fine spot I thought! I sat up the front cab having a beer and writing then went into the back of the van after midnight as I crashed asleep log book in hand all toasty up front, I had tried to do a time laps photo of the northern lights with the old building off park hall as a setting but I haven’t mastered the shutter speed stuff of my iPhone yet the northern lights were there but I couldn’t get my phone to take a decent picture, The fourth night I drove towards lerwick to have a fish supper for dinner at the harbour car park (smashing it was) I then raked around looking for somewhere to park up for the night as the van had to be back the next morning for ten, eventually I found a spot up at whats called the knab, but I didn’t feel comfortable people were out sledging that could see me there was public toilets but they were locked, I had passed a hotel I thought bugger it! I will phone that hotel and ask how much? I am not gonna name the hotel as it was a cash price I was willing to pay and I would say I was the only customer this hotel had and by the sound of things the only real guest for a while, its worth telling the tale though as the owner a widow who is struggling to keep the business/building going, had an issue with the hot water, I was all settled in my room wanting a shower or bath. After letting the tap run a fairt time thinking the pipes have just not been used for a while I had to go to reception there is no hot water for washing! This was perhaps THE main rreason for this hotel stay to get washed as I hadn’t for three days! The owner took me to the garage and showed me her boiler saying she had an issue that should now be fixed leave it 15mins and try again! I did it failed we bothe had a look at the boiler in the garage again, but nope no hot water will be happening that night, I boiled my room kettle three times and had a bird bath lol I did feel sorry for the hotel owner though, I phoned her the next day as what happened was I went down to Duncan thompsons hoose, the plan that day was I would drop all my bags and the bike at his bit then return the hire vehicle, me and him would then get the ferry to bressay and do the two trig points on that isle, dunc made me breakfast and then got a phone call his elderly father had taken a tumble he had to go see to him. He marched of bressay was postponed for a day I phoned the previous nights hotel saying I would like to stay another night, she was very apologetic about the water issues and said I deserved a refund so my nights stay would reflect that, life takes over these things though and later on that day I drank beer at duncs hoose we cracked open duncs whisky also and I crashed ooot! Nae hotel sorry landlady

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

quality day on papa stour

Papa stour

Waking in the back of A van cold with condensation drips frozen to the roof was not the best start to the day but it would defo improve from a start like that! Being parked up at a ferry pier in what to me is the arse end of nowhere but is actually a busy wee boat for the locals had the added bonus of a waiting room loo, I had time and really should have done the wee trig point at the back of the harbour but I left it until later, worried dunc may show up at any time, he arrived exactly when he said he would 08:45, it was great to see him he had even brought me my requested flask of coffee, I still haven’t forced myself to learn how to use the stove! I’m not the roughty tufty outdoorsy person folk think I am, I look at my cooking bag and think? I have a five mile drive and I can buy coffee or a roll of something to eat, being a non mammal eater with a zero dairy diet makes that harder but still easier than firing up a new stove,to make noodles or a stir fry on a stony layby The ferry was such fun we were the only foot passengers, which made it all the cooler what a cute wee ferry built and designed in arbroath one of my favourite Scottish towns four vans and a trailer it was full, I wish we could have been up decks but yet again covid strikes we aren’t allowed out,

Once on papa stour isle dunc knew everyone the ferry is not every day so its a busy wee twenty to thirty mins turnaround, dunc gave me great local info As we walked up to his croft, he only spends a couple of weeks a year here over night in the croft the rest of the time him and kayla only go over to visit her mum, she still lives there full time as one of the only six full time residents on the island which is crazy when you look at the history of how many people once lived there,

I had no idea when waking how great a day this was gonna be, I initially thought dunc would abandon me to do my trig while he went to do work on his croft, or look after his sheep (which we did as we moved around)BUT no he planned a whole fun day for me when he could still do the little bits and bobs around the croft and stuff he had to do, awesome we went into the large barn and got the two quads out I got my driving instructions and we were off dunc drove his quad straight on to the small (peerie is small on Shetland I like it) airstrip. It was covered in snow and ice dunc was doing doughnuts I had to follow on such fun, and then we opened them up on the runway they are fast! I’ve been much more a motorbike person on this sort of terrain but quad technology has defo came on these things can go anywhere I found myself actually truly laughing out loud a few times at how awesome these machines are on this terrain, I would follow dunc up super steep down super steep over streams hillocks and boulders all with ease brilliant fun,

We visited an abandoned croft and discussed the old Shetland mills and population loss, then went to the incredible Kirstin’s hole (stay away from the edges) dep drops into the crashing sea below where ground has just fell away eaten from below! Even the noise of the sea from the chasm was scary!

We then took the quads right up to the trig point a first for me but dunc had done this before, it was a vanessa trig and it was great to have someone to take my picture not have to faff around with my timer or blue tooth joby! Which has started to be an issue,

We then went back for lunch dunc cooked us some boiled eggs on toast and had got me a dairy free meat free pie, but best of all kayla had made dairy free chocolate brownies she is an absolute legend they were delicious and dunc said I could keep what was left as she had made them specially for me OMG thank you kayla,

We then had a trip round the beaches and geo stacks of ness so scenic I was so lucky with the weather, we chatted about the shipping and fishing as there was boats of shore then gunned it back to the tractor shed, where dunc got the tractor out to get some bales for his sheep and I visited the rebuilt by traditional tools Viking house

A short walk out to what is known as the laird’s house now an old storage shed and last Minuit check on some seaweed munching sheep and we were back on the ferry to the mainland what a cracking day out, thank you dunc money cannot buy you a day out like that only friends that are some of life’s good guys