6th June second attempt

Drizzling. Got up early to drive to Tingwall Airport (inter island, between Lerwick and Scalloway) to see if I could fly to Fair Isle – was on the waiting list. I could but not on the first one out nor the last coming back; 11.30 – 3 rather than 9.30 to 5.

The plane for Fair Isle?

I thought that would have been frustrating so decided not to go. Back to the camp site in Lerwick, walked into town to get some money and do some odd things – finally found a wide hose connector so if I go back to the campsite at Kirkwall I will be able to fill up with water!

Sign in Lerwick

I had been surprised to see the number of people who went fishing in Lerwick – and Shetland generally - or was it some sort of “sign” that a great number of houses always have fishing nets out to dry on their front fence or wall. Today I worked it out – they cover their rubbish bags with the nets to stop the gulls raiding the rubbish…

By this time it was raining quite heavily and I had to decide what to do - stay another night in Lerwick or move on and, if so, to where? In the end I headed up north to see if I could get up to Unst. Couldn’t be bothered to look up the ferry times, just turned up. The ferry was just loading when I got to the pier at Toft and drove straight on to the boat – a big one where you decant into a passengers lounge. The return fare, me and the Van, £9.60.

The “big” ferry

Drove up the length of Yell without stopping (intend to “do” Yell on the way back), wasn’t so lucky with the Yell to Unst ferry which is a much smaller affair –had to wait 20 minutes.

Yell to Unst ferry leaving without me

This was a smaller, older ferry, the sort you stay in your vehicle and might have been the vessel in service – certainly the type – that we crossed on in, let’s say it was, 1980. In the lounge of the Mainland (Toft) to Yell ferry there was information about an assessment about what to do to replace the older ferries – do they replace them or do they build a tunnel – the Yell/Unst crossing is quite short; 1.25 miles

On the “little” ferry

No-one came near me during the crossing from Yell to Unst to collect any money so when leaving I said I hadn’t paid only to be informed that the crossing is free.

The biggest change to Unst and Yell – which is what you would expect – is the improvement to the roads, not so much the changes to the buildings. Back in 1980 the A roads across both the islands were single track and gated i.e. no cattle grids. And therefore you had to stop to open and shut the gates, time to take in the scenery, and as it was August see the stooks in the fields. A remnant of the old A road

The new A road

As it was I got the 12.45 sailing from Toft on the Mainland to Yell, then the crossing from Yell to Unst, after the wait and was in the car park at Hermaness at the north end of Unst by 2.30.

Now there is a walking route through Hermaness up to the cliffs so the walking is much easier than I recall. In 1980 if there had been a path we certainly hadn’t found it and as a result we were constantly being attacked by the bonxies (great skuas). This time a lot of bonxies were sitting around, possibly on nests, but weren’t being too aggressive as long as you kept to the path.

Bonxies in the sky

- sitting

- pre mating?

As soon as I was at the cliff I was astonished at the numbers of puffins – far more than I had seen anywhere else – and, I’m sorry, I took more puffin pictures.

- best one yet

And gannets – masses.

Every white dot is a gannet..

Muckle Flugga Lighthouse

I thought this was the remains of a wartime gun emplacement in foreground, but it turns out it was an early signalling system for communicating with the lighthouse.

Lighthouse signal system, behind Saxa Vord Cold War early warning station – the first early warning sytem blew away. The worst wind ever, 194 miles per hour was recorded up at Saxa Vord.

Saxa Vord.

I stayed the night in the Hermaness car park situated just above the accommodation for the lighthouse keepers families and the boatman.

(You can’t see the lighthouse unless you walk for an hour or so up to the top of the headland)

For the boatman it was a posting for life, whereas the lighthouse keepers and their families did the rounds of lighthouse. Landing men and supplies on Muckle Flugga was notoriously difficult because of the seas and the sheerness of the cliff on which the lighthouse was built